ACUTE DISSEMINATED ENCEPHALOMYELITIS - AN UNUSUAL CAUSE OF ENCEPHALITIC SYNDROME IN CHILDHOOD

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is a rare central nervous system demyelinating disease that occurs most frequently in children, It usua lly runs a monophasic course, beginning with fever, headache, and meni ngeal signs and rapidly progressing to coma when appropriate diagnosis and treatment are not provided, We report a case of a 14-year-old pat ient to alert emergency physicians to consider acute disseminated ence phalomyelitis when presented with any child with encephalitic signs wi th nonspecific cerebrospinal fluid findings, failure to detect any cau sative agent, and only mild alterations on computerized tomography sca n, The role of magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis is emphasi zed.