Pediatric convulsive status epilepticus in Honduras, Central America.

Convulsive status epilepticus (SE) in children is an important public health problem, particularly in low-resource countries. A surveillance study was performed with consecutive enrollment of all children presenting with convulsive SE to Hospital Escuela Materno-Infantil Emergency Department in Tegucigalpa, Honduras over a 13-week period in 2003. In the 47 children with SE, the mean age was 4.

X-linked MCT8 gene mutations: characterization of the pediatric neurologic phenotype.

We report a family with X-linked mental retardation that has a novel mutation in the monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) gene associated with a characteristic neurodevelopmental phenotype with early childhood hypotonia that progresses to spasticity and global developmental delays. Affected patients experience moderate to severe psychomotor delays and congenital hypotonia, develop a myopathic facies, have diminished muscle bulk and generalized muscle weakness, develop progressive spasticity and movement disorders, and have limited speech but alert, affable personalities. Acquired microcephaly and abnormal myelination on brain magnetic resonance imaging can be present.

Epidemiology of childhood Guillain-Barré syndrome as a cause of acute flaccid paralysis in Honduras: 1989-1999.

The objective of this study was to investigate the incidence of acute flaccid paralysis in the pediatric population of Honduras over an 11-year period, determine what percentage of acute flaccid paralysis was Guillain-Barré syndrome, and identify the epidemiologic features of Guillain-Barré syndrome. There were 546 childhood cases of acute flaccid paralysis seen between January 1989 and December 1999 at the Hospital Escuela Materno-Infantil in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Of these cases with acute flaccid paralysis, 394 (72.