Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis: The Time Until Diagnosis and Its Subsequent Course in Children

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis has an acute onset followed by improvement over several weeks. However, some cases require more time for a definitive diagnosis after protracted psychiatric or nonspecific symptoms. The authors investigated the time from onset to definitive diagnosis, subsequent course of treatment, and outcomes in 7 children with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis treated at the authors’ hospital. The mean duration of illness before definitive diagnosis was 20.7 days (range: 2-50 days). Steroid pulse therapy was performed in all cases, and rapid improvements were observed; the mean duration from treatment initiation to hospital discharge was 8.6 days (range: 4-14 days). None of the cases showed neurological sequelae. Although this study investigated a small number of patients, its results suggest that time to diagnosis is often longer in children than in adults, and even in cases of delayed treatment, response to steroid pulse therapy is good and outcomes may not necessarily be affected.