1. Disease Course and Response to Immunotherapy in Children With Childhood Disintegrative Disorder: A Retrospective Case Series.
- Author
-
Sullivan MI, Gupta MJ, Taylor KA, Van Mater HA, and Pizoli CE
- Subjects
- Child, Humans, Disease Progression, Encephalitis therapy, Encephalitis immunology, Retrospective Studies, Treatment Outcome, Immunotherapy methods
- Abstract
Childhood disintegrative disorder is a poorly understood neurobehavioral disorder of early childhood characterized by acute to subacute profound regression in previously developed language, social behavior, and adaptive functions. The etiology of childhood disintegrative disorder remains unknown and treatment is focused on symptomatic management. Interest in neuroinflammatory mechanisms has grown with the increased recognition of autoimmune brain diseases and similarities between the presenting symptoms of childhood disintegrative disorder and pediatric autoimmune encephalitis. Importantly, a diagnosis of pediatric autoimmune encephalitis requires evidence of inflammation on paraclinical testing, which is absent in childhood disintegrative disorder. Here we report 5 children with childhood disintegrative disorder who were initially diagnosed with possible autoimmune encephalitis and treated with immunotherapy. Two children had provocative improvements, whereas 3 did not change significantly on immunotherapy. Additionally, a sixth patient with childhood disintegrative disorder evaluated in our Autoimmune Brain Disease Clinic showed spontaneous improvement and is included to highlight the variable natural history of childhood disintegrative disorder that may mimic treatment responsiveness., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF