Acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion

What it is

A rare childhood-onset epilepsy syndrome associated with infection and characterized by a biphasic clinical course. The initial symptom is a prolonged febrile seizure on day 1 (the first phase). Afterwards, patients have variable levels of consciousness from normal to coma. Irrespective of the consciousness levels, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during the first 2 days shows no abnormality. During the second phase (usually days 4 - 6), patients show a cluster of seizures and deterioration of consciousness. Diffusion-weighted images (DWI) on MRI reveal the brain lesions with reduced diffusion predominantly in the subcortical white matter. After the second acute phase, consciousness levels improve with the emerging focal neurological signs. Neurological outcomes of AESD vary from normal to mild or severe sequelae including cerebral atrophy, mental retardation, paralysis and epilepsy.

Key facts

Prevalence

<1 / 1 000 000

Age of onset

Infancy, Neonatal

Inheritance

Not applicable

Classified as

Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

Gene

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Benefit programs to look at

Programs whose eligibility touches the same ICD-10 categories. Eligibility is decided by the administering agency, never by this page.

Cross-references