Clinic and diagnosis of encephalopathy of critical conditions in children with infectious diseases

Purpose: to assess the functional state of the brain in critically ill encephalopathy in children with infectious diseases.Materials and methods: 75 patients aged from 1 month to 17 years 11 months with infectious diseases, who were in the intensive care unit of the clinic, were examined, divided into two groups: the main group and the comparison group. Exclusion criteria: patients with cerebral palsy, organic lesions of the central nervous system, neuroinfections and epilepsy. Conducted daily clinical and neurological examination; study of the level of neurospecific proteins (NSE, protein S100) in blood serum; electroencephalography; study of evoked potentials of various modalities; ultrasound examination of the optic nerves, neuroimaging.Results: All patients had general infectious manifestations, the development of sepsis syndrome, cerebral systemic disorders with impaired consciousness, as well as convulsive syndrome. In the acute period of the disease in the main group, NSE values in 87.5% of children were within the upper limit of normal, S100 protein levels were many times higher than those in the comparison group. In dynamics, all patients showed an increase in the level of NSE, which correlated with persistent neurological symptoms in the form of irritability, weakness, and cognitive decline. In the comparison group, an increase in NSE occurred in 53% of children, an increase in S100 - in 83%. By the time of discharge, 47% of patients had an increase NSE and S100 protein. Visual evoked potentials in 84% of the children of the main group in the acute period, had a decrease the amplitude of the N2-P2 cortical response was revealed without significant dynamics in the future, which was accompanied by pronounced clinical manifestations, which made it possible to substantiate the expediency of dispensary observation of children who underwent a critical condition against the background of severe infectious pathology.Conclusion: in infectious diseases in children that are not accompanied by inflammatory processes in the nervous system, but proceed with the development of a critical condition, there is a neuropsychiatric deficit in the outcomes, which necessitates follow-up follow-up of such patients in the future.