TY - JOUR
T1 - Transverse Myelitis as Manifestation of Celiac Disease in a Toddler
AU - Krom, Hilde
AU - Sprangers, Fleur
AU - van den Berg, René
AU - Benninga, Marc Alexander
AU - Kindermann, Angelika
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - We present a 17-month-old girl with rapidly progressive unwillingness to sit, stand, play, and walk. Furthermore, she lacked appetite, vomited, lost weight, and had an iron deficiency. Physical examination revealed a cachectic, irritable girl with a distended abdomen, dystrophic legs with paraparesis, disturbed sensibility, and areflexia. An MRI scan revealed abnormal high signal intensity on T2-weighted images in the cord on the thoracic level, without cerebral abnormalities, indicating transverse myelitis (TM). Laboratory investigations revealed elevated immunoglobulin A antibodies against gliadin (1980.0 kU/L; normal, 0-10.1 kU/L) and tissue transglutaminase (110.0 kU/L; normal, 0-10.1 kU/L). Gastroscopy revealed villous atrophy in the duodenal biopsies and lymphocytic gastritis according to Marsh IIIb, compatible with celiac disease (CD). After the start of a gluten free diet and methylprednisolone, she recovered completely. To our knowledge, this is the first pediatric case of TM as manifestation of CD. We suggest that all children with TM or other neurologic manifestations of unknown origin should be screened for CD
AB - We present a 17-month-old girl with rapidly progressive unwillingness to sit, stand, play, and walk. Furthermore, she lacked appetite, vomited, lost weight, and had an iron deficiency. Physical examination revealed a cachectic, irritable girl with a distended abdomen, dystrophic legs with paraparesis, disturbed sensibility, and areflexia. An MRI scan revealed abnormal high signal intensity on T2-weighted images in the cord on the thoracic level, without cerebral abnormalities, indicating transverse myelitis (TM). Laboratory investigations revealed elevated immunoglobulin A antibodies against gliadin (1980.0 kU/L; normal, 0-10.1 kU/L) and tissue transglutaminase (110.0 kU/L; normal, 0-10.1 kU/L). Gastroscopy revealed villous atrophy in the duodenal biopsies and lymphocytic gastritis according to Marsh IIIb, compatible with celiac disease (CD). After the start of a gluten free diet and methylprednisolone, she recovered completely. To our knowledge, this is the first pediatric case of TM as manifestation of CD. We suggest that all children with TM or other neurologic manifestations of unknown origin should be screened for CD
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1381
DO - https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1381
M3 - Article
C2 - 28153851
SN - 0031-4005
VL - 139
SP - e20161381
JO - Pediatrics
JF - Pediatrics
IS - 3
ER -