Abstract
Central nervous system infection in children is an important condition for which early recognition is crucial to achieve a favorable clinical outcome. Infectious bacterial meningitis is the most common manifestation of CNS infections in this age group. Despite the fact that the imaging findings may be nonspecific, its clinical presentation has distinct peculiarities. The classical clinical features of infective meningitis in children include apathy, lethargy, stupor, poor feeding, and irritability. Clinical history and imaging techniques may help in the diagnostic workflow.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Parmar H, Ibrahim M. Pediatric intracranial infections. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. 2012;22(4):707–25.
Curtis S, Stobart K, Vandermeer B, Simel DL, Klassen T. Clinical features suggestive of meningitis in children: a systematic review of prospective data. Pediatrics. 2010;126(5):952–60.
Mohan S, Jain KK, Arabi M, Shah GV. Imaging of meningitis and ventriculitis. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. 2012;22(4):557–83.
Frush DP. Justification and optimization of CT in children: how are we performing? Pediatr Radiol. 2011;41(Suppl 2(S2)):467–71.
Heth JA. Neurosurgical aspects of central nervous system infections. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. 2012;22(4):791–9.
Riddle J, Shuman EK. Epidemiology of central nervous system infection. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. Elsevier Inc; 2020;22(4):543–56.
Chatterjee S. Brain tuberculomas, tubercular meningitis, and post-tubercular hydrocephalus in children. J Pediatr Neurosci. 2011;6(3):96.
Steele RW, McConnell JR, Jacobs RF, Mawk JR. Recurrent bacterial meningitis: coronal thin-section cranial computed tomography to delineate anatomic defects. Pediatrics. 1985;76(6):950–3.
Willmann O, Ahmad-Nejad P, Neumaier M, Hennerici MG, Fatar M. Toll-like receptor 3 immune deficiency may be causative for HSV-2-associated mollaret meningitis. Eur Neurol. 2010;63(4):249–51.
Barkovich AJ. Pediatric neuroimaging. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005. 1 p.
Chang KH, Han MH, Roh JK, Kim IO, Han MC, Kim CW. Gd-DTPA-enhanced MR imaging of the brain in patients with meningitis: comparison with CT. Am J Roentgenol. 1990;154(4):809–16.
Strauss KJ, Kaste SC. The ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) concept in pediatric interventional and fluoroscopic imaging: striving to keep radiation doses as low as possible during fluoroscopy of pediatric patients – a white paper executive summary. Radiology. 2006;240(3):621–2.
Kim YJ, Chang KH, Song IC, Kim HD, Seong SO, Kim YH, et al. Brain abscess and necrotic or cystic brain tumor: discrimination with signal intensity on diffusion-weighted MR imaging. Am J Roentgenol. 1998;171(6):1487–90.
Luthra G, Parihar A, Nath K, Jaiswal S, Prasad KN, Husain N, et al. Comparative evaluation of fungal, tubercular, and pyogenic brain abscesses with conventional and diffusion MR imaging and proton MR spectroscopy. Am J Neuroradiol. 2007;28(7):1332–8.
Pal D, Bhattacharyya A, Husain M, Prasad KN, Pandey CM, Gupta RK. In vivo proton MR spectroscopy evaluation of pyogenic brain abscesses: a report of 194 cases. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2010;31(2):360–6.
Toh CH, Wei KC, Ng SH, Wan YL, Lin CP, Castillo M. Differentiation of brain abscesses from necrotic glioblastomas and cystic metastatic brain tumors with diffusion tensor imaging. Am J Neuroradiol. 2011;32(9):1646–51.
Gasparetto EL, Cabral RF, da Cruz LCH, Domingues RC. Diffusion imaging in brain infections. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. 2011;21(1):89–113. –viii.
Fukuoka H, Hirai T, Okuda T, Shigematsu Y, Sasao A, Kimura E, et al. Comparison of the added value of contrast-enhanced 3D fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition of gradient echo sequences in relation to conventional postcontrast T1-weighted images for the evaluation of leptomeningeal diseases at 3T. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2010;31(5):868–73.
Maia AC, Guedes BV, Lucas A Jr, da Rocha AJ. Diffusion MR imaging for monitoring treatment response. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. Elsevier Ltd; 2011;21(1):153–78.
Rath TJ, Hughes M, Arabi M, Shah GV. Imaging of cerebritis, encephalitis, and brain abscess. Neuroimaging Clin N Am. 2012;22(4):585–607.
Cartes-Zumelzu FW, Stavrou I, Castillo M, Eisenhuber E, Knosp E, Thurnher MM. Diffusion-weighted imaging in the assessment of brain abscesses therapy. Am J Neuroradiol. 2004;25(8):1310–7.
Burtscher IM, Holtås S. In vivo proton MR spectroscopy of untreated and treated brain abscesses. Am J Neuroradiol. 1999;20(6):1049–53.
Stuckey SL, Goh TD, Heffernan T, Rowan D. Hyperintensity in the subarachnoid space on FLAIR MRI. Am J Roentgenol. 2007;189(4):913–21.
da Rocha AJ, Vedolin L, Mendonça RA. Encéfalo. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier; 2012. 1 p.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scoppetta, T.L.P.D., da Rocha, A.J., Hoffmann Nunes, R. (2016). Meningitis, Empyema, and Brain Abscess in Children. In: Hoffmann Nunes, R., Abello, A., Castillo, M. (eds) Critical Findings in Neuroradiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27987-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27987-9_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27985-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27987-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)