Central Nervous System Diseases in Children

Abstract

Central nervous system (CNS) diseases in children are significantly different from those in adults. They are related to age-specific processes (e.g. hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathies), pathologies (e.g. acute encephalomyelitis), maturation (e.g. age-related epileptic syndromes, age-specific tumours), developmental processes (e.g. brain malformations) and genetic disorders (e.g. metabolic diseases). Technically, at least in very young children, the conditions of investigation — mostly with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) — are quite different also. This paper provides an overview of what is specific to children in the way of investigating CNS diseases.