INTRODUCTION Haemophagocyte lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a hematological disorder, autosomal recessive and in which there is benign proliferation of histiocytes with intense phagocytic activity of hematopoietic cells. The clinical features include fever, pancytopenia, coagulation disorders, liver dysfunction, the presence of histiocytes and haemophagocytes in the bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen and liver. The nervous system is always involved and sooner or later patients develop a nervous system disorder with variable symptoms which may include irritability, disorders of consciousness, convulsions, ataxia, nystagmus or signs of intracranial hypertension. CLINICAL CASE.Onset of the disease showing purely neurological features is rare. We therefore describe the case of an 8 month old baby with HLH with a purely neurological condition involving irritability, horizontal rapid eye movements and vertical saccadic movements of both eyes and focal convulsive seizures. Initial complementary examinations were normal, except for study of the CSF with a lowered protein level and cells (monocytes). Finding hepatosplenomegaly and pallor, together with the laboratory investigations, made it advisable to do a bone marrow punch biopsy to detect haemophagocytes which would be diagnostic of HLH. In spite of chemotherapy there was rapid neurological deterioration, with alterations of the white matter and hydrocephaly which required insertion of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt. The patient died when he was 10 months old.
CONCLUSIONS The cases of HLH in which cerebromeningeal disorders alone precede systemic symptoms are extremely rare. Hence the interest in reporting this case, so that it may be borne in mind in other cases of acute neurological onset. In this case initially there was encephalitis alone, but this was rapidly followed by systemic complications.
KeywordsHaemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosisInfantNeurological onset
FULL TEXT(solo disponible en lengua castellana / Only available in Spanish)
Si ya es un usuario registrado en Neurologia, introduzca sus datos de inicio de sesión.
Rellene los campos para registrarse en Neurologia.com y acceder a todos nuestros artículos de forma gratuita
¿Olvidó su contraseña? Introduzca su correo electrónico y le haremos llegar una nueva
¡CONVIÉRTASE EN USUARIO PREMIUM DE NEUROLOGIA.COM!
Al hacerse premium, está apoyándonos para que Revista de Neurología
siga siendo uno de los referentes de habla hispana en la difusión del
conocimiento en neurociencias. ¡Gratuita tanto para autores como para
todos los usuarios de la web!
Además, por convertirte en usuario premium, recibirá las siguientes ventajas:
Plaza asegurada en todos nuestros Másteres (www.ineurocampus.com)
Descuento del 5% en los cursos de “Actualización en Neurología”, la FMC que estará disponible próximamente en la web.
Descarga gratuita en formato PDF dos de las obras con más éxito publicadas por Viguera Editores:
Oromotors Disorders in childhood (M. Roig-Quilis; L. Pennington)
Manual de Neuropsicología 2ª ed. (J. Tirapu-Ustárroz; M. Ríos-Lago; F. Maestú)
El precio para hacerse Premium durante el periodo de un año es de 5€, que podrá pagar a continuación a través de una pasarela de pago seguro con tarjeta de crédito, transferencia bancaria o PayPal:
OPEN ACCESS
