Abstracts

Rationale: Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a clinico-radiologic syndrome characterized by clinical manifestations of seizures, headache, altered mental status or visual disturbances as well as transient high signal intensities on T2-weighted and fluid attenuated inversion recovery brain MRI image. The purpose of this study is to investigate the long-term seizure prognosis of patients with childhood leukemia accompanied by PRES.Methods: A total of 15 patients (10 boys and 5 girls) with childhood leukemia accompanied by PRES were treated at our hospital over a period of the last 8 years. The medical records were retrospectively reviewed in order to identify the long-term seizure outcome.Results: The patients were treated for a mean of 31.6 months (range, 6 to 52 months). Of these patients, 8 did not need long-term anticonvulsant therapy, whereas 7 needed long-term anticonvulsant therapy because of recurrent seizures or epileptiform discharges on EEG. Two of the 4 patients who showed residual lesions on follow-up brain MRI were refractory to multiple anticonvulsant therapy.Conclusions: Long-term seizure prognosis of patients with childhood leukemia accompanied by PRES was poor, especially when residual lesions were seen on follow-up brain MRI. Long-term follow-ups with brain MRI, EEG and anticonvulsant are recommended in such patients.