Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2023 Jun 1;18(8):2704-2706.
doi: 10.1016/j.radcr.2023.04.038. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis: A case report

Zakaria Abide  1 , Karima Sif Nasr  1 , Soufiane Kaddouri  1 , Meryem Edderai  1 , Jamal Elfenni  1 , Tarik Salaheddine  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis: A case report

Zakaria Abide et al. Radiol Case Rep. .

Abstract

Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis (BBE) is a rare inflammatory, demyelinating disease that generally has a good prognosis. It's characterized by an acute dysfunction of brainstem occurring few days after an infection. We report the case of an 11-year-old male child with a history of cold, presented with ataxia in whom a Bickerstaff encephalitis was attested through brain MRI and who has fully recovered after treatment. The main symptoms are ataxia, ophthalmoplegia, and altered consciousness. CSF analysis and serum antiganglioside antibodies are also very suggestive of the diagnosis that can be suspected clinically and confirmed on brain MRI. The interest of this observation lies in its rarity and on the rapid and spectacular clinical improvement under treatment.

Keywords: Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis; MRI; Postinfectious.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Right posterolateral lesion with intermediate T2 signal, T1 asignal, with homogeneous enhancement after gadolinium injection (A) sagittal T1 sequence; (B) axial T2 sequence; (C and D) axial and sagittal T1 injections.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Michev A, Musso P, Foiadelli T, Trabatti C, Lozza A, Franciotta D, et al. Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis and overlapping Guillain-Barré syndrome in children: report of two cases and review of the literature. Eur J Paediatr Neurol [Internet] 2019;23(1):43–52. [cited 2023 Mar 24] - PubMed
    1. Battaglia F, Franques J, Somma-Mauvais H, Roche PH. Tableau d'encéphalite de Bickerstaff et hypertension intracrânienne. Rev Neurol (Paris) 2011;167(2):164–168. - PubMed
    1. Nejhy W, Zamiati W, Lezar S, Adil A. Encéphalite de Bickerstaff : à propos de deux cas. J Radiol. 2011;92(12):1135–1138. - PubMed
    1. Chowdhry M, Agrawal S, ML S. A case of Bickerstaff encephalitis with overlapping Gullian Barre syndrome in a pediatric patient treated with therapeutic plasma exchange. Transfus Apher Sci [Internet] 2021;60(6) doi: 10.1016/j.transci.2021.103260. [cited 2023 Mar 20] - DOI - PubMed
    1. Llorente Ayuso L, Torres Rubio P, Beijinho do Rosário RF, Giganto Arroyo ML, Sierra-Hidalgo F. Bickerstaff encephalitis after COVID-19. J Neurol [Internet] 2021;268(6):2035. [cited 2023 Mar 20] - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources