Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Jun 2017)

Brain metabolite values in children with breath-holding spells

  • Calik M,
  • Sen Dokumaci D,
  • Sarikaya S,
  • Demir M,
  • Isik I,
  • Kazanasmaz H,
  • Kaya C,
  • Kandemir H

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 1655 – 1660

Abstract

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Mustafa Calik,1 Dilek Sen Dokumaci,2 Suna Sarikaya,3 Mahmut Demir,4 Ilhan Isik,5 Halil Kazanasmaz,4 Cemil Kaya,4 Hasan Kandemir6 1Department of Pediatric Neurology, 2Department of Radiology, 3Department of Neurology, 4Department of Pediatrics, Harran University School of Medicine, 5Department of Pediatric Neurology, Eyyubiye Training and Research Hospital, 6Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Harran University School of Medicine, Sanliurfa, Turkey Abstract: Breath-holding spells are benign, paroxysmal events with apnea and postural tone changes after a crying episode in infants. The objective of this study was to investigate the pathologies in brain metabolite values in the absence of seizure in children with breath-holding spells by using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Brain MRS examination was performed on 18 children with breath-holding spells and 13 neurologically normal children who were included as the control group. There was no significant difference in terms of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), creatine (Cr), and myoinositol (mI) levels and also in terms of NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, and mI/Cr ratios between the patients and the control group (all P>0.05). Our study suggested that there is no permanent neuronal damage in patients with breath-holding spells. This result confirms the previous studies, which reported no permanent neuronal damage in patients with breath-holding spells. Keywords: brain metabolite, children, breath holding, magnetic resonance spectroscopy 

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