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Spongiform encephalopathy following allogeneic cord blood transplant
Author(s) -
O’Brien Dennis,
Klopfenstein Kathryn,
Gross Thomas G.,
Baker Peter,
Termuhlen Amanda
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
pediatric transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.457
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1399-3046
pISSN - 1397-3142
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3046.2007.00828.x
Subject(s) - medicine , etiology , encephalopathy , autopsy , pathology , pediatrics
A 6 year old boy developed a fatal, rapidly progressive encephalopathy 5 months after a matched unrelated cord blood transplant. Autopsy findings revealed spongiform changes in his brain. The clinical course of this child's illness had many findings consistent with that of a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). Pre‐mortem and post‐mortem studies failed to definitively determine an etiology. Spongiform encephalopathies include the TSEs and mitochondrial encephalopathies. Both should be considered in a post‐hematopoietic stem cell transplant patient who develops a progressive encephalopathy when more common etiologies are not found.