Journal of child neurology
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Regulation of circulating iron is important in bacterial, yeast, and fungal infections. In the present study, cerebrospinal fluid levels of ferritin, an iron-binding protein, were determined in controls and in patients with central nervous system pyogenic and viral infections. Among 441 controls, cerebrospinal fluid ferritin level was higher than 18 ng/mL in two relapsed patients with central nervous system leukemia, 12 with bacteremia or pneumonia, and one with hemorrhagic herpes simplex encephalitis. ⋯ Cerebrospinal fluid ferritin levels did not correlate with cerebrospinal fluid neutrophil count, cerebrospinal fluid protein concentration, serum ferritin level, or patient age. In 16 of 19 cases monitored sequentially during ongoing antibiotic treatment, levels remained over 18 ng/mL (average, 15.0 days; range, 1 to 54 days). This observation suggests that obtaining cerebrospinal fluid ferritin levels is helpful whenever traditional laboratory benchmarks normalize, as during acute or chronic antibiotic therapy, or create confusion with positive cultures stemming from sample contamination.
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Based on the initial successful use of felbamate for infantile spasms in an infant with tuberous sclerosis, three additional infants with infantile spasms of different etiologies who had failed conventional therapies were treated with felbamate. Three of the four patients have shown complete resolution of infantile spasms. ⋯ Controlled studies are needed to firmly establish that felbamate is both safe and effective for the treatment of infantile spasms. As these cases document, felbamate is currently available for use in infantile spasms, and the frequent conversion of infantile spasms to Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, for which felbamate is approved, makes its use in infantile spasms logical.