Liu Hengfang, the director of the Third Department of Neurology and Internal Medicine of the Affiliated Hospital of Zheng Dawu, reminded parents that children may also suffer from encephalitis if they have no history of infection such as fever and diarrhea. If children are not focused and respond slowly, they should suspect encephalitis.

　 Children's headache is regarded as sinusitis

Case: Wang Lin (not her real name), 12 years old this year, has always been a good student in the class, with good grades and smart people. A few months ago, she began to say that she had a headache, especially in the forehead area. The local doctor said that she had sinusitis, but after more than a month of treatment for sinusitis, the headache did not abate at all, even more frequently. The family took her to see a doctor again. The doctor suspected that it was encephalitis, so he asked her to have a CT, which showed that everything was normal, so he sent her back. Gradually, the child's performance began to decline. The originally lively girl was troubled by headaches, and she began to become a bit dull and inflexible. This situation continued until another local hospital recommended her to the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengda.

　　 Children may also suffer from encephalitis without cold, fever and diarrhea

Liu Hengfang made an EEG for her after receiving the treatment, and found that slow waves increased significantly, which was suspected to be encephalitis. The EEG of a person has a certain rhythm just like the ECG. The normal EEG has a fast amplitude and a peak value. The increase of slow waves means that the EEG activity is decreased and inactive, and the child will show symptoms such as stagnation and decreased response.

Liu Hengfang said that the first reason why Wang Lin was delayed so long was that her parents did not consider encephalitis. Many parents believed that only after fever, diarrhea and other infections would she be infected with encephalitis. Before Wang Lin had headaches, she had never been ill, so parents did not expect that sinusitis would also cause headaches in the forehead. Doctors, based on empiricism, The possibility of encephalitis was not considered. In fact, the infection of tuberculosis, bacteria, fungi, and viruses may cause encephalitis. Some infected children may have symptoms, such as fever, respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, etc., but some infections are relatively mild, which may only show very mild symptoms, such as a blister on the corner of the mouth for a few days, and some even children do not feel at all. Therefore, if the child has mental symptoms two or three days after the infection, encephalitis should be considered, but even if there is no obvious medical history and the child has reaction problems, encephalitis should be ruled out.

　　 Headache will not affect thinking, and encephalitis will lead to mental symptoms such as slow reaction of children

Liu Hengfang believes that the second reason why Wang Lin's illness was delayed is that parents did not pay attention to the child when he or she had mental symptoms such as dullness and lethargy. It is normal for parents to think that the child is uncomfortable with a headache and not so active, but the headache will not cause slow reaction. Later, when the child was interviewed, the child himself said something. She used to understand the teacher's lecture immediately, But now I often can't understand or need to think for a long time, which is the manifestation of brain abnormalities. In addition, encephalitis can also cause changes in the child's character. If the child is active before and suddenly becomes silent, it is likely that the brain is not active.

　 Suspected to be encephalitis, only CT is not accurate, and EEG and lumbar puncture are needed

When Wang Lin was regarded as having no effect on the treatment of sinusitis, the doctor also suspected encephalitis and asked her to do a CT, but the result showed that it was normal. Liu Hengfang said that this was the third reason for the delay of the illness.

Liu Hengfang said that if it is suspected to be encephalitis, the first thing to do is EEG instead of CT, because some inflammation can not be seen abnormal on CT, but if it is meningitis, because the inflammation does not invade the brain essence, the EEG will also show normal and cannot be diagnosed, so another valuable examination for diagnosing encephalitis is lumbar puncture, Lumbar puncture is very helpful to find the bacteria and fungi that cause encephalitis.