İLKNUR EROL, Murat ÖZKALE, Tülin SAVAŞ, Özlem ALKAN, MELİH ÇEKİNMEZ, Ayşe ERBAY

Neuromyelitis optica mimics the morphology of spinal cord tumors

SUMMARY; Erol İ, Özkale M, Savaş T, Alkan Ö, Çekinmez M, Erbay A. Neuromyelitis optica mimics the morphology of spinal cord tumors. Turk J Pediatr 2016; 58: 309-314. Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system, that predominantly affects the spinal cord and the optic nerve. Its key features include transverse myelitis, commonly associated with extensive inflammation spanning three or more consecutive vertebral segments. Longitudinal extensive spinal cord lesions can also occur in systemic autoimmune diseases, infections, vascular and metabolic disorders, subsequent to irradiation, intramedullary tumors and paraneoplastic myelopathies. We present a case study of an 8-year-old girl seropositive for antibodies against the aquaporin 4 who displayed longitudinal extensive spinal cord lesions, that was initially misdiagnosed as an intramedullary tumor.

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