Acute encephalopathy is a severe neurologic complication of an infection that usually occurs in children. It is characterized by a high-grade fever accompanied within 12 to 48 hours by febrile convulsions, often leading to coma, multiple-organ failure, brain edema, and high morbidity and mortality. The infections are usually viral, particularly influenza, although other viruses and even mycoplasma have been found to cause the disorder (summary by Chen et al., 2005; Shinohara et al., 2011).
For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of susceptibility to acute infection-induced encephalopathy, see 610551. [from
OMIM]