Question
The child’s jaundice persisted for over twenty days after birth and was quite severe, but it was completely recovered later. The subsequent Down syndrome screening suspected a g6pd deficiency gene inherited from previous generations. At 1 year and 4 months, the child has started to walk and read, but the posture is not good, cannot climb stairs properly, and stability is poor. After three months of rehabilitation and wearing corrective shoes, the effect has worsened. Now, the child can’t walk as before and needs someone to hold their hand to walk; their legs are weak. Now, an MRI shows patchy hypointense signals on both sides of the ventricles on T1W1 and slightly hyperintense signals on T2W1 and FLAIR. Considering delayed myelination. Could it be that the childhood jaundice inflammation has caused this condition?
Answer
Delayed myelination is a type of abnormal myelination, usually involving delayed white matter myelination. At birth, a considerable amount of myelin is already present in areas such as the medulla oblongata, pons, internal capsule posterior limb, and the corpus callosum. The maturation process mainly occurs after birth and continues until around the age of 20, with white matter myelination expanding throughout life. It is recommended that you first seek medical consultation to determine the cause and implement targeted treatment accordingly. Symptomatic treatment can include rehabilitation exercises, acupuncture therapy, and the use of neuro-nutritional agents such as vitamin B complex, Nervonic Brain, and Nervous Recovery drugs.