Abstract

Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis is a monophasic, post-viral inflammatory disease characterized by ophthalmoplegia, ataxia, and disturbance of consciousness. A 4 year-old boy was admitted to hospital because of fever and verbal difficulties. Cranial magnetic resonans imaging (MRI) revealed hyperintensity in pons and mesencephalon. Patient's anti-GQlb Ab was negative, whereas anti-myeoplasma IgG and IgM Ab was positive. He was treated succesfully with prednisolone. His control MRI was normal. We present here a case of Bickerstaff encephalitis with anti-gQ1b Ab caused by mycoplasma infection due to its rarity.