MRI of Enterovirus 71 myelitis with monoplegia

We report two boys diagnosed as having herpangina and hand-foot-mouth disease complicated by monoplegia during the outbreak enterovirus infection in Taiwan in 1998. Enterovirus 71 was identified in the stool and throat swab; neither polio nor Coxsackie viruses was identified. MRI showed unilateral lesions in the anterior horns of the spinal cord at T11-12 and C2-5. Although the MRI findings and sites of these lesions were similar to those of poliovirus-associated poliomyelitis, the virological data indicated that these boys were infected with enterovirus type 71.