Symptoms | Reye syndrome

Symptoms

Reye’s syndrome can theoretically occur at any age, but it usually develops until the age of ten. At the beginning of the disease, it manifests itself through drowsiness, lethargy, vomiting, constant crying, fever, irritability and a limited liver function. In addition, there are gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and violent vomiting.

About 30% of patients develop encephalopathy during the course of the disease, which can be accompanied by severe symptoms. These include, for example, accumulation of fluid in the brain (cerebral edema), which leads to brain swelling, breathing too quickly (hyperventilation) or respiratory arrest, seizures, increased reflexes (hyperreflexia) or loss of reflexes (areflexia), spasticity of the extremities (decerebral rigidity) or a progressive loss of consciousness up to coma. In some cases, the diagnosis of Reye’s syndrome can already be suspected by interviewing the child or parents.If the child suffered from a viral infection shortly before the development of symptoms and was treated with Aspirin®, this may already be an indication.

To confirm the diagnosis, the blood is usually first examined. Reye’s syndrome is characterized by elevated liver values, elevated values of amino acids, fatty acids and ammonia, as well as further elevated enzyme levels. Blood sugar is often too low (hypoglycaemia).

Since the liver is also involved in blood clotting, delayed blood clotting can occur due to the liver’s impaired synthesis (production) capacity. When palpating the abdomen of the sick child, an enlargement of the liver can often be observed. It is also possible to take a tissue sample of the liver, in which fatty deposits would be visible in Reye’s syndrome.

In order to rule out other diseases, further imaging is often requested. Especially when the child is no longer conscious, a computed tomography (CT) of the skull is performed to exclude space-occupying processes in the brain. If there is brain edema (accumulation of fluid in brain tissue), this may also be visible in the CT.