Jao-Shwann Liang

• Head of Department at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital

Zellweger spectrum disorders (ZSD) are rare autosomal recessive disorders caused by defects in peroxisome biogenesis factor (PEX; peroxin) genes leading to impaired transport of peroxisomal proteins with peroxisomal targeting signals (PTS). Four patients, including a pair of homozygotic twins, diagnosed as ZSD by genetic study with different clinic...

Background: The role home-schooling of children in parental mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan remains unknown. This study aimed to assess the association between parental psychological distress and home-schooling in a socio-ecological context during the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Methods: This w...

Objective To investigate the relationship between sleep problems and development in preschool children with suspected developmental delay. Methods A total of 192 preschool children (mean age 4 years; 131 males, 61 females) were recruited from the Child Development Clinic, including 98 preterm children and 94 age- and sex-matched full-term children...

Dravet syndrome (DS) is an uncommon epilepsy syndrome that may negatively affect the patients and their caregivers. However, reliable and valid measures of its impact on caregivers and the characteristics of patients with DS in Taiwan are lacking. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of patients with DS and concerns of their caregivers...

Background/purpose Having siblings is a crucial ecological factor in children's language development. Whether siblings play a role in the language development of children with developmental delays remains unknown. This study therefore aimed to assess the association between sibling presence and changes in language trajectories of children with deve...

Dravet syndrome (DS) is a rare and devastating epilepsy syndrome, and it can affect the patients and their caregivers. However, the lack of a reliable and valid measures of caregiver impact and the characteristic pattern in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of patients with DS and caregivers’ concerns, and to est...

Background KCNQ2-associated epilepsy is most common in neonatal genetic epilepsy. A prompt diagnosis to initialize early treatment is important. Methods We studied the electroencephalographic (EEG) changes including automated EEGs and conventional EEGs monitoring of 10 nonconsanguineous cases with KCNQ2 mutations, identified among 162 (6%) childho...

Background Epilepsy caused by a KCNQ2 gene mutation usually manifests as neonatal seizures during the first week of life. The genotypes and phenotypes of KCNQ2 mutations are noteworthy. Methods The KCNQ2 sequencings done were selected from 131 nonconsanguineous pediatric epileptic patients (age range: 2 days to 18 years) with nonlesional epilepsy....

Background: Cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5), which maps to chromosome Xp22.13 and contains 20 coding exons, has been recognized as the gene responsible for early-onset epileptic encephalopathy (EoEE). A retrospective study is carried out to analyze potential genotypic and phenotypic differences between male and female patients with CDKL5 mu...

Purpose Epileptic encephalopathies (EEs) are the severe form of childhood epilepsy and phenotypically heterogeneous disorders with different underlying genetic defects. EEs are always accompanied with developmental delay/mental retardation and behavior problems. Finding the genetic basis of epileptic encephalopathies with developmental delay/mental...

SCN2A mutations have been identified in various encephalopathy phenotypes, ranging from benign familial neonatal-infantile seizure (BFNIS) to more severe forms of epileptic encephalopathy such as Ohtahara syndrome or epilepsy of infancy with migrating focal seizure (EIMFS). Thus far, no particularly effective treatment is available for severe epile...

Epileptic encephalopathies are highly heterogeneous and phenotypical disorders with different underlying genetic defects. Mutations in the SCN2A gene cause different epilepsy syndromes, including epilepsy of infancy with migrating focal seizures, Ohtahara syndrome, and West syndrome. We utilized a targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) approach...

We analyzed the KCNQ2 wild-type gene and 3 mutations to highlight the important association between the KCNQ2 phenotype and genotype. The clinical phenotypes of 3 mutations (p.E515D, p.V543 M, and p.R213Q) were compared. KCNQ2, wild-type, and mutant KCNQ2 alleles were transfected into HEK293 cells before whole-cell patch-clamp analysis. Neurodevelo...

Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common type of convulsion in infants and young children. The occurrence of FS in a subset of children with febrile illness suggested genetic factors may have an important effect on the predisposition of the disease. Using targeted next generation sequencing (NGS), a novel splicing variation (NM_198903.2:c.1249-1G>T)...

Background: Increased prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children with allergic rhinitis (AR) has been reported. Our previous study showed that children with untreated AR had higher ADHD scores than did the controls. Objective: This prospective follow-up study aimed to investigate whether elevated ADHD scores in chi...

Absence seizures are a subtype of epileptic seizures clinically characterized by transient alterations in states of consciousness and by electroencephalography indicating diffuse spike-wave discharges (SWD). Conventional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is not routinely used to establish the diagnosis, but rather to rule out other diseases. T...

Inattention (IA) has been a major problem in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), accounting for their behavioral and cognitive dysfunctions. However, there are at least three processing steps underlying attentional control for auditory change detection, namely pre-attentive change detection, involuntary attention orientin...

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common chronic allergic disease in school-age children. An increased prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in AR patients has been reported; however, inattention and hyperactivity in AR children have not been investigated using objective and scientific measurements. We used AR symptom score...

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy is caused by a defective peroxisomal membrane transporter, ABCD1, responsible for transporting very-long-chain fatty acid substrate into peroxisomes for degradation. The main biochemical defect, which is also one of the major diagnostic hallmarks, of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy is the accumulation of saturated very-l...

Gelastic seizures are rare and are associated with different conditions, but mainly with hypothalamic hamartoma. We report on a boy who presented with mental retardation, aggressive behavior, and generalized tonic-clonic and gelastic seizures. Cranial imaging studies revealed a very rare combination of hypothalamic hamartoma and agenesis of the cor...

Genetic mutations of the cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 gene (CDKL5) have been reported in patients with epileptic encephalopathy, which is characterized by intractable seizures and severe-to-profound developmental delay. We investigated the clinical relevance of CDKL5 alterations in both genders. A total of 125 patients with epileptic encephalopat...

Peroxisomes are organelles responsible for multiple metabolic pathways including the biosynthesis of plasmalogens and the oxidation of branched-chain as well as very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs). Peroxisomal disorders (PDs) are heterogeneous groups of diseases and affect many organs with varying degrees of involvement. Even pathogenetically dist...

We performed STXBP1 mutation analyses in 86 patients with various types of epilepsies, including 10 patients with OS, 43 with West syndrome, 2 with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, 12 with symptomatic generalized epilepsy, 14 with symptomatic partial epilepsy, and 5 with other undetermined types of epilepsy. In all patients, the etiology was unknown, but A...

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness and tolerability of topiramate (TPM) in treating children with CNS anomalies and intractable epilepsy. Methods: We retrospectively searched the patient database in National Taiwan University Hospital for candidate children (younger than 18 years of age) with epilepsy and CNS anomalies from December 2002 to...

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization identified a 2.3-Mb microdeletion of 17p13.2p13.1 in a boy presenting with moderate mental retardation, intractable epilepsy and dysmorphic features. This deletion region was overlapped with the previously proposed shortest region overlapped for microdeletion of 17p13.1 in patients with mental retardati...

We report on a 2-year-old boy with facial dysmorphism, multiple lentigines, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Mutation analyses of the patient and his mother revealed a Y279G mutation in exon 7 of the PTPN11 gene. The presence of LEOPARD syndrome was confirmed by a genetic study and clinical phenotypes. Since age 18 months, the patient had manifeste...

Children with developmental delay or mental retardation (DD/MR) are commonly encountered in child neurology clinics, and establishing an etiologic diagnosis is a challenge for child neurologists. Among the etiologies, chromosomal imbalance is one of the most important causes. However, many of these chromosomal imbalances are submicroscopic and cann...

The trace element manganese is usually supplied when total parenteral nutrition is used. However, long-term parenteral administration of manganese, which bypasses the normal regulatory mechanism, may cause hypermanganesemia. Manganese poisoning presents clinically with parkinsonian-like symptoms and psychological changes. Seizures are a rare presen...

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy is a neurodegenerative disorder with highly variable clinical presentation, including the childhood cerebral form, adult form adrenomyeloneuropathy, and Addison disease. The biochemical hallmark of the disorder is the accumulation of saturated very long chain fatty acids in all tissues and body fluids. This accumulatio...

Unlabelled: Pediatric populations are at risk for medication errors that may be associated with mortality and disability. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical manifestations of seven newborns following an event of accidental intramuscular injection of atracurium and to assess the impact on neurodevelopmental outcome. This study e...

An 8-year-old female was diagnosed with Miller-Dieker syndrome with typical facial presentation. Brain magnetic resonance imaging disclosed lissencephaly, and chromosome study revealed 17p13.3 deletion. She developed infantile spasms at an early age, and her seizures were poorly controlled by multiple antiepileptics. Recurrent urinary tract infecti...

We analyze the respective roles of neuro-imaging and EEG in the assessment of 11 children with holoprosencephaly and epilepsy. Seizures were present in seven patients (64%); six were treated with antiepileptic drugs; five had intractable epilepsy. Two of the patients with intractable epilepsy became seizure-free under polytherapy. Fourteen EEG reco...

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a peroxisomal disorder and identified in many races without apparent predilection for any race. This study was designed to investigate the clinical and therapeutic aspects of X-ALD in Taiwanese children with this disorder. We retrospectively reviewed all children admitted to NTUH from Nov. 1993 to Aug. 2002...

An 8-year-3-month-old male with right porencephaly and epilepsy was found to have skin rash 2 weeks after the beginning of treatment with lamotrigine. One month later he suffered from impaired liver function and pancytopenia in the presence of hypocellular bone marrow with hemophagocytosis. No evidence of infection was evident. Intravenous immunogl...

Childhood cerebral X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease typically presenting from age 4 to 8 years in males. We report 2 cases of X-ALD in boys. The diagnosis of Addison's disease was made before the development of neurological symptoms in both cases. The first patient had hyperpigmentation of the lips and an ad...

Agyria-pachygyria complex is a disorder of neuronal migration and organization. Patients suffer either motor or intellectual retardation. We report our experiences of 10 patients with agyria-pachygyria complex and evaluate their clinical features, electroencephalography, and evoked potentials. Of nine electroencephalography examinations, five patie...

Schizencephaly is an uncommon congenital brain malformation. We report our experience of 13 patients with schizencephaly and evaluate the clinical, neuroradiologic, electroencephalographic (EEG), and nosological features. Of these 13 patients, 8 were unilateral forms, 5 were bilateral forrms and 11 were open-lip type schizencephaly. One patient was...