Neuroimaging of Pediatric Infections

It was an honor to serve as the guest editor for this special issue of Journal of Pediatric Neuroradiology. I would like to thank the editors of the journal for the invitation to take up this interesting project, especially Dr. Yonca Anik for the enormous support during the process.

I express my sincere gratitude to the authors, some of whom are my current colleagues in Qatar. Also, many of them are old colleagues, friends, and radiologists from the United States who made collection of articles possible. Last, but not the least, I would like to thank my good old friend, Dr. Unni Udayasankar, who is currently the director of pediatric neuroradiology at the University of Arizona in United States for instilling the confidence in me to take up this project and serving as a coauthor for many articles.

In this special issue, we have included eight articles that discuss the neuroimaging aspects of pediatric infections in great detail. Initially, we planned to include only pediatric brain and spine infections but later decided to incorporate articles on paranasal sinuses, orbits, and head and neck infections, as the latter comprise an essential part of training and daily work schedule of any neuroradiologist.

The first article of this issue deals with neuroimaging of fetal infections, which is mainly performed using antenatal ultrasound and fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The second article describes in vivid details the imaging manifestations of infections of central nervous system (CNS) in the neonatal period. The third article discusses the imaging features of meningitis and meningoencephalitis in children. Next in line is an article on atypical infections and infection mimics which regroups the atypical pediatric brain infections by age groups and also emphasizes on infection mimics in order to empower the differential diagnosis, improve diagnostic accuracy, and avoid unindicated patient treatment . The next article analyzes the infections affecting the pediatric spine and spinal cord.

The last three articles are dedicated to imaging of head and neck infections in children. Paranasal sinus and orbital infections are dealt within one chapter since many orbital infections arise as complications to the much more common, sinusitis. We conclude this special issue with an image-rich and in-depth article describing the radiology of nontraumatic pediatric head and neck emergencies, followed by one dealing with subacute and chronic infections of these regions.

There is certainly an essential overlap of information described in the various chapters that is unavoidable owing to a possibility of similarity in infectious organisms and disease processes in various age groups from as early as the fetus to as late as the teenage children; complications of CNS and head and neck infections acquired at an earlier age would manifest later. Nevertheless, we have tried our best to ensure that the overlapping information is not redundant, but helps to further clarify the topic through the views of different expert authors.

It was a great pleasure to participate in the creation of this “really special” issue of Journal of Pediatric Neuroradiology. I hope that the readers would find the articles on pediatric CNS, including imaging on brain and spine, and head and neck infections to be both interesting and informative. I believe that with the contributions from the eminent authors, I have successfully achieved the primary goal of providing a single reference source for the neuroimaging of pediatric infections, which would assist the radiologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, head and neck surgeons, and pediatricians to better deal with pediatric infections with an ultimate goal of benefitting the sick children.