Liquefactive necrosis in Coxsackie B encephalitis.

Coxsackieviruses may cause serious illness in infants and children, specifically myocarditis and meningoencephalitis. Central nervous system lesions have been characterized as inflammatory in nature with mononuclear cell infiltration, neuronophagia, and glial nodule formation largely confined to the brain stem and spinal cord. We present two infants with documented Coxsackie B virus infection who also had widespread multifocal areas of liquefaction necrosis unassociated with inflammation. Such areas of bland necrosis, especially in the cerebrum, are unusual in Coxsackie B virus infection, and may provide the morphological substratum of permanent neurologic impairment in children who survive.