Pediatric inflammatory demyelinating disorders and mimickers: How to differentiate with MRI?

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, immune-mediated, neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system (CNS).While the clinical symptoms of MS most commonly manifest between 20 and 40 years of age, approximately 3 to 10% of all MS patients report that their first inaugural events can occur earlier in life, even in childhood, and thus include the pediatric population. The prevalence of MS onset in childhood/adolescence varies between 2.0% and 4.0% of all MS cases according to several extensive studies. The main imaging patterns of pediatric inflammatory demyelinating disorders and mimicking entities, including multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, MOG (myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein) antibody-related disorders and differential diagnoses will be addressed in this article, highlighting key points to the differential diagnosis.