Basal ganglia involvement in a child with cat-scratch disease

Catch-scratch disease (CSD) is a self-limiting zoonotic illness. Encephalopathy is the most common neurologic manifestation of CSD. Neuroimaging is usually normal with occasional abnormalities reported in children involving the cerebral cortex and thalamus but not previously described in the basal ganglia. Here we report a 7-year-old boy with CSD encephalopathy who developed choreoathetosis with high intensity changes in basal ganglia on magnetic resonance imaging scan.