Parsonage-Turner Syndrome in the Pediatric Population: A Case Report

Authors

  • Cyrus Safinia Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
  • Marko Jakovljevic Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • Alexandra Lesenskyj DeArias Department of Pediatrics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. /Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
  • Nigel Bamford Department of Pediatrics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. /Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. /Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA /Department of Neurology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
  • Jason Johnson Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3941/jrcr.5905

Abstract

Parsonage-Turner syndrome, a condition rarely seen in the pediatric population, is the focus of our case report. We present the unique case of a 4-year-old boy who developed a painful right brachial plexopathy following a febrile illness. The pain was exacerbated by touch or pressure and subsided when the shoulder was left undisturbed. On examination, he exhibited significant weakness in the right shoulder, with less pronounced weakness in the right hand. Brain and cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were unremarkable, but a MRI of the right brachial plexus revealed nerve root thickening and signal changes in the adjacent muscles, consistent with brachial neuritis. The patient began oral steroids and was referred to outpatient neurology for follow-up. Over several weeks his pain improved, though weakness persisted. 

4-year-old boy with Parsonage-Turner Syndrome ? Coronal STIR image of the shoulder girdle demonstrates diffuse hyperintensity within the right supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles (asterisks), compatible with acute denervation edema ? 3 T MRI, coronal T2 STIR, TR 4917 ms, TE 202 ms, 3-mm slices, no contrast.

Downloads

Published

2025-10-31

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 10 (2025)

Section

Neuroradiology

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Radiology Case Reports

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The publisher holds the copyright to the published articles and contents. However, the articles in this journal are open-access articles distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License, which permits reproduction and distribution, provided the original work is properly cited. The publisher and author have the right to use the text, images and other multimedia contents from the submitted work for further usage in affiliated programs. Commercial use and derivative works are not permitted, unless explicitly allowed by the publisher.