Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis in a Toddler: Changing Epidemiological Trends

Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis in a Toddler: Changing Epidemiological Trends

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a devastating "slow virus" brain disease resulting from persistent measles virus infection of neurons. The age at presentation is usually 8 to 11 years with onset usually occurring 2-10 years after measles infection. We report a 2-and-half-year-old boy who presented with progressively increasing myoclonic jerks and subtle cognitive decline. He was d...

Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis in Iran

[Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis].

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disorder occurring in childhood and adolescence and is characterised by dementia, ataxia, myoclonias and other neurological focal signs, with an invariably fatal outcome. The author reviews the subject, focussing on epidemiology, clinical features, measles virus behaviour, host immune reactions, measles prophylaxis an...

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

Introduction Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare disease which predominantly affects children of school age. The clinical features include an insidious afebrile onset with behavioural disturbance and progressive dementia sometimes associated with epilepsy. Later akinetic mutism and myoclonic jerks with pyramidal and extrapyramidal signs appear. Finally there is progressive deco...

[Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis].

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is now considered to be caused by measles virus. There are four diagnostic criteria, namely the clinical picture, a characteristic EEG, serology of serum and CSF and brain histology. A register of cases in the U.K. has been kept since 1971, and up to September 1977, ninety-six patients have been reported. The male/female ratio is 2 : 1. The disease mos...