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...

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...

We describe a case of an adult born in the United States who had subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). We discuss the possibility that the patient contracted subclinical measles during the 1989-1991 measles epidemic in the United States.

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...

Lymphocyte subsets in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood were studied using monoclonal antibodies, in patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, eight of whom were at stage 2 and seven at stage 4. Eighteen subjects affected with non immunological diseases constituted the controls. Regardless of the stage, patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis had lower percentage...