The kappa-lambda light chain ratios, the presence of free light chains and the double ring formation, with antikappa and antilambda serum, in single radial immunodiffusion were investigated in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Cerebrospinal fluid samples of several multiple sclerosis cases were considered simultaneously. The results obtained sug...

Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukyoka, Fukuoka, Japan; Division of Neurology, Kanagawa Children's Hospital, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan; Division of Neurology, Shizuoka Prefectural Children's Hospital, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan; Division of Neurology, National Children's Hospital, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan; 5 Department of Pediatrics, All Children'...

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a progressive, frequently fatal slow virus infection of the brain attacking children and young adults and caused by measles virus. Computed tomography (CT) of the brain in 15 patients with this disease was normal in seven and abnormal in eight. CT demonstrated varying degrees of cortical atrophy associated with focal and multifocal low density lesions of t...

A healthy 13-year-old boy who had spent the first 4.5 years of his life in an orphanage in Thailand before adoption by an American couple became ill with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and died several months later. The boy had most likely contracted wild-type measles in Thailand. Measles complications are a risk in international adoptions.

A 7-year-old boy presented with deteriorating vision and macular degenerative changes. A month later he had developed unusual behaviour and increasing forgetfulness. An electroencephalogram showing periodic complexes, and high measles complement-fixation titres in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood, confirmed the diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Four months after the onset of vi...