Abstract
This report described a 5-year-old Japanese boy with acute form of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). The initial symptom of the disease was right hemiplegia. Disturbance of consciousness appeared 7 days later, and the patient became comatose 14 days later.
At this stage, cerebral vascular accident or acute encephalitis was suspected, but the diagnosis of SSPE was made based on a high titer of measles antibody in the spinal fluid and suppression burst pattern of EEG. The diagnosis was confirmed by the typical histopathological changes of SSPE at autospy.
The patient showed a mild dysfunction of cellular immunity associated with thymus hypoplasia.
The initial lesion seemed to be dominant at frontal area by the repeated CT scan and EEG observation.
SSPE should be considered in differentiating the diagnosis of disease initiated with hemiplegia and rapidly fall in coma.
