Abstract
Introduction Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease occurring as a complication of measles infection that is still prevalent in low-resource countries. Clinical and electrographical variability in SSPE can lead to diagnostic delays. Methods Children diagnosed with SSPE in a tertiary care pediatric hospital in India in a period of 8 years were included in the study. The diagnosis was established on the basis of Dyken's criteria. The demographic data, clinical presentations, investigations, treatment approaches, and outcomes were reviewed and recorded. Results Thirty-four patients were included in the analysis. Average age at symptom onset was 7 years, 5 months. Majority of the children were not vaccinated for measles. Most patients (80%) presented with stage 2 of illness. Nearly 25% presented with atypical clinical features. Myoclonus was the most predominant feature seen after diagnosis. Electroencephalography (EEG) was the most useful investigation for suspecting the diagnosis. All patients showed deterioration in neurological status with time and 20% died during follow-up. Conclusion Atypical presentations of SSPE must be recognized in areas with high incidence to institute timely treatment and establish prognosis. EEG findings were found to be the most important indicator for diagnosis. Measles eradication will pave the way for elimination of this dreaded disease.
Copyright
Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Derivative-Non Commercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit.
Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License, which permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original work is properly cited.
