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Seishin Shinkeigaku Zasshi. 2003;105(10):1239-46. [An adult case suspected of recurrent measles encephalitis with psychiatric symptoms]. [Article in Japanese] Hiroshi H1, Seiji K, Toshihiro K, Nobuo K. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Osaka City University Medical School.

An adult case of suspected recurrent measles encephalitis with psychiatric symptoms is reported.

A 46-year-old woman developed measles encephalitis presenting as schizophreniform disorder and recovered three months after onset. However, approximately two years later, she suffered a relapse of encephalitis presenting with psychiatric symptoms (auditory hallucination, cenesthopathy, insomnia, depressive mood) and became comatose.

Following ten days of symptomatic treatment, her clinical symptoms gradually improved. Three months later, she made a remarkable recovery without neurological sequelae. Since then, she has maintained good condition for six years.

The diagnosis of suspected recurrent measles encephalitis was made on the basis of the change of anti-measles IgM antibody titers. Acute relapse of disseminated encephalomyelitis (ARDEM) and multiple sclerosis (MS) were ruled out due to no abnormal finding of cerebral white matter on MRI.

Six years after the recurrent episode, the titers of anti-measles IgM antibodies (EIA) in the serum were still high, suggesting that she was suffering from a chronic measles virus infection. This patient should be followed up for a longer time because there is a possibility that she might be in the latent period of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE).

PMID: 14679780