A 22-year-old Australian woman with atypical subacute sclerosing panencephalitis diagnosed at postmortem.
Measles remains a significant global health problem. Despite the decline in measles prevalence in Australia following the implementation of a national vaccination program, challenges surrounding this disease remain. This report describes a 22-year-old woman who presented with coordination loss, tremor, choreiform movements and marked visual blurring, and her condition rapidly deteriorated to coma and death. Antemortem investigations did not yield a unifying diagnosis. Postmortem examination provided a diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. This patient had a rare neurological complication of measles infection, and her condition is remarkable for the atypical clinical presentation.
Fabian
Victoria A
VA
Department of Anatomical Pathology, Section of Neuropathology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia 6001, Australia.
Lee
Hwei-Yee
HY
Keith-Rokosh
Julia Lee
JL
de Souza
Jean-Louis
JL
Stewart-Wynne
Edward
E
D001315:Australia; D001344:Autopsy; D003128:Coma / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008457:Measles / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D013344:Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult