INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Once SSPE develops, it moves through progressive stages, starting with mood swings, personality changes, depression, lethargy, and possibly
This first stage can last up to six months
Then stage two involves jerking movement, spasms, loss of vision, dementia, and seizures
The third stage sees the jerking turn to writhing and rigidity
Then comes coma and death
About 95 percent of SSPE cases are fatal.In the boy's case, his parents don't know when he was infected with measles
When doctors saw him, his parents recalled that in the prior six months, he had started having jerky movements, falls, and progressive
Before that, he had been healthy at birth and had been hitting all of his developmental milestones.In some ways, his decline was an
unmistakable case of SSPE
Imaging showed lesions in his brain
He had elevated anti-measles antibodies in his cerebrospinal fluid
An electroencephalography (EEG) showed brain waves consistent with SSPE
Then, of course, there were the jerking motions and the cognitive decline.What stood out, though, was his rolling and swirling eyes
Some patients develop complete vision loss
But, in the boy's case, he developed rapid, repetitive, erratic, multidirectional eye movements, a condition called opsoclonus
Doctors often see it in brain cancer patients, but brain inflammation from some infections can also cause the movements
Experts hypothesize that the root cause is a loss of specialized neurons involved in coordinated movement, namely Purkinje cells and
omnipause cells.The boy's neurologists believe this is the first time opsoclonus associated with SSPE has been caught on video
They treated the boy with an antiviral drug and drugs to reduce convulsions, but his condition continued to worsen.
