Abstract
A 3-month-old girl who developed severe measles encephalitis after neonatal measles
is reported. Her mother had measles when she was ten days old and she was admitted
to our hospital with low grade fever, Koplik spot, and mild exanthema seventeen days
after birth, and she recovered in 7 days without any complication. At three months
of age, she was readmitted because of intractable seizures. The levels of IgM and
IgG antibodies against measles in the cerebrospinal fluid were elevated. The measles
virus genome, amplifying the region encoding the nucleocapsid protein, was detected
from the brain specimen by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Magnetic
resonance imaging showed a focal destructive lesion and diffuse cerebral atrophy.
The electroencephalogram did not show periodic synchronous discharges. Although the
neonatal measles was believed to be relatively mild in severity, the possible development
of measles encephalitis should be carefully monitored in an infant who had neonatal
measles.
Key words
Neonatal Measles - Encephalitis - MRI - PCR
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M. D., Ph. D. Toyojiro Matsuishi
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine
67 Asahi-machi
Kurume 830 - 0011
Japan
eMail: tmatsu@med.kurume_u.ac.jp
