Tipu Sultan, Ahsan Waheed Rathore, Malik Muhammad Nazir Khan.
Does electroencephlography help in early diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis?.
Pak Paed J Jan ;34(2):85-9.

Objective: To find out the role of electroencephlography in the early diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Design: Cross sectional observational study. Place & duration of study: Department of Neurology Children’s Hospital, Lahore from April 15, 2004 to September 15, 2005. Subjects & Methods: Children between the ages of 4 to 18 years (n=29) with myoclonic jerks were admitted in the Neurology department. History and clinical examination was carried out and EEG and CSF antimeasles antibodies were performed. Children may have EEG findings consistent with SSPE (EEG abnormalities having burst suppression in high amplitude slow and sharp waves recur at 3-5 second interval on slow background) or other EEG findings like myoclonic epilepsy with normal background, normal EEG etc. CSF of the children was sent for antimeasles antibodies for further confirmation which was considered diagnostic. Brain imaging was done in the children to exclude other possible diagnosis. Results: 19 patients with EEG findings of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis were further confirmed with CSF anti-measles antibodies. It was positive in 17 children (P value < 0.05). Ten children had negative EEG findings and all of them had negative results for CSF antimeasles antibodies. Male to female ratio was 1.4:1 with 11 males and 6 females. Age range was six to fifteen years. Conclusion: Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is not an uncommon entity in our population with quite variable clinical presentation and electroencephlography has significant value in early, cost effective and reliable diagnosis.

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