The continuous decrease in the number of SSPE annual cases ten years after compulsory anti-measles immunization.

The record of SSPE cases diagnosed immunochemically and serologically in our laboratory, standing for about 60% of the total new cases reported in our country, shows a significant decrease in the incidence in 1988-89 (from 5.21 new cases per year per million total population in 1987 to 1.82 cases in 1988).

Polyneuropathy with lipid deposits in Schwann cells and axonal degeneration in cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis.

The present paper is a histological, histochemical and electron microscopic study of biopsied specimens from both right and left Achilles tendon, sural nerve and gastrocnemius muscle in a case of peripheral neuropathy with decreased sensory conduction velocity within a cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis confirmed biochemically in a 29-year-old woman. The tendon specimens contained large deposits of complex, non-homogeneous lipids, distributed intra- and extracellularly. The right sural nerve specimen showed a very severe neuropathy with massive diffuse myelinated fiber loss, presence of foamy macrophages and lipid droplets in Schwann cells.

SSPE: epidemiological and serological features in a series of cases recorded between 1975 and 1984.

A number of 632 new cases of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) could be detected during a 10-year survey. The continuous increase in the number of annual cases suggests a possible correlation with the changes induced in measles epidemiology by the initiation of compulsory vaccination. On the other hand, a comparison of epidemiological and serological characteristics revealed significant differences between the series of SSPE cases recorded in the period preceding and in that following measles vaccination.