Ophthalmoscopic findings in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis

Abstract

(1) Twenty children with SSPE were reviewed with respect to ophthalmoscopic findings, and 75 per cent. of them were found to have some abnormality. (2) The changes thought to be most typical but not necessarily pathognomonic were granularity, oedema, scarring of the macula with pigment splinters at the edge of the lesion, contraction of the internal limiting membrane, and dragging of the retinal blood vessels towards the scar. (3) The lesion is best described as a retinitis or, when the choriocapillaris is involved, as a retinochoroiditis. (4) Because ophthalmological features may present before marked neurological signs are present, SSPE must be considered in the differential diagnosis of children with retinitis, oedema of the optic disc, optic atrophy, or more complex disorders of visuomotor function.