[Selective problems from catamnestic studies of SSPE patients (1980-1989)]

The analysis of disease courses and survival times of 132 cases of SSPE treated by various methods in the I Department of Neurology, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, in years 1980-1989 is reported. Follow-up data were obtained during control examinations of patients or from an inquiry answered by parents or doctors at the place of residence of the patients. In the treatment all patients were given immunomodulating drugs. About 25% of the patients were treated with isoprinosine, in the remaining groups other drugs active on the immune system were added: TFX, alpha interferon (intraventricularly through a Rickham chamber), beta interferon (through lumbar tap) or Propionibacterium granulosum strain K 14 vaccine as an inductor of endogenous interferon. The reference group comprised 22 patients who had not been systematically treated for various reasons. The statistical analysis of the clinical courses showed that early begun immunomodulatory treatment increases the number of cases with remissions in the group of patients with the subacute form of the disease. In primarily acute cases no effect of the treatment was noted. The best results were obtained using Propionibacterium granulosum vaccine and treating with interferons. The survival times were shortest in the group not treated systematically.