PATIENT WITH BOTH LUPUS ANTICOAGULANT AND ACUTE DISSEMINATED ENCEPHALOMYELITIS

We present the unusual case of 16-year-old girl who developed intracta ble convulsions five days after the onset of a cold. Meningeal signs, lymphopenia, proteinuria, and lupus anticoagulant were also present. T reatment with anticonvulsants, antituberculous agents, and adenine ara binoside were ineffective. The initiation of methylprednisolone pulse therapy immediately resolved convulsions and fever, The diagnosis, sug gested by the clinical course and the marked improvement of the mening oencephalitis by pulse therapy, was an encephalitic form of acute diss eminated encephalomyelitis. Clinical and laboratory findings indicated that an immune disorder may have triggered an abnormal response to a viral infection leading to this patient's neurologic disorder.