Acute transient pseudoatrophy of the brain accompanying measles infection

Two infants, age 1 year, with acute encephalopathy who showed transient pse udoatrophy of the brain were reported. They each had measles infection, fol lowed by 'mild drowsiness'. Reversible brain atrophy has been observed in p atients with undernutrition, dehydration, and overdoses of steroids and val proic acid. However, these manifestations were very mild and there was no h istory of drug administration in our patients. The cause of the transient b rain psudoatrophy was unknown. However, activation of glial cells accompany ing the measles infection was thought to be one possibility to see high val ue of neopterin (51 pmol/l) in the cerebrospinal fluid in one case. Althoug h 'mild drowsiness' is not a rare manifestation in patients with measles in fection, it is probable that their 'mild drowsiness' is caused by acute enc ephalopathy like in our cases. Thus, we recommend that computed tomography scanning or magnetic resonance imaging is performed in patients showing 'mi ld drowsiness' during measles infection. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.