[Role of the virologic laboratory in the diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Report of 12 cases studied between May, 1977 and March, 1978].

Measles h.i.a. and c.f.a. were titrated in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of 12 SSPE patients. Specific IgM h.i.a. in the same specimens were also determined. Pretreatment of the sera by monkey red blood cell absorption, by kaolin or by heparin MnCl2, did not significantly affect h.i.a. titres, but h.i.a. were no more demonstrable in cerebrospinal fluids after kaolin and titres were somewhat lowered by heparin-MnCl2 treatment. By both h.i. and c.f. tests measles antibody were found at much higher titres in sera of SSPE patients than in controls of the same age. H.i.a. and, with one exception, c.f.a. were found in each of the 9 available cerebrospinal fluids from patients, but in none of the 6 specimens from non-SSPE cases. Ratio GM titers h.i.a. over GM titers c.f.a. in sera of SSPE patients was about 1, a value far from that found under different immunization conditions. In control sera, for instance, the ratio was 5.3. Specific IgM were never found in the cerebrospinal fluids and in only 2 out of the 10 sera examined.