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1: N Engl J Med. 2005 Jul 28;353(4):375-81. Epub 2005 Jun 9.Click here to read Links
Comment in:
N Engl J Med. 2005 Jul 28;353(4):414-6.
N Engl J Med. 2005 Jul 28;353(4):417.

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in a patient treated with natalizumab.

Langer-Gould A, Atlas SW, Green AJ, Bollen AW, Pelletier D.

Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif, USA. annette1@stanford.edu

We describe the clinical course of a patient with multiple sclerosis in whom progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), an opportunistic viral infection of the central nervous system, developed during treatment with interferon beta-1a and a selective adhesion-molecule blocker, natalizumab. The first PML lesion apparent on magnetic resonance imaging was indistinguishable from a multiple sclerosis lesion. Despite treatment with corticosteroids, cidofovir, and intravenous immune globulin, PML progressed rapidly, rendering the patient quadriparetic, globally aphasic, and minimally responsive. Three months after natalizumab therapy was discontinued, changes consistent with an immune-reconstitution inflammatory syndrome developed. The patient was treated with systemic cytarabine, and two months later, his condition had improved. Copyright 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society.

PMID: 15947078 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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