[Computerized analysis of the database of SSPE patients treated at the 1st Neurological Clinic of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw in 1978-1995].

Computer-assisted analysis was done of database containing 1180 records of 249 patients with SSPE hospitalized repeatedly at the I Dept. of Neurology using the EPI INFO 6 computer system recommended by the WHO. Boys were slightly prevalent in these cases (58%). The results of the analysis showed a falling incidence of SSPE among children born after 1976 (increased mean age of onset and death with successive years and hospitalization period, but without correlation between the mean age at onset and the birth year, decreased number of patients born after 1978 and absence of new admissions of those born after 1984). The falling incidence of SSPE can be a result of the introduction in 1976 of routine measles vaccination. 80.5% of the patients had measles, and 70.5% had it in the first two years of life (mean age to onset 2.34 +/- 2.32). Only 29 patients (11.6%) had had measles vaccination, and 15 of them (6%) had had measles.