A case of fully recovered non-herpetic subacute encephalitis along with aphasia

We report the case of a 39-year-old female with non-herpetic subacute encephalitis. Aphasia occured after a slight fever, and severe epilepsy followed 3 months later. Wernicke's aphasia was noted at the recovery stage, but the patient showed almost complete recovery. Head MRI revealed a lesion from the left parietal to the left posterior temporal lobe. Improvement in the left hemisphere noted on the encephalograms was consistent with that of aphasia. While amnesia was not found, aphasia, ideomotor apraxia and limb-kinetic apraxia were noted. There was no involvement of herpes simplex types 1 and 2 the tubercle bacillus was found, and the disease virus was not detected either. In several respects, it was similar to non-herpetic acute limbic encephalitis (NHALE) and acute juvenile female non-herpetic encephalitis (AJFNHE) the latter develops particularly in young females as stated by Kamei. The characterisitic of the present case differs from NHALE and AJFNHE and is unique in that the lesion was detected in the unilateral cortex.