Mumps Meningoencephalitis with Low Cerebrospinal-Fluid Glucose, Prolonged Pleocytosis and Elevation of Protein

Four patients with mumps meningoencephalitis had prolonged lowering of the cerebrospinal-fluid glucose. Retrospective study of 45 other cases of mumps meningoencephalitis revealed 10 additional patients with at least one glucose value of less than 40 mg per 100 ml. Pleocytosis persisted for as long as five weeks; increases in pleocytosis and in protein content of the cerebrospinal fluid during the hospital course were frequently recorded. A consideration of known mechanisms that might be responsible for hypoglycorrhachia in mumps meningoencephalitis fails to account satisfactorily for the phenomenon.