This blog is about a recently characterised brain disorder called CLIPPERS which produces a characteristic pattern of lesions (spots) in the brain. These lesions interfere with normal functioning in many tasks related to coordination, balance and (double) vision amongst others. I am a 44 year-old unremarkably healthy male who was diagnosed with CLIPPERS in September 2011. CLIPPERS is controversial because it's diagnosis is circumstantial at the moment and so there isn't any straight-forward test which identifies it. This also means that a diagnosis of CLIPPERS can be changed if the observations no-longer fit the pattern. It it is quite possible that in a few years it will be considered a special case of another disorder or there will be turn out to be several different kinds of CLIPPERS with their own patterns of progression or response to treatment.
In this blog I will provide my own non-technical understanding of all things CLIPPERS including my on-going experience of diagnosis and treatment and current research from around the world. I will also provide the patient perspective on some of the controversies in CLIPPERS. I'm partly doing this for purely selfish, cathartic reasons (and to stop me boring my wife to death with this stuff). I also hope it may be useful for others who receive a CLIPPERS diagnosis and wonder "What the hell is that?". Perhaps those encountering CLIPPERS in the neurology community will also find something of value.
Many thanks for reading and look out for the next update soon.
Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
