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| The Peak District in September |
To date, the majority of reported CLIPPERS cases have been from the United States, Europe and Australia. As awareness of the condition spreads, cases are being reported from other parts of the world. Recently the first Brazillian case report has been published where a 49 year-old first presented with CLIPPERS-like symptoms in 2001; of course CLIPPERS wasn't first published in a scientific journal until 2010.
Interestingly, straight away this patient received pulse-steroid treatment which is now fairly standard when CLIPPERS is suspected; his symptoms improved. Unfortunately, Multiple Sclerosis was suspected and so other drug treatments which were not effective were subsequently used. In 2014, after significant deterioration, treatment for CLIPPERS was begun (Prednisolone and Azathioprine). There was then marked improvement of the lesion appearance in MRI but much less clinical (i.e. patient) improvement.
Although this is only a single case, it adds to the evidence that early diagnosis and treatment is important in CLIPPERS, as there may be progressive damage over time which cannot be completely reversed if treatment is delayed. I began steroid treatment 3 months after I had my first symptoms which I think was quite fast. In my case my first symptom was diplopia and I was lucky to be spotted by someone in an eye clinic (once I'd been back a couple of times) who was worried about my worsening symptoms and referred me quickly to a neuro-opthalmology clinic. From there, I was lucky to be seen by a neurologist who was also sufficiently worried - especially when I failed all the balance tests - to get me admitted quickly to a neurology ward for in-patient investigation. It still took a month in hospital (in 2011) before they realised CLIPPERS was the likely culprit and began treatment. I think given that CLIPPERS was not widely recognised in 2011, this was still very fast and I am profoundly grateful to the people who pushed me rapidly through the healthcare system.
Read other articles in this series at Living With CLIPPERS.
Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
