A Case of Mollaret Meningitis

ABSTRACT

Mollaret meningitis is a recurrent aseptic meningitis with characteristic clinical features and Mollaret cells in cerebrospinal fluid. Since Mollaret first reported Mollaret meningitis in 1944, further reports had been made mainly in Europe. The syndrome consists of brief attacks of meningitis that recur at regular intervals and alternate with a symptom-free period lasting for weeks or months. The symptoms subside as quickly as they develop, and the patient is completely asymptomatic until the next episode, without any residual neurologic abnormalities. Specific changes in the cytologic pattern of the cerebrospinal fluid occur over the course of an attack. In the early stages, polymorphonuclear leukocytes and endothelial cells appear in the cerebrospinal fluid, called Mollaret cell. We experienced a case of Mollaret meningitis in a 15-year-old female child who had 5 episodes of recurrent aseptic meningitis, always accompanied by vesicles on the face and anterior neck. We observed Mollaret cells which had faint, finely vacuolated cytoplasm, eccentrically located nuclei show on Papanicolau stain. We present a case of Mollaret meningitis with a brief review of related literatures.