Also called
progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, this
syndrome causes
weakness,
dysphagia, and
aphasia. It may also lead to
dementia and
blindness. It typically affects patients over the age of 40, and generally those with
chronic disease or
immune system disorders such as
lymphoma and
AIDS. Death generally follows within two to six months after the onset of the syndrome, which is caused by a
viral infection that inhibits the brain's ability to produce
myelin.
The syndrome is named for Karl Erik Åström, neurology professor Elliot Mancall, and neuropathologist Edward Peirson Richardson Jr. Together they produced the report Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy: A hitherto unrecognised complication of chronic lympathic leukemia and Hodgkin's disease in 1958 for the Oxford journal Brain.
Sources:
http://kobiljak.msu.edu/cai/pathology/CNS_Infections_F/CNS_1h.html
http://chorus.rad.mcw.edu/doc/01081.html
http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/1786.html
more eponymous syndromes