Rationale:
Aseptic meningoencephalitis is a rare central nervous system complication of relapsing polychondritis (RP).
Patient:
We report a 61-year-old Japanese male patient with spiking fever and impaired consciousness. Neurological examination revealed meningealirritation, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination showed lymphocytic pleocytosis with elevated protein (199 mg/dL) and interleukin-6 (3810 pg/mL). Serological analysis showed high levels of anti-type II collagen antibodies, and the result of auricular biopsy was consistent with the diagnosis of RP showing cartilage degeneration surrounded by inflammatory cell infiltrations.
Diagnosis:
A clinical diagnosis of RP was made according to the diagnostic criteria established by MacAdams et al.
Intervention:
Steroid pulse therapy (methylprednisolone 1000 mg, consecutive 3 days) followed by oral prednisolone (60 mg/day) resolved the patient's high fever and disturbance of consciousness.
Outcomes:
The patient rapidly improved after steroid treatments and has a normal quality of life under the maintenance dose of steroid plus methotrexate (4 mg/week).
Lessons:
RP-associated meningoencephalitis is a rare complication with significant morbidity and mortality. It should be considered and differentiated in patients with RP with unexplained spiking fever and impaired consciousness. In addition, the assessment of cerebrospinal fluid interleukin-6 levels may be useful to investigate the disease activity of RP-related meningoencephalitis. Further prospective studies are required to confirm this result.
A 69-year-old woman without a remarkable family history presented with a 5-year history of dizziness and gait difficulty. Neurologic examinations revealed saccadic eye movement and mild limb and truncal ataxia. She had tremor, hyporeflexia, and miosis. Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images showed isolated bilateral paravermal hyperintensities1 (Figure). Skin biopsy demonstrated eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions positive for ubiquitin and p62 in the adipocytes and sweat gland cells. Expanded CGG repeats in NOTCH2NLC2 lead to the diagnosis of neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID). Corticomedullary lesions are sometimes absent in the early stages of NIID and isolated paravermal hyperintensities can be the initial radiologic findings.
BackgroundMcLeod syndrome is a rare X-linked recessive acanthocytosis associated with neurological manifestations including progressive chorea, cognitive impairment, psychiatric disturbances, seizures, and sensorimotor axonal polyneuropathy. However, no studies have investigated the functioning of central sensorimotor tracts in patients with McLeod syndrome.Case presentationA 66-year-old man had experienced slowly progressive chorea and gait disturbance due to lower limb muscle weakness since his early fifties. Blood examinations showed erythrocyte acanthocytosis and the reduction of Kell antigens in red blood cells. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed atrophy of the bilateral caudate nuclei and putamen. The diagnosis of McLeod syndrome was confirmed by the presence of a mutation of the XK gene on the X chromosome. Somatosensory-evoked potential and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies demonstrated that the central sensory and motor conduction times were abnormally prolonged for the lower extremity but normal for the upper extremity.ConclusionsThis is the first report of the involvement of the central sensorimotor tracts for the legs in a patient with McLeod syndrome. The clinical neurophysiological technique revealed the central sensorimotor tracts involvements clinically masked by neuropathy.
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