Clues for Previously Undiagnosed Connective Tissue Disease in Patients With Trigeminal Neuralgia

Abstract

The concomitant presence of sicca symptoms and high titer ANA are clues for the early investigation of rheumatic diseases in TN patients.

A high prevalence of autoimmune indices and disorders in primary nummular headache

“…Isolated craniofacial pain is a common neurological manifestation in [24] and may even precede with a definite diagnosis for autoimmune disorders [20] as seen in our series. It is proposed due to an involvement of the trigeminosensory nerve and nucleus.…”

“…Autoimmune disorders are currently proposed as provoking primary headache syndromes by an involvement of the trigeminal nucleus or tract through inflammation, demyelination or vasculitic ischemia [15][16][17][18][19][20]. In NH, the painful area is generally located at the parietal area which is innervated by the ophthalmic branch of trigeminal nerve.…”

A Dentist Inquires About His Patient with Systemic Sclerosis

“…The frequency of both Raynaud's phenomenon and positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was significantly increased in patients with TN compared with controls (p = 0.026 and p = 0.04, respectively). 42 In addition, a coarse speckled nuclear immunofluorescent staining pattern was the most common pattern found in TN patients compared with controls (p = 0.013). 42 Therapies for this and other cranial neuropathies may involve minimally invasive neuroablative techniques and the use of membrane stabilizing medications such as gabapentin.…”

“…41 A recent study evaluated patients with idiopathic TN compared with healthy age- and sex-matched controls, to assess for the possibility of early diagnosis of a possible rheumatic disease in these patients. 42 Forty-six consecutive TN patients and 47 controls were evaluated with clinical and laboratory data. The frequency of both Raynaud's phenomenon and positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was significantly increased in patients with TN compared with controls (p = 0.026 and p = 0.04, respectively).…”

Neurologic Complications Associated with Sjögren’s Disease: Case Reports and Modern Pathogenic Dilemma

“…Trigeminal injury is the second more frequently described feature among cranial neuritis in SS patients; in fact, trigeminal neuropathy was observed in 102/267 (38%) cases, isolated or associated with other cranial nerve involvement [7, 12, 14–18, 20–23, 25, 26, 29–33, 37, 39–42, 44, 46, 50, 51, 53, 58–60, 76, 82, 84, 87, 91, 94, 98, 99]. In 13 cases the neuritis was bilateral [12, 14, 31, 44, 60, 94], while in 2 it was combined to dorsal roots ganglionitis [21, 25].…”