Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

Case Report

A case of pharyngeal-cervical-brachial weakness suggestive of the nosological continuity between acute oropharyngeal palsy

Takahide Nagashima, M.D.1), Masaaki Odaka, M.D., Ph.D.1), Michiaki Koga, M.D., Ph.D.1)2), Nobuhiro Yuki, M.D., Ph.D.1) and Koichi Hirata, M.D., Ph.D.1)

1)Department of Neurology, Dokkyo University School of Medicine
2)Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine

A 68-year-old man without history of antecedent infection experienced nasal voice (day 1), and he developed dysphagia on day 9. Eleven days after the onset, he developed ophthalmoplegia, and on day 13 mild weakness in the neck and the upper limbs. Cerebrospinal fluid examination revealed albuminocytologic dissociation on day 19. Motor nerve conduction velocities and compound muscle action potentials were normal, but terminal latency was slightly prolonged in the median nerve. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that the patient's anti-GT1a IgG antibody fiter was high and that the antibody cross-reacts with GQ1b. We considered that this patient showed acute oropharyngeal palsy at the onset, and then evolved into pharyngeal-cervical-brachial weakness. The presence of this case suggested the nosological continuity between acute oropharyngeal palsy and pharyngeal-cervical-brachial weakness in both clinical and serological aspects.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 42: 523|526, 2002)
key words: acute oropharyngeal palsy, pharyngeal-cervical-brachial weakness, anti-GT1a antibody, anti-GQ1b antibody, oropharyngeal palsy

(Received: 15-Feb-02)