Opsoclonus-mioclonus-ataxia en el contexto de infección aguda por Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome: clinical characteristics, therapeutic considerations, and prognostic factors in a Spanish paediatric cohort

INTRODUCTION

Opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome is a rare neuroinflammatory disorder with onset during childhood; aetiology may be paraneoplastic, para-infectious, or idiopathic. No biomarkers have yet been identified, and diagnosis is clinical. Better cognitive prognosis appears to be related to early onset of immunomodulatory therapy.

METHODS

We describe the epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic, and long-term prognostic characteristics of a cohort of 20 Spanish patients.

RESULTS

The mean age of onset was 21 months (range, 2-59). Ataxia and opsoclonus were the most frequent symptoms both at disease onset and throughout disease progression. The mean time from onset to diagnosis was 1.1 months. Neuroblast lineage tumours were detected in 45% of patients; these were treated with surgical resection in 7 cases and chemotherapy in 2. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealed pleocytosis in 4 cases (25%) and neither antineuronal antibodies nor oligoclonal bands were detected in any patient. Immunomodulatory drugs were used in all cases. Nine patients started combined immunomodulatory treatment at the time of diagnosis, and 5 patients after a mean of 2.2 months. In the long term, 6 of the 10 patients followed up for more than 5 years presented mild or moderate cognitive sequelae. Four patients presented relapses, generally coinciding with the decrease of corticosteroid doses.

CONCLUSIONS

Early initiation of immunotherapy, as well as triple combination therapy, where needed, was associated with a lower frequency of cognitive impairment 2 years after onset.

Movement disorders of probable infectious origin

Background:

Movement disorders (MDs) associated with infections remains an important debilitating disorder in the Asian countries.

Objectives:

The objective of the following study is to report the clinical and imaging profile of a large cohort of patients with MDs probably associated with infection.

Materials and Methods:

This was a chart review of 35 patients (F:M-15:20) presenting with MD in the Neurology services of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, India. The demographic profile, type of infection, time from infection to MD, phenomenology of MD and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings were reviewed.

Results:

The mean age at presentation was 22.6 ± 13.3 years, (5-60), age of onset of MD was 15.7 ± 15 years, and duration of symptoms was 6.9 ± 8.1 years (42 days to 32 years). The mean latency of onset of MD after the infection was 5.9 ± 4.2 weeks. The phenomenology of MD were: (1) Pure dystonia-28.6%, (2) dystonia with choreoathetosis-22.9%, (3) Parkinsonism-14.6%, (4) pure tremor, hemiballismus, myoclonus and chorea-2.9% each, and (5) mixed MD-22.9%. Most often the MD was generalized (60%), followed by right upper limb (31.4%) and left upper limb (8.6%). A viral encephalitic type of neuroinfection was the most common infection (85.7%), which was associated with MD. Abnormalities of brain MRI, seen in 79.2%, included signal changes in (1) thalamus-52.0%, (2) putamen and subcortical white matter-16% each, (3) pons-12%, (4) striatopallidum, striatum and grey matter-8% each, and (5) caudate, cerebellum, lentiform nucleus, midbrain and subthalamic nucleus-4.0% each.

Conclusions:

MDs associated with infection were the most often post-encephalitic. Dystonia was the most common MD, and thalamus was the most common anatomical site involved.