Isolated peripheral-type facial palsy due to contralateral precentral gyrus cavernoma hemorrhage.

Facial palsy is a condition frequently encountered in neurological daily practice. Typically, telling apart peripheral facial palsy (PFP) from central facial palsy is easy, and depends on the presence of the upper face involvement. However weakness of eye closure can be seen also in cases of central facial palsies, making the diagnosis more difficult. When the facial involvement is isolated, that constitutes a crucial diagnosis challenge because it can be misdiagnosed as Bell's palsy, particularly in young patients. However, subtle clinical findings such as a predominant involvement of the lower face and the presence of a dissociation of emotional and volitional facial movements points towards a central etiology as in our patient. We report here a case of isolated peripheral-type facial palsy due to acute bleeding of supratentorial cavernoma. To our knowledge, such case has not yet been reported.

Four Cases of Parkinson Disease Diagnosed During the Postpartum Period.

BACKGROUND: There is little experience with the effect of pregnancy on Parkinson disease because the number of women with Parkinson disease who are of childbearing age is small. We report four cases beginning during the postpartum period and discuss the potential contribution of different factors that may influence the occurrence of Parkinson disease in this time period. CASES: Four women aged 29-35 years developed arm tremor, shoulder pain, dizziness, or decreased dexterity of the hand in the first few days or months after childbirth. They were initially diagnosed with postpartum depression or psychogenic parkinsonism. Finally, dopamine transporter imaging confirmed the diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson disease. CONCLUSION: Early-onset Parkinson disease may present in postpartum women. In women with atypical motor symptoms in addition to depression, this diagnosis should be considered.

Anti-MuSK myasthenia gravis with prolonged remission.

Myasthenia gravis (MG) with antibodies against muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK) is a rare disorder of neuromuscular transmission affecting preferentially bulbar, neck and respiratory muscles. We report the case of a 22-year-old man who presented with diplopia on lateral gaze to both sides, facial diplegia, nasal dysarthria and dysphagia. Repetitive nerve stimulation of the trapezius and orbicularis oculi muscles showed amplitude decrements of 19% and 41% respectively supporting the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis. MUsK antibodies were positive. Corticosteroids were introduced and then tapered and discontinued at 6 months after initiation. The patient remained in remission and asymptomatic for 4 years without ongoing treatment or prior treatment with rituximab after this first relapse of MuSK-MG. MuSK- MG is considered a hard-to-treat condition and patients generally remain dependent on immunosuppression or prior treatment with rituximab. Our observation highlights that patients with MuSK-MG can have a benign course and that continued immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory therapy may not always be required.

Recurrent diplopia over a 30-year period: natural history of a Lewis and Sumner syndrome.

We described the case of a patient with recurrent episodes of isolated diplopia over the last 30 years. On her last event, neurological examination revealed not only a right third and sixth cranial nerves involvement, but also a right peripheral facial palsy and a motor weakness on the left ulnar territory. Electrophysiological nerves motor conduction study revealed a conduction block on the left ulnar nerve and a less severe on the right ulnar nerve. Asymmetrical upper limb sensorimotor weakness combined with conduction block and cranial nerves palsy led to a diagnosis of Lewis and Sumner syndrome (LSS). This case is unusual by the presentation of the disease and is, to our knowledge the longer natural disease course of LSS reported. Moreover, it suggests that the recurrent diplopia variant may represent a separate entity with a good prognosis even in absence of invasive treatment.