Meige's syndrome: History, epidemiology, clinical features, pathogenesis and treatment.

'Meige's syndrome' is a type of cranial dystonia characterized by blepharospasm and oromandibular dystonia and can be associated with complex movement of lower facial muscles, mouth, jaw, tongue, pharyngeal and cervical muscles. Frequently, blepharospasm is the earliest clinical manifestation, which spreads over a period of time to involve other cranial and extra-cranial muscles. Common characteristics of this syndrome are well known, but their variety is wide. Different eponyms such as "Breughel syndrome", "Wood syndrome", "Blepharospasm plus", "Segmental cranial dystonia" and "Segmental cranio-cervical dystonia" have been used to describe this entity with numerous anatomical variations. In the majority of the patients Meige's syndrome is primary or idiopathic, where the cause of spasm is not known, however secondary cases can occur following prolonged use of neuroleptics or secondary to underlying brain disorders. This syndrome has also been described in patients with essential tremor, Parkinson's disease and atypical Parkinsonism. Neurophysiological features are similar to other focal dystonia characterized by abnormal plasticity and impaired inhibition. Most of the patients are successfully treated with injection of botulinum toxin, however deep brain stimulation has emerged as a good therapeutic option in intractable patients. The objective of this review is to understand whether patients who develop Meige's syndrome are different from patients who manifest blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia alone.

Age at onset as a factor in determining the phenotype of primary torsion dystonia.

BACKGROUND: The genetic basis of most forms of primary torsion dystonia (PTD) is unknown; multiplex families are uncommon due to low penetrance. Intrafamilial, age-related, phenotypic heterogeneity was noted in 14 PTD families. The authors hypothesized that the clinical presentation of PTD was modulated by the age at onset of the dystonia, irrespective of the genotype. METHODS: This hypothesis was addressed in a study of 14 PTD families and a meta-analysis of 83 published series of PTD. RESULTS: In 12 families with adult-onset PTD, the index cases presented with cervical dystonia (CD); of the 22 affected relatives, 17 had CD, 2 had writer's cramp, 1 had blepharospasm, and 2 had spasmodic dysphonia. In the two other PTD families, the probands and all 10 symptomatic relatives had limb-onset dystonia at <20 years of age. There were differences between the median ages at onset of the different phenotypes (p = 0.0037). Analysis of 83 published series including 5,057 patients indicated significant differences in the mean age at onset of five phenotypes of PTD (mean age at onset; 95% CI): DYT1 dystonia (11.3 years; 10.3 to 12.2), writer's cramp (38.4; 36.9 to 39.9), CD (40.8; 40.3 to 41.3), spasmodic dysphonia (43.0; 42.2 to 43.9), and blepharospasm-oromandibular dystonia (55.7; 55.1 to 56.4). CONCLUSION: Phenotypic variation in PTD presentation is due to the effect of age at onset modulating the expression of a genetic disorder with a caudal-to-rostral change in the site of onset.

Development of Parkinson's disease in patients with blepharospasm.

The liability to develop parkinsonian symptoms was evaluated in 105 outpatients with idiopathic blepharospasm (IBS; 54 cases) or IBS associated to oromandibular dystonia (Meige's syndrome; 51 cases) mean age 70.3 +/- 9.6 years, and compared with an age- and sex-matched population. Eleven patients developed Parkinson's disease in the blepharospasm group, whereas only 2 of 105 patients were affected in the control group. Our results suggest that patients with IBS either isolated or associated with oromandibular dystonia are more prone to develop parkinsonian symptoms.

Case-control study of Meige's syndrome. Result of a pilot study.

A pilot case-control study was conducted to identify possible risk factors for Meige's syndrome. Patients with Meige's syndrome and age- and sex-matched controls suffering from other neurological diseases were recruited from the Movement Disorders Clinic and Neurology Outpatient Department of the All India Insititute of Medical Sciences. All participants were interviewed and information regarding psychiatric and medical illnesses, use of medications, exposure to fumes, dust and pets, characteristics such as marital status, socio-economic status, alcohol, tea/coffee use, tobacco use, betel nut chewing and family history of neurodegenerative diseases among first-degree relatives was ascertained. We found that betel nut with tobacco chewing was a significant predictor for Meige's syndrome (adjusted odds ratio 7.4, 95% confidence interval = 1.0-59. 82). The role of local irritation or the effect of some chemicals in tobacco and betel nuts needs further evaluation of the pathogenesis of Meige's syndrome.

Clinical and demographic features of Meige's syndrome.

Fifty five patients with Meige's syndrome were examined for clinical and demographic features. The mean age of onset was 52.3 years. The peak age of onset was in the sixth decade with a male to female ratio of 1.11:1. The mean duration of illness was 3.7 years. Commonest initial symptom was increased blinking, seen in 30 cases (54.5%). Twenty five patients (45.4%) had complete syndrome of blepharospasm with oromandibular dystonia, whereas 24 patients (43.6%) had blepharospasm alone and the rest (6 patients, 10.9%) had oromandibular dystonia. The extension of spasm beyond cranial muscles was observed in 10 patients (18.1%). Eleven patients had family history of dystonia or other extrapyramidal disorders. Incidence of depression was high in these cases.

Prevalence of focal dystonias in the western area of Tottori Prefecture in Japan.

We evaluated the prevalence of focal dystonias in the western area of Tottori Prefecture in Japan. The population of the area was 244,935 on October 1, 1992. Because four patients with blepharospasm and three patients with writer's cramp did not visit any hospitals or clinics in 1993 and did not reply to our question letter, we could not confirm their present condition: with or without focal dystonia in 1993. Four patients with facial dystonia including blepharospasm and oromandibular dystonia, seven with spasmodic torticollis, and four with writer's cramp were observed. The prevalence of focal dystonias was 6.12 per 100,000 persons, which may be lower than that in western countries. Although the reasons for this difference are still unclear, a genetic factor may be one implication.