Clinical analysis of paraneoplastic encephalitis associated with ovarian teratoma.

BACKGROUND: Recently, paraneoplastic encephalitis associated with ovarian teratoma has been described and related to an autoantibody. METHODS: We describe four patients with ovarian teratoma-associated encephalitis (OTE) and compared their clinical pictures with those of 17 previously reported patients with OTE. RESULTS: Clinically, OTE was characterized by the development of acute prominent psychiatric symptoms (20 of 21 patients), seizures (15 of 21 patients), and central hypoventilation (13 of 21 patients). Our patients had hypersalivation (three patients) and cardiac conduction problems (all patients); hypothermia was present in one patient. The mean time from the onset of OTE to tumor diagnosis was 19.6+/-22.1 weeks. Ventilatory support was required for 54.9+/-25.4 days on average. The white blood cell count in cerebrospinal fluid was 55.1+/-61.2/mm3. Twelve patients showed abnormalities on cranial MRI, involving areas such as the temporal regions (seven patients) or brainstem (four patients). In addition to tumor resection, 17 patients received some type of immunotherapy: 17 patients received corticosteroids, 10 received intravenous immunoglobulins, two received cyclophosphamide, seven received plasma exchange. Eighteen patients with OTE had neurological improvement, including 11 with full recovery. CONCLUSIONS: OTE presents with cardiac conduction problems and hypersalivation in addition to psychiatric symptoms, seizures, and central hypoventilation.

Expression of the costimulatory molecule BB-1 and its receptors in patients with scleroderma-polymyositis overlap syndrome.

We investigated expression of costimulatory molecules BB-1, B7-1 (CD80), B7-2 (CD86), and their counter-receptors CD28 and CTLA-4 (CD152) in muscle biopsy specimens of patients with scleroderma-polymyositis overlap syndrome (SSc-PM), primary polymyositis (PM), and other related diseases to examine whether the muscle fibers in patients with SSc-PM behave as antigen-presenting cells (APCs). The major histocompatibility (MHC) class II-positive muscle fibers of SSc-PM patients reacted with monoclonal antibodies (mAb) against BB-1 but not against B7-1 or B7-2. The CD4+ T cells expressed the counter-receptors CD28 and CTLA-4, and bound with the BB-1-positive muscle fibers in cell-to-cell contact. Our findings show that muscle fibers in patients with SSc-PM function as "professional" APCs in a way distinct from muscle fibers in patients with primary PM.