Acquired neuromyotonia and peripheral neuropathy in a patient with Hodgkin's disease

✍ Scribed by Heinz Lahrmann; Gerhard Albrecht; Markus Drlicek; Stefan Oberndorfer; Sabine Urbanits; Julia Wanschitz; Udo A. Zifko; Wolfgang Grisold

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 220 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-639X
• DOI: 10.1002/mus.1078

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Acquired neuromyotonia is characterized by hyperexcitability of motor nerves resulting in continuous muscle fiber activity. It occurs most often as a paraneoplastic syndrome in patients with cancers of the immune system. Antibodies against voltage‐gated potassium channels (VGKCs) have been detected in some patients. Peripheral neuropathy is sometimes present. We report on a patient with Hodgkin's lymphoma in complete remission who developed paresthesias followed by neuromyotonia with bulbar involvement. Peripheral sensorimotor neuropathy was diagnosed electrophysiologically and evidence of axonal degeneration and demyelination was detected by sural nerve biopsy. The patient's complaints, including dysarthria, improved after carbamazepine treatment. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 24: 834–838, 2001