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Pure stimulus‐sensitive truncal myoclonus of propriospinal origin
Author(s) -
SchulzeBonhage A.,
Knott H.,
Ferbert A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.870110116
Subject(s) - myoclonus , stimulus (psychology) , myoclonic jerk , neuroscience , electrophysiology , electromyography , medicine , anatomy , psychology , psychotherapist
The clinical and electrophysiological features of stimulus‐sensitive truncal myoclonus are described in a 49‐year‐old woman. Touching the skin of the back and abdomen would evoke jerks in both ipsilateral and contralateral axial muscles; there was no spontaneous jerking. Multichannel EMG recordings showed bilateral short‐latency muscle bursts at truncal recording sites both rostral and caudal to stimulus sites. The short latencies of muscle bursts in adjacent segments give evidence of a spinal origin of myoclonus; the pattern of recruitment and the velocity of spread suggest the involvement of propriospinal pathways. The presence of intrathecal IgG synthesis and of oligoclonal bands in the CSF point towards an inflammatory process which may underly the unusual type of myoclonus in this patient.