Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society
-
Letter Case Reports
Botulinum toxin treatment is not effective for epilepsy partialis continua.
-
The syndrome of painful legs and moving toes consists of continuous or semicontinuous involuntary writhing movements of the toes associated with pain in the affected extremity. We report a 57-year-old man with a 33-year history of painless and semicontinuous involuntary movements of the toes of the left foot similar to those seen in painful legs and moving toes. There was no family history of movement disorder. ⋯ It is unlikely that the involuntary movements were precipitated by neuroleptics or psychosis. CT scan of the head; EEG, CT, and MRI scans of the lumbosacral spine; and EMG and nerve conduction studies of the legs showed no significant abnormalities except for a predominant cocontraction of the left foot flexors and extensors at 0.6-1.2 Hz in a pattern sometimes seen in painful legs and moving toes. We conclude that there is a condition clinically and electrophysiologically similar to painful legs and moving toes that we call painless legs and moving toes, the etiology of which remains undetermined.
-
We investigated autonomic function in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) by measuring sympathetic skin response (SSR) and R-R interval variation (RRIV). Sixty-two PD patients and 62 age-matched normal subjects were recruited. Abnormal SSR was noted in nine (14.5%) PD patients, including three in Stage II, three in Stage III, and three in Stage IV, but not in Stage I patients or normal subjects. ⋯ RRIV was not affected by acute or chronic L-dopa treatment. The agreement between RRIV and SSR in PD patients was poor (kappa = -0.07). It appears that abnormal SSR, but not RRIV, may be associated with more autonomic disturbances in PD patients.
-
We describe four patients, two with Tourette's syndrome, one with the combination of idiopathic dystonia and essential-like tremor, and one with tardive dystonia, who noted marked exacerbation of their movement disorders after exposure to cocaine. These patients provide support for the hypothesis that dopaminergic preponderance plays an important role in the pathogenesis of certain hyperkinetic movement disorders. Cocaine should be regarded as an important cause or precipitant of hyperkinetic movement disorders.