Rev Neurol France
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Twenty patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), 19 women and 1 man, with acute proprioceptive sensory disturbances related to the presence of plaques on the posterior columns (posterior column syndrome) at the cervical or thoracic levels of the spinal cord, were selected among 138 new patients with MS assisted in our neurological unit over the past five years. In 17 of these patients, the acute posterior cordonal syndrome was responsible for the first clinical manifestations of the disease. The other 3 patients had a history suggestive of MS. ⋯ This study confirms the contribution of serial spinal cord MR studies to understanding the natural history and pathophysiology of medullary forms of MS presenting as a cordonal posterior syndrome. It also shows a good relationship between the clinical manifestations and course of this form of MS and the localization and variable morphology of plaques. Finally, our results suggest the predictive benign course for this medullary form of MS that seems to be almost exclusively restricted to the female gender.