ABSTRACT
Asterixis is an abrupt, brief, arrhythmic lapse of tonically contracting muscles. A 64-year old woman with a left thala-mic infarction showed asymmetric bilateral asterixis after taking phenytoin for the control of thalamic pain. Though thalamic lesion can cause asterixis, her asterixis may have been induced by phenytoin, because it was bilateral and sub-sided after stopping phenytoin. We report an unusual case of asymmetric asterixis induced by phenytoin in a patient with a left thalamic infarction.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Dyskinesias , Infarction , Muscles , PhenytoinABSTRACT
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is an inherited connective tissue disorder characterized by fragility of the skin, hyperelasticity of the skin, hyperextensible joints, vascular lesions, easy bruising, and excessive scarring after injuries. Some patients with EDS have neurological symptoms and signs, such as muscular hypotonia, muscular atrophy, spin-ocerebellar tract degeneration, cerebral atrophy, mental retardation, and epilepsy. We report a 16-year-old man who showed mental retardation, hyperelasticity of the skin, joint hypermobility, and muscular atrophy on the bilateral hand muscles. A skin biopsy revealed dermal thickening, a decrease in the density and number of collagen fibrils, distur-bances of the wickerwork pattern, and a disproportional increase in the number of elastic fibers.