ABSTRACT
This report presents a case of dysarthria due to hypoglossal nerve mono-neuropathy as the only consequence of neuroborreliosis. The 65-year-old man with a seven-months history of articulation disturbances was examined. The speech of the patient was slow and laboured. A slight weakness of the muscles of the tongue (left-side) was observed. The patient suffered from meningitis due to Borrelia burgdorferi infection in 1999 and initially underwent a successful antibiotic treatment. Detailed radiological investigation and psychological tests were performed and co-existing neurological diseases were excluded. To describe profile of speech abnormalities the dysarthria scale was designed based on S. J. Robertson Dysarthria Profile. There were a few disturbances found in self-assessment of speech, intelligibility, articulation, and prosody but especially in the morphology of the articulation muscles, diadochokinesis, the reflexes (in the mouth, larynx and pharynx). Needle EMG examination confirmed the diagnosis of mono-neuropathy of left hypoglossal nerve. The study confirms the fact that neuroborreliosis may evoke chronic consequences.
