Published 12 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3862
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3862

Practice

Interactive Case Report

A woman with acute myelopathy in pregnancy: case presentation

Reinhard Reuß, physician 1, Paulus S Rommer, researcher 1, Wolfgang Brück, professor2, Friedemann Paul, head of research group 3,9, Michael Bolz, senior physician4, Sven Jarius, neuroimmunologist5, Tobias Boettcher, clinical neurologist6, Annette Großmann, senior physician7, Alexander Bock, senior physician8, Frauke Zipp, professor9, Reiner Benecke, professor1, Uwe K Zettl, professor1

1 Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, 18147 Rostock, Germany, 2 Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, 3 NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 4 Department of Gynaecology, University of Rostock , 5 Division of Molecular Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 6 Neurology Division, Dietrich-Bonhoeffer Klinikum Neubrandenburg, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 7 Department of Radiology, University of Rostock, 8 Neuroradiology Division, Dietrich-Bonhoeffer Klinikum Neubrandenburg, 9 Cecilie-Vogt Clinic for Neurology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin

Correspondence to: R Reuß reinhard.reuss@neuro.med.uni-giessen.de

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In March 2006, Andrea G, a 23 year old white nulliparous woman who was 17 weeks pregnant, was referred to her local neurology department. She had been experiencing hypoaesthesia of the right leg for seven days and of the left leg for two days. Since the previous day she had also been experiencing a focal weakness of the left leg and an inability to void her bladder adequately.

One month earlier she had experienced back pain, which was relieved by physiotherapy. For the past 14 days, she had again been experiencing lumbar pain and pain of the left shoulder. Cardiopulmonary and abdominal examinations showed no abnormality, and her body temperature was within the normal range. She had a hypotonic paraparesis of the legs accentuated on the left side, with bilaterally exaggerated tendon reflexes, non-sustained cloniform Achilles’ tendon reflexes, and a normal plantar reflex. Her pain and temperature sensations were diminished . . . [Full text of this article]


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