One month following carbon monoxide poisoning, a 39 year-old man developed incontinence, memory impairment, disorientation and emotional instability. He was hospitalized 7weeks later, and during hospitalization he exhibited myoclonic movements of the neck and lower limbs. He was given piracetam intravenously for 11 days. The myoclonus was significantly reduced by the third day of treatment and had disappeared by the seventh day. There was no recurrence following cessation of treatment.
Adult ; Carbon Monoxide Poisoning/complications* ; Human ; Male ; Myoclonus/drug therapy ; Myoclonus/etiology* ; Piracetam/therapeutic use* ; Pyrrolidinones/therapeutic use*

An extraordinary eye movement was seen in a vegetative patient. His eyeballs were exotropic in the primary position and showed dissociated nystagmus which appeared alternately in each eye every few seconds. He also had palatal myoclonus quite asynchronous with the nystagmus. To our knowledge, there has been no such nystagmus documented in the literature. We report the new nystagmus with his EOG and brain MRI.
Electrooculography ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myoclonus/*complications/diagnosis ; Nystagmus, Pathologic/*complications/diagnosis ; Palatal Muscles

OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficacy of combined modality therapy for neuroblastoma in children associated with opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS-NB).

METHODFrom May 2011 to December 2013, 6 consecutive patients (4 boys and 2 girls) diagnosed as OMS-NB underwent surgery and chemotherapy in the First Hospital, Peking University. The median age of onset was 19.5 months (range 13-24 months) and misdiagnosis occurred 7.5 months (range 2-14 months) ago. A retrospective analysis for the location, stage, pathological type, treatment way and outcome of neuroblastoma was done.

RESULT(1) All patients were misdiagnosed as simply opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) at the time of onset. They had been receiving treatment with adrenocorticotropic hormone and intravenous immunoglobulin within 1-13 months.OMS-NB was diagnosed by means of enhanced abdominal CT image which was delayed to be given after the poor efficacy or relapse. (2) The primary tumors were almost all small, stage I-II, located in adrenal, retroperitoneal or pelvis. The pathology of tumors included ganglioneuroblastoma (5/6) and neuroblastoma (1/6). (3) All these cases underwent surgery, 4/6 cases with complete tumor resection, 2/6 cases with tumor around the aorta and induced local residue. Preoperative and postoperative chemotherapy was given to 2 and 5 cases, respectively. (4) The patients were followed up for 3-31 months, except 1 patient lost, the other 5 are currently surviving disease-free (3 having been at the end of chemotherapy, 1 still in chemotherapy, and another had local recurrence and is receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy after the second operation and now also stopped taking the medicine). The symptoms of nervous system have been significantly improved during postoperative chemotherapy.

CONCLUSIONTo reduce the misdiagnosis, regular CT imaging of the abdomen or pelvic should be ordered for all cases with OMS. The children with OMS-NB need to be actively treated with the combined modality therapy including surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, to reduce recurrence and reduce the symptoms of nervous system.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms ; complications ; diagnosis ; surgery ; therapy ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Biomarkers ; analysis ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Child, Preschool ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; surgery ; therapy ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neuroblastoma ; complications ; diagnosis ; surgery ; therapy ; Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Retroperitoneal Neoplasms ; complications ; diagnosis ; surgery ; therapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Treatment Outcome