Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027066 (myoclonus)
 4,275 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Myoclonic contractions of muscles in the abdominal wall and lower extremities developed in a 47-year-old paraplegic woman. The spinal cord was compressed from T-3 to T-8 by an extradural renal cell carcinoma metastasis. To our knowledge, previous studies of patients with sinal myoclonus have not reported a pathologic correlation. In our patient, a focal morphologic change that consisted of vacuolar degeneration and chromatolysis of anterior horn cells was found at the levels of the spinal cord corresponding to the involved muscles. The myoclonus may be spinal in origin and due to an increased excitability of anterior horn cells during the period of sublethal injury.
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PMID:Spinal myoclonus with vacuolar degeneration of anterior horn cells. 738 93

This case report describes a patient affected by a neuropathic pain syndrome, which was secondary to a renal cell carcinoma metastatic to the spine, and complicated by incidental components and somatization. Due to a rapid development of tolerance and toxicity from hydromorphone, a rotation to methadone was made, with a decrease of the morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD) from 1050 to 36. After 4 mos of good pain relief, a switch over back to hydromorphone was necessary due to worsening pain, associated with myoclonus and sedation secondary to methadone; the MEDD this time escalated from 480 to 4950. The use of hydromorphone was complicated by the onset of intractable nausea and sedation. After 2 wks, the patient was rotated again to methadone, with a decrease of the MEDD to 24. He achieved good pain control and was free of opioid toxicity. Our findings illustrate a role of methadone in the management of cancer pain associated with poor prognostic indicators, the development of tolerance towards its effects, and the regaining of sensitivity to methadone, by temporary rotation to another opioid. Possible mechanism for opioid tolerance and its reversal are discussed.
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PMID:Individualized use of methadone and opioid rotation in the comprehensive management of cancer pain associated with poor prognostic indicators. 889 38

Type 1 antineuronal nuclear autoantibody (ANNA-1, also known as "anti-Hu") is a marker of neurologic autoimmunity that is highly associated with small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). To determine the spectrum of symptoms and signs as well as the frequency of cancer in adult patients who are seropositive for ANNA-1, we reviewed 162 sequential patients (67% female) identified as ANNA-1-positive in a comprehensive immunofluorescence screening test. In 21% of these patients, the antibody test requested by the physician was not ANNA-1. By the end of the follow-up period, cancer had been found in 142 patients (88%). Ten of these lacked evidence of SCLC (4 had prostate carcinoma, 3 breast carcinoma, 1 both prostate carcinoma and melanoma, 1 lymphoma, and 1 squamous-cell lung carcinoma). Of the 132 patients (81%) with proven SCLC, 17 had one or more coexisting malignant neoplasms (6 had renal carcinoma, 4 another lung primary carcinoma, 3 prostate carcinoma, 3 breast carcinoma, and 4 assorted neoplasms). The diagnosis of SCLC in 128 patients (97%) followed the onset of paraneoplastic symptoms. SCLC was identified in 10 patients by chest MRI after an equivocal chest radiograph or CT; in 28 by bronchoscopy, mediastinoscopy, or thoracotomy; and in 7 at autopsy. Neurologic signs in decreasing frequency were neuropathy (sensory > mixed somatic > autonomic > cranial [especially cranial nerve VIII] > motor), cerebellar ataxia, limbic encephalitis, polyradiculopathy, associated Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, myopathy, myelopathy, opsoclonus/myoclonus, motor neuronopathy, brachial plexopathy, and aphasia. Nineteen patients had a solely gastrointestinal initial presentation, including gastroparesis, pseudo-obstruction, esophageal achalasia, or other dysmotility. We conclude that seropositivity for ANNA-1 can expedite the diagnosis and treatment of otherwise occult cancer in patients, especially tobacco abusers, with varied neurologic and gastroenterologic presentations. The search for SCLC should not end on discovering a different neoplasm.
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PMID:Paraneoplastic and oncologic profiles of patients seropositive for type 1 antineuronal nuclear autoantibodies. 952 Dec 51

Opsoclonus is a rare but distinctive disorder of ocular motility, characterized by irregular, continual and conjugated chaotic saccades of the eyes. It is increased with eye closure and fixation, and it persists during sleep. Opsoclonus appears more commonly in children and in half of such cases in association with neuroblastoma. In adults the most frequent causes are idiopathic (50%) and paraneoplastic (20%). Among the second group, different types of tumors involving a wide variety of organs have been reported. Opsoclonus when accompanied by other symptoms of central nervous system involvement (head, appendicular myoclonus and truncal ataxia) constitutes a clinical picture, known as opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. We report the case of a young patient affected by renal cell carcinoma associated with opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome which did not respond to medical therapy but dramatically improved after cancer ablation.
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PMID:Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome as a paraneoplastic manifestation of renal cell carcinoma. a case report and review of the literature. 1191 72