A syndrome of REM and non-REM sleep reduction and lateral gaze paresis after medial tegmental pontine stroke. Computed tomographic scans and anatomical correlations in four patients

A. Autret, F. Laffont, B. de Toffol and H. P. Cathala
Clinique Neurologique, Centre Hospitalier Regional et Universitaire de Tours, Hopital Bretonneau, France.

A common pattern of reduction in both rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep associated with various lateral gaze paralyses was present in four cases of brain-stem stroke. From computed tomographic scan data, clinical inferences, and, in two cases, neuropathologic sections, the common lesions were localized in the medial pontine tegmentum, ie, the inner part of the gigantocellular and pontis centralis caudalis nuclei. These data in humans were compared with lesions obtained experimentally in cats.