This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Report of a Case

Dan Boghen, MD, FRCP(C); Mikael Sebag, MD; Jean Michaud, MD, FRCP(C)

Arch Neurol. 1988;45(3):353-356.

Abstract
• A 63-year-old man developed bilateral paresis of horizontal and upward eye movements. He was found to have a small oat cell carcinoma of the lung. Four months later he experienced acute visual blurring on the right side. Examination of the right eye at that time revealed a visual acuity of 3/200 and a central scotoma. There was swelling of the right optic disc. Three weeks after the onset of the visual loss, the acuity of the right eye spontaneously improved to 20/60, the field deficit lessened, and there was a decrease in the swelling of the optic disc. Subsequently, his neuro-ophthalmologic condition remained unchanged but his general health deteriorated, and he died nine months after the onset of the disease. Neuropathologic examination showed mild perivascular lymphocytic infiltration and fibrosis of the meninges throughout the central nervous system, loss of neurons and gliosis in the third and fourth cranial nerve nuclei, perivascular inflammation and gliosis of the optic nerves, and chiasm and central demyelination of the right optic nerve. No tumor cells were seen. These findings were consistent with a diagnosis of paraneoplastic optic neuritis and paraneoplastic encephalomyelitis. The present case confirms the existence of paraneoplastic optic neuritis and illustrates the clinical course of the disease.

Author Affiliations
From the Services of Neurology (Dr Boghen) and Ophthalmology (Drs Boghen and Sebag), Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal Hospital; the Department of Pathology, Ste-Justine Hospital, Montreal (Dr Michaud); and the Departments of Medicine (Dr Boghen), Ophthalmology (Drs Boghen and Sebag), and Pathology (Dr Michaud), Université de Montréal.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication July 10, 1987.

Presented, in part, at the 17th annual meeting of the Frank B. Walsh Society, Baltimore, Feb 23, 1985, and the sixth annual meeting of the International Neuro-Ophthalmology Society, Hakone, Japan, June 12, 1986.

Reprint requests to Neurology Service, Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, 3840 St-Urbain St, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2W 1T8 (Dr Boghen).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Treatment of Paraneoplastic Visual Loss With Intravenous Immunoglobulin: Report of 3 Cases
Guy and Aptsiauri
Arch Ophthalmol 1999;117:471-477.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Syndrome and Optic Neuritis With Anti-CV2 Antibodies: Clinical Response to Excision of the Primary Tumor
de la Sayette et al.
Arch Neurol 1998;55:405-408.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT