A case of overlapping Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
There is no report on Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis (BBE) patients in China. We here report the first case of BBE in China.


METHODS
Clinical features, results of electromyography, electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination were studied to clarify the characteristics of this syndrome.


RESULTS
A 44-year-old man presented himself at our inpatient department with somnolence and dizziness as his initial symptoms. He developed multiple cranial nerves paralysis especially internal and external ophthalmoplegia, ataxia and tetraparesis within 1 week. His condition rapidly deteriorated, and he experienced coma. Electromyography showed indications of peripheral nerve dysfunction, electroencephalography revealed loss of basic rhythm, MRI demonstrated high-intensity abnormalities on T(2)-weighted images of medulla oblongata, and CSF albuminocytological dissociation was defined abnormally as high protein. Ten months later, he almost completely recovered.


CONCLUSIONS
BBE, fisher syndrome (FS) and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) are similar clinically; BBE and FS were proposed to be the variant of GBS.
Wang
De-sheng
DS
Department of Neurology, First Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
Tang
Ying
Y
Wang
Ye
Y
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003128:Coma; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004576:Electromyography; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000150:complications*; D020275:Guillain-Barre Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008526:Medulla Oblongata / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors