J Korean Neurol Assoc.  2000 Jan;18(1):98-101.

A Case of Intramedullary Myelopathy Associated with Small Cell Lung Cancer

• Moon HS
• Kim BJ
• Lee SM

Abstract

Subacute paraneoplastic myelopathy is a rare cause of myelopathy. Serepositivity for antineuronal nuclear antibodies-1(ANNA-1, Anti-Hu) is a sensitive and specific marker for the paraneoplastic syndrome with small cell lung cancer. A 57-year-old male patient was admitted because of acutely progressive paraparesis, anesthesia of both lower limbs and loss of bladder function over 3 days. He was subsequently found to have small cell lung carcinoma of limited stage. Magnetic resonance image of the thoracic spine showed signal abnormalities with mild focal enhancement in the intramedullary portion of C7-T10 segments. Concurrent CSF cytology showed no abnormal findings. He had high sero-logic titer of ANNA-1. These findings suggest of a paraneoplastic syndrome although we didn't have nectrotic patholog-ic findings. Five months after onset of neurological symptoms, he died inspite of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We report a case of intramedullary myelopathy, probably of paraneoplastic origin, associated with small cell lung cancer.

Keyword

Paraneoplastic syndrome; Myelopathy; Antineuronal nuclear antibody-1; Small cell lung cancer

MeSH Terms

Anesthesia
Drug Therapy
Humans
Lower Extremity
Male
Middle Aged
Paraneoplastic Syndromes
Paraparesis
Radiotherapy
Small Cell Lung Carcinoma*
Spinal Cord Diseases*
Spine
Urinary Bladder