HEREDITARY MOTOR AND SENSORY NEUROPATHY WITH TREATABLE EXTRAPYRAMIDAL FEATURES

Seven patients with a sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy followed years later by extrapyramidal manifestations are presented. This appears to be a separate genetic disorder(s) from that described as Machado-Joseph disease. In five subjects, other relatives had similar multisystem involvement. None was of known Portuguese ancestry. The extrapyramidal syndrome was mainly parkinsonian. Pain was prominent in five subjects. In all cases, low or moderate doses of levodopa/carbidopa ameliorated both the pain and the parkinsonian features. In one patient, a randomized placebo-controlled trial of levodopa/carbidopa was found to significantly improve most symptoms and neurologic dysfunction scores related to the extrapyramidal syndrome.