Kristian T Schafernak1, Eileen H Bigio. 1. Division of Neuropathology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 710 N. Fairbanks Court., Olson 3-459, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Patients infected with West Nile virus (WNV) may develop acute neurologic disease, which can be severe or even fatal, including WNV meningitis, encephalitis, and an irreversible acute flaccid paralysis or poliomyelitis-like syndrome. Movement disorders have also been described. REPORT: We report combined neuronal loss, gliosis, and neurofibrillary tangle formation in the substantia nigra of a 41-year-old man with a history of WNV encephalomyelitis and poliomyelitis-like paralysis. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically our patient did not display parkinsonism, however, it is interesting to speculate whether, in the absence of the residual subacute poliomyelitis-like syndrome, the neuropathologic findings could have eventually evolved clinically into WNV-associated postencephalitic parkinsonism.
BACKGROUND:Patients infected with West Nile virus (WNV) may develop acute neurologic disease, which can be severe or even fatal, including WNV meningitis, encephalitis, and an irreversible acute flaccid paralysis or poliomyelitis-like syndrome. Movement disorders have also been described. REPORT: We report combined neuronal loss, gliosis, and neurofibrillary tangle formation in the substantia nigra of a 41-year-old man with a history of WNV encephalomyelitis and poliomyelitis-like paralysis. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically our patient did not display parkinsonism, however, it is interesting to speculate whether, in the absence of the residual subacute poliomyelitis-like syndrome, the neuropathologic findings could have eventually evolved clinically into WNV-associated postencephalitic parkinsonism.
Authors: John Hart; Gail Tillman; Michael A Kraut; Hsueh-Sheng Chiang; Jeremy F Strain; Yufeng Li; Amy G Agrawal; Penny Jester; John W Gnann; Richard J Whitley Journal: BMC Infect Dis Date: 2014-05-09 Impact factor: 3.090