A combination of spastic paraparesis, polyneuropathy and adrenocortical insufficiency-a childhood form of adrenomyeloneuropathy.

This report describes a combination of spastic paraparesis and symmetrical sensory motor polyneuropathy with a pathological response to the ACTH test in the case of a 16 year-old boy and a borderline response to the ACTH test in the case of his 8-year-old sister. Another sister, aged 14, showed only a pathological response to ACTH testing, the neurological status being unremarkable. The EEG was normal in all three children examined. Visually evoked potentials were borderline in the case of the boy and normal in the case of the clinically involved sister. Although on examination by light microscopy the sural nerve proved to be normal, the clinical diagnosis of adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN) in its juvenile form may be assumed, in view of the clinical symptoms and the evidence of adrenocortical insufficiency revealed by the ACTH test.