A 50-year-old female with dysuria, dysporia, numbness and weakness of extremities

<p>This paper reports one patient, with a history of autoimmune gastritis, who presented dysuria and dysporia for 5 years, weakness of left upper limb for one and a half years, and numbness and weakness of extremities for 2 months. The patient’s symptoms were attributed to both vitamin B<su...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lin PENG, Wei-hai XU, Bin PENG, Li-ying CUI
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tianjin Huanhu Hospital 2015-03-01
Series:Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.cjcnn.org/index.php/cjcnn/article/view/1165
Description
Summary:<p>This paper reports one patient, with a history of autoimmune gastritis, who presented dysuria and dysporia for 5 years, weakness of left upper limb for one and a half years, and numbness and weakness of extremities for 2 months. The patient’s symptoms were attributed to both vitamin B<sub>12</sub> and copper deficiency myelopathy. Copper deficiency myelopathy (CDM) represents a treatable myelopathy which is highly similar to subacute combined degeneration due to vitamin B<sub>12</sub> deficiency. Patients with both copper and vitamin B<sub>12</sub> deficiency myelopathy were rare and should be considered in the differential diagnosis. It is crucial to evaluate concentration of serum copper and vitamin B<sub>12</sub> simultaneously on patients with anaemia, sensory ataxia, paraesthesia and weakness of limbs. The spinal MRI usually showed high T<sub>2</sub>-weighted signal in the posterior and lateral cervical and/or thoracic cord. The patient in this report showed a significant clinical improvement of anaemia and weakness after copper and vitamin B<sub>12</sub> supplementation therapy.</p><p> </p><p><strong>DOI: </strong>10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.03.016</p>
ISSN:1672-6731