PMID: 8944241Jun 1, 1996Paper

Familial hyperekplexia: startle disease. Clinical, electrophysiological and genetic study of a family

Revue neurologique
A BernasconiG Pescia

Abstract

The major form of familial hyperekplexia, a rare autosomal dominant disorder, is characterized by an abnormal startle reaction elicited by auditory and somatosensory stimuli, with transitory stiffness during the neontam period, followed later by falling attacks accompanied by momentary generalized muscular stiffness. Affected neonates occasionally have fatal hypertonia. The minor form is characterized only by an inconstant excessive startle response. We encountered a family in which three females presented with a partial or complete major form of the disease. All our patients were hyperreflexic, insecure gait was present in two subjects, without concomitant spontaneous nocturnal myoclonus. The pathophysiological basis of the hyperekplexia remains unclear. The abnormal startle reflex, probably related to the lack of inhibition by higher centers, is relayed in the caudal brainstem (ponto-medullary reticular formation), where bulbospinal motor efferents originate. Moreover, nonspecific changes such as large somatosensory evoked potentials and long-loop reflexes ("C-responses") may indicate increased cortical neuronal excitability. Polygraphic studies in these patients were normal. The locus of the major form of the disorder is loc...Continue Reading

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