Hyperekplexia and stiff-baby syndrome: an identical neurological disorder?

Hyperekplexia (startle disease) is an unusual, familial, neurological disorder characterized by abnormally enhanced startle response, followed in most cases by momentary generalized muscular stiffness. These attacks may cause the patients to fall rigidly, while remaining fully conscious. Startle symptomatology has generally an onset in infancy and is often accompanied, during the first years of life, by rigidity, sleep myoclonus, motor delay, regurgitation and apneic spells, which may cause sudden death.

[Fukuyama-type congenital muscular dystrophy with the presence of ocular anomalies].

The authors report a case with Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD) and severe ocular abnormalities. Muscular dystrophy was confirmed by EMG, high muscle enzyme value and muscular biopsy. Computed tomography (CT) of the brain at 15 months of life showed mild central and cortical atrophy.