Hereditary spastic dystonia: a new mitochondrial encephalopathy? Putaminal necrosis as a diagnostic sign.

A large kindred, in which either Leber's hereditary optic atrophy, or a hereditary spastic dystonia, or a combination of both manifested over many generations was restudied after the first report on it in 1964. NMR scans revealed bilateral, and, in two patients with hemidystonia, unilateral necrosis with shrinkage of the putamen, in one case associated with total disappearance of the head of the caudate nucleus. Except for age-appropriate cortical atrophy in one instance, no other changes were observed in the brain, brainstem, and cerebellum. The putaminal necrosis appears as typical "striatal slits" on the NMR scans. It is argued that this rare disease, since the princeps description in 1964 only reported in England (1986) and the U.S.A (1986), is most likely a singular type of mitochondrial encephalopathy: it is associated with Leber's optic atrophy, and the NMR changes observed have been signalled in other mitochondrial encephalomyelopathies, such as Leigh's disease and MELAS.