Age: 66.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: FLUX, PPV, FLUX, PPV
Symptoms: Ataxia, Dizziness, Dysarthria, Dysphagia, Dystonia
Clinical narrative: Initial report received on 09 July 2008 from a literature article. Verbatim from the report: "A 66-year-old woman, presented to the hospital on 21 October 2007, after progressively worsening neurological complaints. The patient stated that she had onset of headaches a week or so before admission, soon associated with some numbness and tingling in her hands, and feet, and later associated with dysarthria and swallowing difficulties, prompting her to get further medical attention in the emergency room. The patient had no viral-type illnesses; however, a week or so before symptom onset, she had a flu shot as well as a PNEUMOVAX 23. The patient was evaluated by neurology with multiple tests. MRI and MRA scans demonstrated no significant abnormality that could have caused her symptoms. With the patient's history physical, and diagnostic testing done, she was diagnosed with Miller-Fisher variant of Guillain-Barre syndrome. The patient was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin. At this point, the patient noted stability in her course, no worsening, but had not noted much improvement either. Overall, she felt somewhat weaker on the left versus the right, but noted significant difficulties with coordinating her movements. She also noted residual numbness and tingling involving her face, the inside of her mouth, in her lower extremities in a knee sock-type distribution and in a glove distribution in the upper limbs. She did admit to facial weakness with some dysarthria; however, noted improvement in her face and in her speaking. She was experiencing some intermittent bouts of pain. She had pain in her limbs, particularly her legs, described as a combination of burning pain, cramping, and irritating numbness and tingling. The patient was on GABAPENTIN. The patient also developed what she called "spells," where she experienced an autonomic instability giving her a 3 to 10-minute period of dizziness, change in vision, headache, and hypotension. The patient was previously fully independent with activities of daily living as well as ambulation. She had no medical limitations. On physical examination, the patient had difficulty in her feet with digit identification as well with propiroception, which was absent at her toes. Light touch sensation was decreased beginning at about the mid thigh level and gradually worsening down to her toes. Upper extremity sensation was not as markedly decreased as in her feet, but there was decreased light touch sensation in bilateral hands as well as decreased vibratory sensation. Myoclonus was present bilaterally in both lower extremities. Rotational dystonia was also present in her ankles, more pronounced on her left side. Digit identification was intact in her hands. With manual muscle testing in general side had 4/5 strength in her limbs, with hand intrinsics being weaker, but she was able to give some minimal resistance with intrinsic testing. Reflexes were obtained at her ankles, 1+ at the knees, and 1+ in her upper extremities. Extraocular movements were intact. No nystagmus was noted. Mild facial weakness was noted bilaterally. Her speech was mildly dysarthric. There was significant ataxia with attempts at gross as well as fine motor movements, more pronounced in the lower extremities versus the upper extremities." The recovery status of the patient was not reported.