[A successfully treated parkinsonian patient with neuroleptic malignant syndrome complicated by status epilepticus and disseminated intravascular coagulation]

Abstract

A 57-year-old woman with a 7-year history of Parkinson's disease was admitted to our hospital because of a high fever, disturbance of consciousness, increased muscular rigidity, tachycardia and hyperhidosis after she stopped taking her prescribed levodopa + carbidopa (Menesit) 400 mg/day. In the laboratory examinations, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 109 mm/h, thrombocytes 7.8 x 10(4)/mm3, fibrinogen 457 mg/dl, FDP 74.8 micrograms/dl, thus suggesting disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). According to her biochemical examination, the serum AST (253 IU/l), ALT (178 IU/l), CK (7115 IU/l) and BUN (25 mg/dl) levels were all increased. These laboratory data and the clinical course indicated the patient to be suffering from neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) with DIC. She was diagnosed to have NMS associated with DIC. She was treated with dantrolene sodium, bromocriptine, and gabexate mesilate, and her symptoms thereafter gradually improved. On day 7, she developed status epilepticus in spite of the clinical improvement in her symptoms of NMS and DIC including a clouding of consciousness. The status epilepticus was also attenuated by the use of thiamylal sodium. Patients with Parkinson's disease associated with NMS are considered to have a low incidence of DIC, status epilepticus, and in Japan this may be the first case report of the successful treatment of NMS with DIC and status epilepticus in a patient with Parkinson's disease.