[Pallido-pyramidal syndrome: an unrecognized entity]

Abstract

A female teenager, without familial history, presented, since the age of 13 years, with gradually worsening pyramidal signs and a parkinsonian syndrome controlled by L-Dopa in small doses. The clinical complex was suggestive of the pallido-pyramidal syndrome, an entity which was individualized in 1954 by Davison on the basis of 5 young patients who had pyramidal signs and a parkinsonian syndrome. In only one of these patients a pathological study was carried out, disclosing a non specific degeneration without inclusions, involving the pallidum, substantia nigra and pyramidal tract. We hope that this report will encourage other authors to report similar cases, since only the study of new cases will determine whether the pallido-pyramidal syndrome is a true entity.