Abstract

A 15-year-old girl is described with a sporadic, progressive illness manifested by unilateral limb rigidity and dystonia. Obvious dysarthria and some intellectual decline also were noted. Neuropathological findings included gross discoloration and shrinkage of the pallida and, microscopically, profound neuronal loss and gliosis of the caudata and putamena, with less severe neuronal loss from the pallida and substantia nigra. The disease bears some similarities to striatonigral degeneration, but certain clinical and morphological differences justify its consideration as a separate syndrome.