Bilateral pedunculopontine nuclei strokes presenting as freezing of gait
Sheng-Han Kuo MD
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Search for more papers by this authorChristopher Kenney MD
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Joseph Jankovic MD
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center, and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, 6550 Fannin, Suite 1801, Houston, Texas 77030Search for more papers by this authorSheng-Han Kuo MD
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Search for more papers by this authorChristopher Kenney MD
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Joseph Jankovic MD
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center, and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, 6550 Fannin, Suite 1801, Houston, Texas 77030Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
The penduculopontine nucleus (PPN) has been suggested to play an important role in locomotion, based on animal studies, but its function in humans has not been well defined. Autopsy studies have suggested that PPN pathology correlates with gait dysfunction in Parkinson's disease and in progressive supranuclear palsy but direct clinical evidence is lacking. We report a patient with bilateral PPN infarcts whose dominant clinical feature was freezing of gait, thus providing evidence that PPN is involved in human locomotion and that damage to the PPN may lead to abnormal gait. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society
Supporting Information
This article includes supplementary video clips, available online at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0885-3185/suppmat .
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| mds21917.mpg13.3 MB | The patient displayed hypomimia and lower extremity bradykinesia along with FOG. After initiation, he was able to walk with normal stride length. Instructions to march rather than merely walk and visual cueing provided by a specially designed cane was associated with modest improvement in FOG. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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