1: Ann Agric Environ Med 2001;8(1):95-97 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut  

Dysarthria as the isolated clinical symptom of borreliosis--a case report.

Gustaw K, Mirecka U.

Outpatients Neurological Department, Institute of Agricultural Medicine,

This report presents a case of dysarthria due to hypoglossal nerve
mono-neuropathy as the only consequence of neuroborreliosis. The 65-year-old
man with a seven-months history of articulation disturbances was examined. The
speech of the patient was slow and laboured. A slight weakness of the muscles
of the tongue (left-side) was observed. The patient suffered from meningitis
due to Borrelia burgdorferi infection in 1999 and initially underwent a
successful antibiotic treatment. Detailed radiological investigation and
psychological tests were performed and co-existing neurological diseases were
excluded. To describe profile of speech abnormalities the dysarthria scale was
designed based on S. J. Robertson Dysarthria Profile. There were a few
disturbances found in self-assessment of speech, intelligibility, articulation,
and prosody but especially in the morphology of the articulation muscles,
diadochokinesis, the reflexes (in the mouth, larynx and pharynx). Needle EMG
examination confirmed the diagnosis of mono-neuropathy of left hypoglossal
nerve. The study confirms the fact that neuroborreliosis may evoke chronic
consequences.

PMID: 11426931 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]