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An autopsy case of early (“minimal change”) olivopontocerebellar atrophy (multiple system atrophy-cerebellar)

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Abstract

We report a 57-year-old woman with multiple system atrophy (MSA) of 15-month duration. The patient developed dysarthria, followed by impaired balance of gait, mild limb ataxia, and saccadic eye movement. A postmortem examination performed after she was found dead in a bathtub revealed neuronal loss restricted to the olivopontocerebellar system, being more severe in the pontine nucleus. Mild neuronal loss was also found in the anterior vermis and inferior olivary nucleus. α-Synuclein immunohistochemistry demonstrated widespread occurrence of glial cytoplasmic inclusions in the central nervous system, which were more numerous in the pontine base and cerebellar white matter. In contrast, neuronal α-synuclein accumulation was confined to the pontine and inferior olivary nuclei. The number of neuronal intranuclear inclusions was much higher than that of neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions. Moreover, α-synuclein accumulation was more severe in the neurites than in the cytoplasm or nucleus. This case demonstrates the early pattern of brain pathology in MSA-cerebellar (olivopontocerebellar atrophy).

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank M. Nakata for her technical assistance. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

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Correspondence to Koichi Wakabayashi.

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Wakabayashi, K., Mori, F., Nishie, M. et al. An autopsy case of early (“minimal change”) olivopontocerebellar atrophy (multiple system atrophy-cerebellar). Acta Neuropathol 110, 185–190 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-005-1029-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-005-1029-1

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