Abstract
Background A 48-year-old man with a past history of a car-accident-induced coma at the age of 3 years and spontaneous bilateral subdural hematomas at the age of 34 years presented with a 2-year history of worsening gait difficulties, clumsiness and dysarthria. CT scans of the brain taken during the 6 months leading up to his presentation had revealed chronic subarachnoid hemorrhage, but angiograms had not been able to identify the source of bleeding.
Investigations Neurological examination, brain MRI scan, lumbar puncture, four-vessel cerebral angiogram and spinal angiogram.
Diagnosis Superficial siderosis; a complete review of the current literature on the condition is provided.
Management Iron chelating agents.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following people for translating case reports: Dr Peter Kaplan for French and Italian, Madeleine Rogatinsky for French, Paula Schwarz for Spanish, Dr Kristine Altman for Finnish, Dr Amitabh Gupta for German, Kazumi Schwarz for Japanese, and Dr Amit Hoke for Turkish. Dr Kathleen Burns assisted with the final editing.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Table 1
Details of 270 published cases of superficial siderosis (DOC 618 kb)
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Levy, M., Turtzo, C. & Llinas, R. Superficial siderosis: a case report and review of the literature. Nat Rev Neurol 3, 54–58 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpneuro0356
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpneuro0356
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