Bilateral occipital calcification, epilepsy and coeliac disease: clinical and neuroimaging features of a new syndrome

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1993 Aug;56(8):885-9. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.56.8.885.

Abstract

Twenty patients affected by bilateral occipital cortical-subcortical calcification (BOC) are described, 19 (95%) had epilepsy. In 8 of 16 cases studied, intestinal biopsy revealed coeliac disease. Fourteen patients had occipital partial epilepsy with a relatively benign outcome, while 4 patients were affected by a severe form of epilepsy, with very frequent, drug-resistant, generalised and partial seizures with mental deterioration. One patient had a single episode of convulsive status epilepticus at four months of age. The neurological examination was normal in all patients. CT showed flocculo-nodular, cortico-subcortical BOC, without enhancement and without lobar or hemispheric atrophy. MRI was normal. The clinical and neuroimaging features of these patients are different therefore from those with the Sturge-Weber Syndrome. The study confirms a high prevalence of coliac disease in patients with BOC, but the relationship between these two pathologies still needs to be clarified.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Brain Diseases / complications
  • Brain Diseases / diagnostic imaging
  • Calcinosis / complications*
  • Calcinosis / diagnostic imaging
  • Celiac Disease / complications*
  • Celiac Disease / diagnostic imaging
  • Child
  • Epilepsies, Partial / complications*
  • Epilepsies, Partial / diagnostic imaging
  • Epilepsy, Generalized / complications
  • Female
  • Functional Laterality
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Occipital Lobe / diagnostic imaging*
  • Syndrome
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed