[Casuistic contribution to the differential diagnosis of the myoclonic syndrome]

Involuntary muscle twitches, which are accompanied by a more or less pronounced effect of motion and which may last for several hours, are a common guiding symptom of a number of neurological syndromes. This paper reports the case of a 24-year-old male who had been suffering since his sixth year from episodic muscular spasms accompanied by attacks of petit mal. These are regarded as representing a myoclonic-epileptic syndrome. In this connection, a distinction has to be made, by differential diagnosis, between the "true" myoclonic syndrome which is characterized by the absence of complications due to attacks of grand mal or petit mal, Kojewnikoff's epilepsy, and the myoclonic-epileptic dementia form of syndrome.