Marchiafava-Bignami's Disease, as Etiologic Diagnosis of Athetosis

The Marchiafava-Bignami disease, characterized by demyelination and necrosis of the corpus callosum, has typically been associated with chronic alcohol intake, and clinically has various symptoms and signs. However, several cases have been reported without alcohol association, and these - according to several publications - have some common points, such as preference for female, related to malnutrition, and radiological involvement of the splenium of the corpus callosum. We report a case of a patient with the characteristics described above and whose clinical manifestation was Athetosis. The authors associate this manifestation with the somatotopic distribution of the corpus callosum, and contribute to the etiologic diagnosis of Athetosis as a manifestation of the Marchiafava-Bignami disease, which has not been reported in the medical literature according to our review of the database.