Seronegative, non-neoplastic acute cerebellar degeneration

Five women are presented with a subacute pure pancerebellar syndrome of ataxia and dysarthria to emphasize that this illness may occur without anti-Purkinje-cell or anti-Yo antibodies, or associated systemic cancer. The syndrome evolved over weeks or less and stabilized in four of the patients. Three had had a preceding infection and one, a rash, but there was no inflammatory response in the spinal fluid. Over the 5-year period during which these patients appeared in an individual general neurology practice, there was only one patient with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration. Despite the association of this syndrome with cancer, particularly in women, clinicians will still commonly confront the idiopathic variety.