Acute myelitis associated with hyperIgEemia and atopic dermatitis

We herein describe 4 adult patients with upper cervical myelitis presenting with paresthesia in the distal parts of all four limbs and who also all had hyperIgEemia. Two of them had full-blown atopic dermatitis at the time of neurologic illness, while the others had a preceding history of atopic dermatitis. All showed high signal intensity lesions at either the C3 or C4 segment, which mainly affected the posterior column on the T2-weighted spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging. All patients had specific IgE antibodies to two mite antigens and their onset of myelitis coincided with the seasonal increase of the mite antigens in Japan. Therefore, it is possible that the atopic conditions with hyperIgEemia in these patients may thus have contributed to the development of myelitis.