Symptoms of paraneoplastic encephalopathy as the first clinical sign of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A case study

Overview

Limbic encephalopathy and subacute cerebellar degeneration are rare paraneoplastic autoimmune epiphenomena associated with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Only a few cases have been reported in the literature. This report describes the case of a 19 year old female, whose neurological symptoms resulted from a paraneoplastic encephalopathy and became one of the first and dominant clinical manifestations of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Diagnosis of paraneoplastic encephalopathy was concluded after exclusion of neuroinfection, primary demyelinating disease of the central nervous system and it was based on complete neurological restoration, followed by remission of lymphogranuloma achieved by combined chemotherapy in primary treatment.

Key words:
Hodgkin’s lymphoma, encephalopathy, central nervous system, autoimmunity, therapeutic response.