Abstract
Trigeminal neuropathy is seldom noted to accompany connective tissue disease. We found that nine of 267 patients with connective tissue diseases had clinical evidence of trigeminal neuropathy. These 9 patients were all women whose mean age at onset was 39.2 years. Six cases were classified as having MCTD, and the others were overlap syndrome between PSS and probable SLE. All the patients had Raynaud's phenomenon which was followed by trigeminal neuropathy. The mean interval between the onsets of these features was 20.1 months. In 7 cases out of nine, trigeminal neuropathy developed within 12 months. Scleroderma, polyarthritis, muscle involvement and leukopenia were found in 7, 5, 6 and 7 patients respectively. Anti nuclear antibody and anti-RNP antibody were positive in all patients. We examined blink reflex in all cases. Five patients revealed abnormal findings.
In summary, all 9 patients with trigeminal neuropathy had also Raynaud's phenomenon and anti-RNP antibody which were markers of MCTD. These findings suggested trigeminal neuropathy might be an important feature of MCTD.
