Abstract
Trigeminal neuropathy has been known as a most common neuropsychiatric complication in mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). In 1978, Bennett reported four cases of aseptic meingitis observed in MCTD. We report here three cases of aseptic meningitis in patients with MCTD.
All three patients were female and had Raynaud's phenomenon, swollen hands, lymphadenopathy, muscle involvement and arthralgia. They had anti-nRNP antibodies in high titers, but not anti-Sm nor ant-DNA antibodies.
There meningitis was accompanied by fever and severe headache but not by nuchal rigidity. In addition, one of the patients showed nausea, vomiting and dullness of consciousness. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed the increased levels of initial pressure, cell counts and protein amounts in all three cases. Mononuclear cells but not neutrophils were dominant in CSF in all three cases. No microorganisms were found in CSF and no specific increase of antibodies to viruses were found in both serum and CSF of three patients indicating an aseptic nature of their meningitis. The meningitis in all three MCTD patients responded to the moderate to high doses of corticosteroid but not to low doses of steroid nor antibiotics.
