A case of very slowly progressive, high-cervical spondylotic myelopathy presenting with symmetric deep sensory deficits in the palms

We report a case of very slowly progressive, high-cervical spondylotic myelopathy with symmetrical deep sensory deficits in the palms. A 76-year-old man began to feel tingling sensation in the second fingers of the bilateral hands 30 years prior to admission. The abnormal sensation spread from the first to the third fingers, and subsequently all over the palms. He noticed intermittent sharp pain in the dermatomes of C4 and 5 bilaterally from his late sixties, and later he developed clumsiness of fine finger movements. In recent years he experienced stiffness in the thighs while walking. On neurological examination, there was a mild sensory deficits in light touch over the bilateral palms, while perception of temperature and pain was normal. Vibration sense was severely and position sense mildly impaired. Discriminative sensation, including graphesthesia, stereognosis, two-point discrimination and texture recognition, was severely impaired over the bilateral palms. On the other hand, all modalities of sensation were normal in the lower limbs. Gross motor dysfunction, such as weakness of limbs, amyotrophy or gait disturbance, was not present. He did not show limb ataxia, but the dexterity of his fingers was severely impaired. Deep tendon reflexes were mildly increased except for the Achilles tendons that were hyporeactive. Plantar responses were flexor bilaterally. Nerve conduction study revealed giant F waves and H reflexes by stimulations of the median and ulnar nerves bilaterally.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)