Transient repetitive movements of the limbs in patients with acute basilar artery infarction.

Abstract

Some patients with basilar artery infarction lift their legs alternately as if they are walking.1 Others may develop repetitive clonic or slow movements.2,3⇓ Alternating leg movements have been considered as a pseudo-voluntary reflex movement, clonic movements as an epileptic phenomenon or convulsive-like movements, and slow movements as a myorrhythmia.1-4⇓⇓⇓ We describe two different forms of repetitive limb movements observed in 4 of 16 comatose patients with basilar artery infarction. We performed brain MR and cerebral angiography studies in a total of 16 patients with basilar artery infarction. All were admitted to the intensive care unit, and were observed for any evidence of abnormal movements. These movements were videotaped. ### Results. We identified one man (Patient 1) and three women (Patients 2, 3, and 4) who developed abnormal limb movements (mean age = 75.3 years). They developed the abnormal limb movements 3 to 16 days after the onset of the acute insult, at which time two patients (Patients 1 and 2) showed regular respiration, …