A 62-year-old woman acutely developed left facial weakness, diplopia on left gaze, and right-sided numbness including her face. Brain MRI revealed an ischemic lesion of the lower pontine tegmentum (figure 1).
Brain MRI shows restricted diffusion in the caudal portion of the left pons (A) with corresponding hyperintensity on axial fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (B) and coronal T2-weighted images (C).
Gasperini syndrome is a rare crossed brainstem syndrome characterized by ipsilateral impairment of the VI, VII, and occasionally VIII cranial nerves and contralateral sensory loss. The syndrome, initially described by Ubaldo Gasperini in 1912, results from a lesion of the caudal pons tegmentum1,2 (figure e-1, links.lww.com/WNL/A47). The most frequent cause is the occlusion of the long circumferential branch of the anterior inferior cerebellar artery.
Study funding
No targeted funding reported.
Disclosure
R. Iorio reports no disclosures relevant to the manuscript. Got to Neurology.org for full disclosures.
Footnotes
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Teaching slides: links.lww.com/WNL/A47
- Copyright © 2018 American Academy of Neurology
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