A Kinship With the Roussy-Levy Syndrome: A Clinical and Electrophysiologic Study

IN 1926, Roussy and Lévy¹ described a familial syndrome characterized by (1) clumsy gait, (2) abnormalities of equilibrium which were evident on standing and more pronounced with eye closure, (3) areflexia, (4) clubfeet, (5) awkwardness and weakness of the hands with slight atrophy of the small muscles of the hand, (6) decreased faradic and galvanic excitability of muscles, and (7) atypical tremor of the hands, made evident by tensing the muscles, increased with movement but absent at rest. In 1932, they² included the signs that Popow³ had reported as part of the syndrome in five affected patients—symmetric thinning of the lower one third of the legs and impaired vibratory sensibility. In another article on this syndrome, Roussy and Levy⁴ stressed the absence of: characteristic cerebellar signs, speech disturbances, Babinski signs, nystagmus, cranial nerve abnormalities, definite sensory loss, intellectual impairment, and marked muscle atrophy. The