Unusual sensory disturbance in the thoracic region after stroke:: relationship to cheiro-oral and cheiro-oral-pedal syndrome

Three patients with unusual unilateral sensory disturbances in the thorax, in addition to hand and mouth, hand and foot, and hand, mouth and foot regions, respectively, after stroke, are described. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a causative lesion in the ventral posteromedial and ventral posterolateral nucleus of the contralateral thalamus in two patients and the contralateral thalamocortical projections in one patient. Symptoms in three patients were due to infarction. Objective sensory loss was not found, but subjective paresthesia was observed in the thorax, in addition to the hand and mouth, hand and foot, and hand, mouth and foot regions, respectively. Paresthesia recovery time was evaluated in these three patients in addition to seven patients with cheiro-oral syndrome and eight patients with cheiro-oral-pedal syndrome. All thirteen patients who demonstrated recovery showed regional improvement of paresthesia in the following sequences: thorax, foot, mouth and then hand, which suggests that the detection threshold, from highest to lowest, occurs in the following sequences: thorax>foot>mouth>hand. These three cases with thoracic sensory disturbance form the explanatory links between the cheiro-oral syndrome and the cheiro-oral-pedal syndrome; cases with sensory disturbance in the hand, mouth, foot or thorax could be regarded as cases of sensory hemisyndrome in which the subjective experience of symptoms was restricted to the hand, mouth, foot or thorax. These symptoms may possibly be attributable to differential detection thresholds.