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Adhesive arachnoiditis is a rare condition, often complicated by syringomyelia. This pathologic entity is usually associated with prior spinal surgery, spinal inflammation or infection, and hemorrhage. The usual symptoms of arachnoiditis are pain, paresthesia, and weakness of the low extremities due to the nerve entrapment. A few cases have had no obvious etiology. Previous studies have reported one family with multiple cases of adhesive arachnoiditis. We report a second family of Belgian origin with multiple cases of arachnoiditis and secondary syringomyelia in the affected individuals., (© 2014 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.)

The authors describe the four patients in the first known Belgian family with autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS). A novel homozygous missense mutation, NM_014363.3: c.3491T>A in exon 9, of the SACS gene was identified in the present family, which results in an original amino acid of methionine to lysine substitution at amino acid residue 1164 (p.M1164K). Although the cardinal clinical features, i.e., spastic ataxia with peripheral neuropathy, in our patients were similar to those in Quebec patients, our patients exhibited some atypical clinical features, e.g., teenage-onset and absence of retinal hypermyelination. The present family is from Wallonia, and there could be shared ethnicity with the families of Charlevoix-Saguenay.