PARANEOPLASTIC AUTOIMMUNE CEREBELLAR DEGE NERATION

Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration is a well-defined clinical enti ty typically associated with ovarian or breast carcinoma. Serum or CSF of these patients has been shown to contain autoantibodies against th e cytoplasm of Purkinje cells. These antibodies have been referred to as anti-Yo. We report the ease da 67-year old woman with ovarian adeno carcinoma presenting with subacute cerebellar dysfunction. Her serum w as found to react with the cytoplasm of Purkinje cells and HeLa cells. On Western blot analysis a 60 to 70 kD reaction was obtained. This su ggests the presence of a classical anti-Yo antibody.