Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
Citation:
Weerakkody Y, Sharma R, Bell D, et al. Morvan syndrome. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 22 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-20036
Morvan syndrome, also known as Morvan fibrillary chorea, is a rare syndrome, similar to Isaacs syndrome, thought to be either paraneoplastic and/or autoimmune in origin.
It is characterised by:
neuromyotonia
pain
hyperhydrosis
weight loss
severe insomnia
hallucinations
Voltage gated potassium channel (VGKC) antibodies, in particular anti-CASPR2, are frequently present in this syndrome 5.
History and etymology
The condition is named after the French physician, Augustin Marie Morvan (1819-1897) who first described it in 1890 3,4.
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1. Liguori R, Vincent A, Clover L et-al. Morvan's syndrome: peripheral and central nervous system and cardiac involvement with antibodies to voltage-gated potassium channels. Brain. 2001;124 (Pt): 2417-26. Brain (link) - Pubmed citation
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2. Hudson LA, Rollins YD, Anderson CA et-al. Reduplicative paramnesia in Morvan's syndrome. J. Neurol. Sci. 2008;267 (1-2): 154-7. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2007.09.030 - Pubmed citation
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3. Morvan A. De la chorée fibrillaire. Gazette Hebdomadaire de Mèdicine et de Chirurgie. 1890;27:173-200.
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4. El-Bitar MK, Muwakkit SA, Abboud MR, Sawaya RA, Boustany RM. Morvan syndrome following B-cell lymphoma. (2010) Journal of child neurology. 25 (8): 1038-41. doi:10.1177/0883073809356108 - Pubmed
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5. van Sonderen A, Ariño H, Petit-Pedrol M et al. The Clinical Spectrum of Caspr2 Antibody-Associated Disease. Neurology. 2016;87(5):521-8. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000002917 - Pubmed
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