Symptoms include: * Difficulty moving the eyes or drooping eyelids * Facial droop or weakness * Difficulty with swallowing or slurred speech * Sudden arm or leg weakness A summary of the condition by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2014: Common features included acute focal limb weakness and specific findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spinal cord consisting of nonenhancing lesions largely restricted to the grey matter. In most cases, these lesions spanned more than one level of the spinal cord. Some also had acute cranial nerve dysfunction with correlating nonenhancing brainstem lesions on MRI. None of the children experienced altered mental status or seizures. None had any cortical, subcortical, basal ganglial, or thalamic lesions on MRI. Most children reported a febrile respiratory illness in the two weeks preceding development of neurologic symptoms. In most cases, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyses demonstrated mild-moderate pleocytosis (increased cell count in the CSF) consistent with an inflammatory or infectious process.
Acute flaccid myelitis
Vascular myelopathy
CMV polyradiculomyelopathy
Guillain–Barré syndrome
Subacute combined degeneration of spinal cord
Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration
Transverse myelitis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis