Downbeat Nystagmus as a Presenting Manifestation of Neurolisteriosis in a Pregnant Woman

ABSTRACT

Listeria monocytogenes has tropism towards two immunologically ”privileged” sites, the fetoplacental unit in pregnant women and the central nervous system (neurolisteriosis) in immunocompromised individuals. We report a case of neurolisteriosis in a previously asymptomatic pregnant woman from rural West Bengal, India, who presented with a subacute onset febrile illness with features of rhombencephalitis and a predominantly midline-cerebellopathy (slow and dysmetric saccades, florid downbeat nystagmus, horizontal nystagmus, and ataxia). With timely detection and the institution of prolonged intravenous antibiotic therapy, both the mother and the fetus were saved uneventfully.

KEYWORDS:

• Downbeat nystagmus
• Listeria monocytogenes
• neurolisteriosis

Author contributions

All authors contributed significantly to the creation of this manuscript; each fulfilled criteria as established by the ICMJE.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01658107.2023.2186431.

Additional information

Funding

J. Benito-León is supported by the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA (NINDS #R01 NS39422), the European Commission (grant ICT-2011-287739, NeuroTREMOR), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant RTC-2015-3967-1, NetMD—platform for the tracking of movement disorder), and the Spanish Health Research Agency (grant FIS PI12/01602 and grant FIS PI16/00451).