Central sleep apnea as an initial presentation of small cell lung carcinoma with anti‐Hu antibody‐related paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome

Abstract

Abstract Anti‐Hu antibody‐related paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome (PNS), a rare disease primarily associated with small cell lung carcinoma, is characterized by diverse neurologic manifestations. Central sleep apnea, although rare, is specific to anti‐Hu antibody‐related PNS. Herein, we present a case of out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest attributed to hypercapnic central sleep apnea and detail the subsequent workup that revealed anti‐Hu brainstem encephalitis. A malignancy survey revealed mediastinal small cell carcinoma. The patient was treated by tumour excision, chemotherapy, plasma exchange, and high‐dose glucocorticoids. Though the neurologic damage caused by anti‐Hu antibody was documented to be relatively irreversible in literatures, such hypercapnic central sleep apnea resolved in our case about 1 month later.

Keywords

• anti‐Hu antibody
• central hypoventilation
• central sleep apnea
• Ondine's curse
• paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome