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Clinical features

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

The clinical features of tabes dorsalis include:

  • sensory changes:
    • lightning pains:
      • often the earliest symptom
      • typically in the calf or ankle
    • loss of proprioception and vibration sense
  • optic atrophy

  • ataxia:
    • due to defective proprioceptive and spinocerebellar sense
    • Romberg positive

  • reflexes:
    • tendon reflexes are absent in the legs
    • plantars are often upgoing
    • abdominal reflexes may be exagerated

  • Argyll-Roberson pupils are common

  • bladder dysfunction may occur, rarely causing atonic bladder

  • there may be ptosis

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