A 66-Year Old Female with Belly Dancer's Syndrome: A Case Report from a Low-Resource Setting.
Emanuel Mujuni, Tom Robert, Joseph Socrates Odongo et al.
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Case in brief
A 66-year-old woman with well-controlled hypertension had a 15-year history of intermittent jerky abdominal-wall movements, preceded by a burning epigastric sensation and associated with abdominal pain, dyspnoea and sweating. Episodes became more frequent over the preceding month. Examination showed dyskinetic movements involving the entire abdominal wall, lasting up to 25 minutes, with preserved consciousness and a normal neurological examination. Blood tests and brain CT were unremarkable apart from mild hyponatremia, hypomagnesaemia and hypokalaemia. After oral clonazepam was started, the movements resolved completely within three days.
What made this case unusual
The prolonged history of episodic abdominal-wall movements, with a preceding burning epigastric sensation and associated pain, dyspnoea and sweating, occurred despite a normal neurological examination and unremarkable brain CT.
Diagnostic / clinical pearl
Recognize belly dancer’s syndrome as involuntary rhythmic or semi-rhythmic contractions of the diaphragm and abdominal wall; its presentation can be mistaken for other conditions, and evaluation may not reveal an underlying cause.
Why it matters
The report highlights the diagnostic challenge of this rare movement disorder in a low-resource setting where access to specialized investigations may be limited.