In 1798, Nicolaus A. Friedreich of Wurzburg published a detailed clinical account of three patients with idopathic peripheral facial nerve paralysis. His astute observations of onset, physical findings, natural course, treatment, and recovery preceded those of Charles Bell by 23 years.

BACKGROUND Most patients with Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) have abnormal GAA triplet repeat expansions in both X25 genes. The size of the GAA expansion in the shorter of the 2 expanded alleles correlates significantly with parameters of clinical severity and is inversely related to the age at onset. OBJECTIVES To describe the clinical and molecular genetic findings in a patient with very late-ons...

We present the case of a 50-year-old female patient with Friedreich ataxia (FA) who was treated successfully with an intrathecal baclofen (ITB)-delivering pump for painful spasms. To our knowledge, this is the second reported case of FA where ITB relieved painful and disabling spasms. We suggest that ITB should be considered in the treatment of disabling spasms in patients with FA.