Familial bilateral paralysis of diaphragm. Adult onset.

At age 50 two homozygote twin brothers developed bilateral paralysis of the diaphragm. No infectious, metabolic, degenerative or proliferative disorders of the neuromuscular system and no thoracic diseases which could explain this lesion were detected during four years of follow-up. It appears thus to be an isolated lesion of genetic origin. To the best of our knowledge, no similar cases have been reported in literature.