Table 1. Summary of the important clinical findings and investigations of all patients.

Characteristics	Patient 1	Patient 2	Patient 3	Patient 4	Patient 5
Age (years)	31	18	16	33	15
Sex	Male	Female	Female	Male	Female
Total duration of illness (days)	10	15	7	10	6
Vegetarian	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UL or LL complaints	UL	LL	LL	UL	LL
Ankle reflex	Normal	Absent	Absent	Normal	Absent
Plantar reflex	Flexor	Extensor	Extensor	Flexor	Flexor
Romberg test	Negative	Positive	Positive	Negative	Positive
Sensory gait ataxia	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Pseudoathetosis of hands	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Haemoglobin (12–15 g dl−1)	9.0	8.5	12.5	14.5	13.2
MCV (80–100 fL)	106	112	96	108	116
Macrocytes in peripheral smear	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Vitamin B12 level (243–894 pg ml−1)	97	86	102	92	88
Homocysteine (5–15 μmol l−1)	57	62	48	66	71
MRI spinal cord	Cervical posterior cord hyperintensity	Thoracic posterior cord hyperintensity	Thoracic posterior cord hyperintensity	Cervical posterior cord hyperintensity	Normal
Clinical syndrome	Acute posterior cord syndrome	Acute posterolateral cord syndrome	Acute posterolateral cord syndrome	Acute posterior cord syndrome	Acute posterior cord syndrome
Complete improvement	3 months	2 months	1 month	2 months	3 months

Abbreviations: LL, lower limb; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; UL, upper limb.