Fatal paratracheal abscess in multiple sclerosis.

Upper airway obstruction resulting from a paratracheal abscess developed insidiously and led to the death of a 43-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis. Repeated nasogastric intubation, required by an exacerbation of bulbar symptoms, may have initiated this unusual infection. Corticotropin and corticosteroid therapy may have impaired immunologic competence and masked fever and other symptoms of inflammation. Hoarseness and inspiratory stridor should not be attributed to laryngeal paresis in patients with multiple sclerosis unless other causes of airway obstruction have been excluded by appropriate diagnostic studies.