0000000000280843
AUTHOR
R. M. Ruggieri
Pancreatic encephalopathy: a 7-year follow-up case report and review of the literature
Pancreatic encephalopathy is a rare complication of acute pancreatitis. Clinical features include focal neurological signs and acute onset of dementia. This picture can fluctuate over time: cyclic progression with remission and relapses has been described. We present the case of a 43-year-old man who, after an acute episode of pancreatitis, experienced five relapses, with alternating focal signs. The patient has improved, but cognitive impairment persists after a 7-year follow-up.
Cognitive impairment in patients suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with EDSS ≤ 3.5
Objectives – Previous papers have mainly demonstrated the presence and the frequency of cognitive impairment in patients suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate subjects with the relapsing-remitting form of the disease and mild clinical disability (EDSS ≤ 3.5), so as to quantify this deficit when the illness does not yet interfere with daily living and the ability to work. Methods – Fifty patients and 50 healthy controls were submitted to a wide neuropsychological battery, including Wechsler Memory Scale – I- (WMS), Benton Visual Retention Test – D- (BVRT), Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM), Kohs’ test (KT), Judgement of L…
Therapeutic considerations in cerebellopontine angle lipomas inducing hemifacial spasm.
Lipoma is a very rare tumour at the cerebellopontine angle. We report a case of incomplete hemifacial spasm, associated with a lipoma involving and compressing both facial and acoustic nerves at their origin in the brainstem. The patient was treated with medical therapy (botulinum toxin A) and surgery. We present a review of the last ten years of the literature, with particular regard to management.
Legal and assistance aspects of Alzheimer's disease: analysis of 100 cases.
Caring for patients with disabling cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other progressive dementias, has a number of legal and social welfare implications. The two main problems to be discussed with patients and caregivers are the need for a legal guardian and requests for government financial support, both of which depend on the patient's progressive loss of autonomy and increasing need for assistance. In order to study the presence of these two support measures, we considered 100 AD patients (56 women and 44 men) divided in four groups on the basis of the stage of the disease: mild (25), moderate (34) and severe (32), or death (9). We investigated the number of caregiv…