Search results for "Central Nervous System Disease"
showing 10 items of 199 documents
Presentation and outcome of tuberculous meningitis in adults in the province of Castellon, Spain: a retrospective study
2008
SUMMARYThe aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological and clinical features of tuberculous meningitis in the province of Castellon, Spain. Retrospective analysis was done of all cases attended during the last 15 years. The following groups of variables were assessed: sociodemographic data, medical antecedents, clinical presentation, imaging study results, analyses, cerebrospinal fluid microbiology, treatment, and outcome. Twenty-nine cases were included. Median of age of patients was 34 years, and 17 (59%) were males. HIV infection was present in 15 cases (52%), fever, the most common symptom, occurred in 27 (93%), nuchal rigidity was noted in only 16 (55%), and syndrome of inapp…
Sudomotor testing predicts the presence of neutralizing botulinum A toxin antibodies.
2002
The increasing number of patients being treated with botulinum toxin A complex (BoNT/A) has led to a higher incidence of neutralizing anti-BoNT/A antibodies (ABAs). Because BoNT/A is known to inhibit sweating, here we report sudometry as a possibility for predicting the presence of ABA. Sixteen patients suffering from spasmodic torticollis were selected: in 2 patients, BoNT/A treatment continued to be effective, in 9 patients, the treatment effect was impaired, and in 5 patients, secondary treatment failure developed. BoNT/A (100 mouse units, Dysport; Ipsen Pharma, Berkshire, United Kingdom) was injected subcutaneously into the lateral calves. Sweating was visualized with iodine starch stai…
Frontal subregions mediating Elevator Counting task performance.
2010
Deficits in sustained attention may lead to action slips in everyday life as irrelevant action sequences are inappropriately triggered internally or by the environment. While deficits in sustained attention have been associated with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, little is known about the role of the frontal lobes in the Elevator Counting subtest of the Test of Everyday Attention. In the current study, 55 frontal patients subdivided into medial, orbital and lateral subgroups, 18 patients with posterior lesions and 82 healthy controls performed the Elevator Counting task. The results revealed that patients with medial and left lateral prefrontal lesions were significantly impaired…
Influence of somatosensory input on motor function in patients with chronic stroke.
2004
In healthy volunteers, reduction of somatosensory input from one hand leads to rapid performance improvements in the other hand. Thus, it is possible that reduction of somatosensory input from the healthy hand can influence motor function in the paretic hand of chronic stroke patients with unilateral hand weakness. To test this hypothesis, we had 13 chronic stroke patients perform motor tasks with the paretic hand and arm during cutaneous anesthesia of the healthy hand and healthy foot in separate sessions. Performance of a finger tapping task, but not a wrist flexion task, improved significantly with anesthesia of the hand, but not the foot. This effect progressed with the duration of anes…
Upper and lower face apraxia: role of the right hemisphere.
2000
The aim of this study was to evaluate face apraxia in left- and right-hemisphere-damaged patients both in the acute and chronic stage of their disease. Two newly devised tests that assess movements of the upper and lower face districts were employed. On the whole, the proportion of left-hemisphere-damaged patients showing face apraxia were 46 and 68% for upper and lower face, respectively. A substantial proportion of right-hemisphere-damaged patients also showed face apraxia, i.e. 44% upper face and 38% lower face. Concomitant variables such as general severity, locus of lesion, language or visuo-spatial impairments, presence of neglect, interval from stroke, peculiarity of clusters of item…
Endoscopic Treatment of Mesencephalic Ependymal Cysts: Technical Case Report
1998
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the results of different neuroendoscopic surgical procedures for the treatment of mesencephalic ependymal cysts. METHODS: The clinical records of five patients treated for symptomatic mesencephalic ependymal cysts were retrospectively studied. Two patients had been operated on using an endoscope-assisted microsurgical technique and three patients using a pure endoscopic procedure. RESULTS: Adequate fenestration of the cysts was achieved in all of the patients. Two of the patients were symptom-free, and the other three had improved significantly after a mean follow-up duration of 14 months. There was no surgical morbidity. CONCLUSION: Mesencephalic ependymal cysts can …
Ictal functional TCD for the lateralization of the seizure onset zone—a report of two cases
2004
Ictal functional transcranial Doppler sonography (I-fTCD) was used to lateralize the ictal onset zone in the presurgical evaluation of two patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. In one patient, I-fTCD and ictal SPECT were performed simultaneously during EEG-monitoring. In both patients, results were concordant with the ictal SPECT findings, PET and semiology. I-fTCD seems to be an interesting new method to non-invasively lateralize the seizure onset zone with high temporal resolution. I-fTCD and SPECT may give complementary information to lateralize the seizure onset zone.
Pediatric non-neuronopathic Gaucher disease: presentation, diagnosis and assessment. Consensus statements.
2003
In individuals with non-neuronopathic Gaucher disease, childhood manifestations are usually predictive of a more severe phenotype. Although children with Gaucher disease are at risk of irreversible disease complications, early intervention with an optimal dose of enzyme therapy can prevent the development of complications and ensure adequate, potentially normal, development through childhood and adolescence. Very few, if any, children diagnosed by signs and symptoms should go untreated. Evidence suggests that disease severity, disease progression and treatment response in different organs where glucocerebroside accumulates are often non-uniform in affected individuals. Therefore, serial mon…
Massive triiodothyronine intoxication: Efficacy of hemoperfusion?
2002
A case of massive accidental triiodothyronine intoxication (1000-fold the usual therapeutic dose, for 8 days) is reported with important disturbances of cardiovascular and central nervous systems that required intensive care support. Serum free triiodothyronine levels were 4789 pmol L-1 on admittance (normal values, 3.5-6.5 pmol L-1). In the absence of a specific treatment, hemoperfusions were performed but failed to accelerate significantly the decay of blood levels of free triiodothyronine (apparent half-life 25.9 hours; 95% confidence interval: 19.8-37.4 hours). The patient, a young woman, made a satisfactory recovery, in spite of important clinical complications.
Attention to pain is processed at multiple cortical sites in man.
2004
Painful cutaneous laser stimuli evoked potentials (LEPs) were recorded over the primary somatosensory (SI), parasylvian, and medial frontal (MF) cortex areas in a patient with subdural electrode grids located over these areas for surgical treatment of epilepsy. The amplitudes of the negative (N2*) and positive (P2**) LEP peaks over SI, parasylvian, and MF cortex were enhanced by attention to (counting stimuli), in comparison with distraction from the stimulus (reading for comprehension). Late positive deflections following the P2** peak (late potential—LP) were recorded over MF and from the lateral premotor regions during attention but not during distraction. These findings suggest that att…