Search results for "Nervous System Disease"
showing 10 items of 702 documents
Prevalence of Apolipoprotein E Alleles in Healthy Subjects and Survivors of Ischemic Stroke
1998
Background and Purpose —The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (apoE) has been related to the occurrence of myocardial infarction, but its association with ischemic stroke is controversial. We have evaluated the relation between apoE alleles and the occurrence of cerebrovascular ischemia. Methods —The apoE ε genotypes of 100 patients with a documented history of ischemic stroke without clinically apparent dementia (stroke+) and 108 subjects without such history (stroke−) were determined. The relative frequency of the apoE alleles and genotypes was estimated in 398 healthy subjects aged <40 years from the same ethnic background. Results —The frequency of the apoE ε4 allele in stroke+ (0.1…
Hemispheric cerebellar rTMS to treat drug-resistant epilepsy: case reports.
2005
Electrical stimulation of the cerebellar cortex by implanted electrodes has been shown to ameliorate refractory epilepsy. We investigated the potential therapeutic role of high-frequency cerebellar rTMS in patients affected by refractory epilepsy due to single or multiple foci. Six patients, three with single and three with multiple epileptic foci, underwent 20 rTMS sessions. Each session was given daily, excluding weekends, and consisted of two trains of 50 stimuli (5 Hz frequency and 90% motor threshold intensity), separated by 50s interval. rTMS was delivered through a focal coil (2 cm below and lateral to the inion) bilaterally in patients with multiple foci (two trains for hemisphere: …
Age at surgery as a predictor of cognitive improvements in patients with drug-resistant temporal epilepsy
2017
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery is an effective procedure that can produce cognitive changes. However, the prognostic factors related with cognitive outcomes need to be better understood. The aim of the present study is to know if age at surgery is a reliable predictor of verbal memory competence and considering factors such as: hemisphere; type of surgery; pre-surgical seizure frequency; and epilepsy duration. Sixty-one typically dominant patients with drug-resistant TLE (34 with left TLE [L-TLE] and 27 with right TLE [R-TLE]) underwent a neuropsychological assessment before and a year after surgery. Results showed that R-TLE patients had better evolution in short- and long-term verba…
Reduced Cerebral Fluoro-l-Dopamine Uptake in Adult Patients Suffering from Phenylketonuria
2007
Deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase activity in phenylketonuria (PKU) causes an excess of phenylalanine (Phe) throughout the body, predicting impaired synthesis of catecholamines in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure the utilization of 6-[18F]fluoro-l-dopamine (FDOPA) in the brain of adult patients suffering from PKU and in healthy controls. Dynamic 2-h long FDOPA emission recordings were obtained in seven adult PKU patients (five females, two males; age: 21 to 27 years) with elevated serum Phe levels, but lacking neurologic deficits. Seven age-matched, healthy volunteers were imaged under identical conditions. The utilization of F…
Evidence of Wallerian degeneration in normal appearing white matter in the early stages of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
2003
Objective: Wallerian degeneration in normal appearing white matter in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), and its correlation with the number of relapses and disease duration. Background Recent pathological studies have demonstrated Wallerian degeneration in normal appearing white matter (NAWM) in multiple sclerosis (MS), in established RRMS, and in chronic MS. However, the presence of Wallerian degeneration early in the disease and its correlation with relapse and with disease duration has not been studied. Methods: We performed proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging in 21 MS patients, and 4 healthy controls, age and gender matched, aged under 45 years, with a max…
Effects of levodopa oral bolus on the kinematics of the pointing movements in Parkinson's disease patients.
2005
We studied the time-course of a levodopa oral bolus effects on the kinematics of patients affected by a mild akinetic-rigid form of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). Eleven PD patients were evaluated: a) in OFF-state, that is before their first medication or after its withdrawal, b) in ON-state, that is at 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 24, 30 and 48 hours after the administration of 250 mg of levodopa plus 25mg of carbidopa. The main kinematics (i. e.movement time, peak of velocity, peak of acceleration and peak of deceleration) of pointing movements to six target-stimuli placed on the horizontal plane of a table were recorded. Clinical conditions were assessed according to the Motor Examinatio…
When tinnitus loudness and annoyance are discrepant: audiological characteristics and psychological profile.
2006
This study evaluates sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients reporting discrepant levels of tinnitus loudness and annoyance. 4958 subjects recruited from a national tinnitus association completed a comprehensive screening questionnaire including Klockhoff and Lindblom’s loudness grading system and the psychometric Mini-TQ (Tinnitus Questionnaire). There was a moderate correlation of 0.45 between loudness and annoyance. Of the subjects reporting very loud tinnitus, about one third had only mild or moderate annoyance scores. They were not different from those with high annoyance regarding age, gender and tinnitus duration, but annoyance was increased when subjects had additi…
Reorganization of cortical motor area in prior polio patients
1999
Focal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to study the motor maps of upper limb muscles in 7 adult patients with a history of paralytic poliomyelitis. The aim of the study was to verify the potential for long-term cortical reorganization of a selective peripheral motor neuron lesion suffered early in life.Patient selection was based on the prevalent involvement of proximal muscles in only one of the upper limbs. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from deltoid and abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscles. Each muscle map was characterized by area (no. of excitable positions), volume (the sum of MEP amplitudes at all scalp positions), maximal amplitude (the highest MEP re…
Assessment of brainstem function in Chiari II malformation utilizing brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP), blink reflex and masseter reflex
2000
Brainstem dysfunction was evaluated in 67 patients with myelomeningocele and Chiari II malformation using brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP), blink reflex (BR) and masseter reflex (MR). Signs and symptoms related to Chiari II malformation were observed in 18 patients while 49 patients had normal brainstem findings. BAEP and BR showed a higher sensitivity of brainstem involvement than MR (BAEP=1.0, BR=0.83, MR=0.50). BR, and in particular, MR were of higher accuracy (BR=0.52, MR=0.72) than BAEP (0.39) in separating patients with brainstem signs and symptoms related to Chiari II malformation. We feel that this is due to anatomic and physiologic peculiarities of the brainstem structur…
Relationship Between Regional Cerebral Blood Flow and Electrocorticographic Activities Under Sevoflurane and Isoflurane Anesthesia
2010
The aims of this study are (1) to assess the effects of volatile anesthetics on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and electrocorticography (ECoG), and (2) to investigate the relationship between rCBF and ECoG influenced by volatile anesthetics. The authors measured rCBF using laser Doppler flowmetry and ECoG simultaneously and continuously from the same cortex during craniotomy, using the specially arranged probe. Patients received intravenous anesthetics with nitrous oxide until craniotomy, and after opening of dura, volatile anesthetic, either isoflurane or sevoflurane, was started and was gradually increased for the measurement. Four of the nine cases (44.4%) of the sevoflurane group s…