1/27. Beneficial effect of piracetam monotherapy on post-ischaemic palatal myoclonus.A 70-year-old hypertensive woman suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage followed by delayed vasospasm in the basal cerebral arteries. This resulted in multiple ischaemic lesions in the right middle cerebral artery region and contralateral post-ischaemic palatal myoclonus. In this setting, piracetam administered in high doses (24-36 g/day), abolished the myoclonus observed in this patient. Although there is evidence from case reports and clinical trials of the therapeutic efficacy of piracetam in patients with skeletal myoclonus of various causes, to our knowledge this is the first report indicating the beneficial effect of piracetam monotherapy on post-ischaemic palatal myoclonus.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/27. Perceiving left and imagining right: dissociation in neglect.Signor Piazza, a patient with a left parieto-occipital haemorrhage and a right thalamic stroke, showed severe right personal neglect (e.g. touching own body parts) and right perceptual neglect in tasks with (e.g. cancelling tasks) or without (e.g. description of a complex picture) motor response. He had also right-sided neglect dyslexia (including single words), without language impairments. However, the patient also presented with a clear left-sided deficit in the representational domain (e.g. imagery tasks). Signor Piazza's pattern of performance suggests dissociation between imagery and perception within the neglect syndrome.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/27. Dissecting aneurysm of the peripheral posterior inferior cerebellar artery.Dissecting aneurysms of intracranial posterior circulation have recently been shown to be less uncommon than previously thought. However, those involving the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (pica) and not vertebral artery at all are extremely rare. We report here a case of a patient with a dissecting aneurysm of the lateral medullary segment of pica which presented as subarachnoid haemorrhage. The aneurysm was treated by trapping surgery and the distant pica was anastomosed to the occipital artery. The patient showed a slight ataxia immediately after surgery but recovered fully. Recovery from immediately postoperative cerebellar symptoms due to intra-operative ischemia seemed to be due largely to recovery of flow in the region of cortical branches of pica.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/27. classification of venous ischaemia with MRI.PURPOSE: Venous ischaemia is diagnosed by angiography and estimated with SPECT and PET. But venous ischaemia presents different features due to aetiology, type of onset, time course and collateral circulation. The purpose of this study was to analyse and to classify VI with MRI. methods: An analysis of 12 cases of dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) with venous ischaemia, 4 cases of sinus thrombosis, and a case of cortical venous thrombosis was performed. Venous ischaemia is classified with MRI as Type 1: no abnormality, Type 2: T2WI showed high signal intensity area and Gd-MRI showed no enhancement, Type 3: T2WI showed high signal intensity area and Gd-MRI showed enhancement, Type 4: venous infarction or haemorrhage. RESULTS: Type 1 was 8 cases. Type 2 was 3 cases and indicated cytotoxic oedema. Type 3 was 2 cases and indicated vasogenic oedema because of the destruction of blood brain barrier. Type 4 was 4 cases. CONCLUSIONS: The classification may be a useful indicator of severity of venous ischaemia and treatment.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/27. Increases in GABA concentrations during cerebral ischaemia: a microdialysis study of extracellular amino acids.OBJECTIVES: Increases in the extracellular concentration of the excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate during cerebral ischaemia in patients are well recognised. Less emphasis has been placed on the concentrations of the inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitters, notably gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA), despite evidence from animal studies that GABA may act as a neuroprotectant in models of ischaemia. The objective of this study was to investigate the concentrations of various excitatory, inhibitory and non-transmitter amino acids under basal conditions and during periods of cerebral ischaemia in patients with head injury or a subarachnoid haemorrhage. methods: Cerebral microdialysis was established in 12 patients with head injury (n=7) or subarachnoid haemorrhage (n=5). Analysis was performed using high performance liquid chromatography for a total of 19 (excitatory, inhibitory and non-transmitter) amino acids. patients were monitored in neurointensive care or during aneurysm clipping. RESULTS: During stable periods of monitoring the concentrations of amino acids were relatively constant enabling basal values to be established. In six patients, cerebral ischaemia was associated with increases (up to 1350 fold) in the concentration of GABA, in addition to the glutamate and aspartate. Parallel increases in the concentration of glutamate and GABA were found (r=0.71, p<0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that, in the human brain, acute cerebral ischaemia is not accompanied by an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, but by an increase in all neurotransmitter amino acids. These findings concur with the animal models of ischaemia and raise the possibility of an endogenous GABA mediated neuroprotective mechanism in humans.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/27. A light and electron microscopic study of oedematous human cerebral cortex in two patients with post-traumatic seizures.PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: brain cortical biopsies of two patients with clinical diagnosis of complicated brain trauma who had seizures, were studied by means of light and electron microscopes in order to correlate structural alterations with seizure activity. methods AND PROCEDURES: biopsy samples of left frontal cortex and right parietal cortex were processed by current techniques for light and transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS: The tissue showed severe vasogenic oedema with perivascular and intraparenchymatous haemorrhages. At the capillary wall, increased vesicular and vacuolar transendothelial transport, open endothelial junctions, thickened basement membrane and swollen perivascular astrocytic end-feet were observed. Some pyramidal and non-pyramidal nerve cells appeared dense and shrunken and others exhibited marked intraneuronal enlargement of membrane compartment. The myelinated axons displayed signs of degeneration and a process of axonal sprouting. Numerous swollen asymmetrical axo-dendritic synaptic contacts were observed in the neuropil, which exhibited mostly closely aggregated spheroidal synaptic vesicles toward the presynaptic membrane and numerous exocytotic vesicles sites. The perisynaptic astrocytic ensheathment appeared retracted or absent, whereas the extracellular space appeared notably dilated. Synaptic disassembly was also observed. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate, in two patients with post-traumatic seizure activity, brain barrier dysfunction, vasogenic oedema, anoxic-ischaemic neurons, axonal sprouting, numerous altered excitatory synapses and synaptic disassembly. Some considerations on clinical and research applications are discussed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/27. Simultaneous onset of haemorrhagic and ischaemic strokes in a haemodialysis patient.Primary brain haemorrhage and infarction only very rarely occur simultaneously. A patient with end stage renal disease from diabetic nephropathy suddenly had motor aphasia and horizontal nystagmus soon after finishing haemodialysis. Neuroradiological studies showed a haematoma on the right side of the pons and an infarct in the left frontal lobe with occlusion of the left internal carotid artery. Specific conditions of the haemodialysis--including anticoagulant use, relative hypovolaemia and hypertension just before haemodialysis, and an abrupt decrease in blood pressure during haemodialysis--seemed to be the major reason for the simultaneous onset of dual strokes.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/27. Dissecting aneurysms of the middle cerebral artery: neuroradiological and clinical features.There are few reported cases of nontraumatic dissecting aneurysms of the middle cerebral artery (MCA), and their neuroradiological and clinical features have not been analysed. We looked at these aspects in a collaborative study. We reviewed 13 patients diagnosed as having a dissecting aneurysm of the MCA based on clinical signs and neuroradiological findings in 46 stroke centres between 1995 and 1999. There were four patients who presented with cerebral ischaemia, and nine who presented with bleeding. Of the former group, three were aged less than 15 years. cerebral angiography showed extensive stenosis and a double lumen of the M1 portion in all four patients. High signal on T1-weighted images around the arterial flow void, due to intramural haematoma, was often seen in the second week. MR angiography showed findings corresponding those of intra-arterial angiography in all four cases. We saw an infarct on CT or MRI in territory of the perforating branches of the M1 segment in all four patients. In the patients presenting with bleeding, pure subarachnoid haemorrhage or a sylvian fissure haematoma was seen on initial CT, and the predominant angiographic finding was dilatation with stenosis, but the site of the lesions was not uniform. A double lumen or intimal flap was seen in about half the cases. Rebleeding occurred within 14 days of the onset in five of the nine patients, with a poor prognosis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/27. Acute intraoperative cerebral oedema: are current therapies evidence based?Acute intraoperative ischaemic cerebral oedema following torrential haemorrhage from the left intracranial internal carotid artery occurred during resection of a recurrent middle cranial fossa meningioma. A series of immediate anaesthetic interventions was effective in reducing brain oedema, allowed for surgical haemostasis, and resulted in no permanent sequelae to patient outcome. A review of the literature indicates that direct evidence for the efficacy of extremely early interventions as described in this case report is lacking and must be extrapolated from other brain injury models.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/27. Disappearance of haemorrhagic stroke-induced thalamic (central) pain following a further (contralateral ischaemic) stroke.We report the case of a patient who, following a right thalamic haemorrhage, developed thalamic syndrome characterised by burning pain and hyperalgesia in the left side of the body. Three years later, following a further (contralateral ischaemic) stroke, she reported the complete disappearance of the pain and hyperalgesia. To our knowledge, this is the first described case of disappearance of thalamic syndrome following a second stroke, different in nature from and contralateral to the first. Various hypotheses, based on the nervous tracts and nuclei involved in pain processing, may be advanced to explain this occurrence.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = haemorrhage (Clic here for more details about this article) |
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