1/825. Transient paralytic attacks of obscure nature: the question of non-convulsive seizure paralysis.Eleven patients with transient paralytic attacks of obscure nature are described. paralysis could involve face or leg alone, face and hand, or face, arm and leg. The duration varied from two minutes to one day. Four patients had brain tumors, six probably had brain infarcts, and one a degenerative process. The differential diagnosis included TIAs, migraine accompaniments, and seizures. In the absence of good evidence for the first two, the cases are discussed from the standpoint of possibly representing nonconvulsive seizure paralysis (ictal paralysis, inhibitory seizure paralysis or somatic inhibitory seizure). Because of the difficulty in defining seizures as well as TIAs and migraine in their atypical variations, a firm conclusion concerning the mechanisms of the spells was not attained. Two cases of the hypertensive amaurosis-seizure syndrome have been added as further examples of ictal deficits.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/825. Giant fusiform aneurysm of the basilar artery: consideration of its pathogenesis.BACKGROUND: We tried to determine the pathogenesis of a fusiform aneurysm of the basilar artery based on the findings of two patients who had pontine infarctions due to thrombosis within the aneurysm. CASE REPORT: The patients were female, aged 75 and 62 years. At autopsy of the first case, the dilated basilar artery was filled with fresh and old thrombus. The wall was extremely thin on the left side, where a fresh red thrombus was evident, and thick on the right side, where an old white thrombus appeared. The thick wall had a thickened and hyalinized intima, and a deposition of atheromatous plaque disrupted both the internal elastic lamina and muscle layer. The left vertebral artery was atherosclerotic and its lumen was severely compromised, but the right vertebral artery was hypoplastic. On angiogram of the second case, the dilated basilar artery presumably was filled with thrombus on the left side, contralateral to the dilated and tortuous vertebral artery. The left vertebral artery was hypoplastic. CONCLUSION: atherosclerosis may be the essential factor in the pathogenesis of a fusiform aneurysm of the basilar artery in elderly patients. The disrupted internal elastic lamina and muscle layer may be susceptible to mechanical injury by hemodynamic strain, causing progressive attenuation of the arterial wall. Stenosis of the vertebral artery on the dominant side probably produces a jet stream within the basilar artery on the stenotic side and a stagnant zone on the opposite side, promoting the initial thrombus formation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.014959886741609keywords = injury (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/825. Increased angiotensin-converting enzyme activity in a patient with severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.OBJECTIVE: To assess plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity in a patient with severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: Private, university-affiliated infertility practice. PATIENT(S): A 35-year-old woman with OHSS. INTERVENTION(S): clomiphene citrate induction of ovulation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): plasma ACE activity. RESULT(S): The patient had a brain stem infarction as a result of thrombosis caused by severe OHSS. plasma ACE activity was significantly elevated and persisted long after resolution of the OHSS. CONCLUSION(S): Elevated ACE activity appears to have been associated with the development of OHSS in this patient. Further study of the ovarian renin-angiotensin system in the development of OHSS is warranted.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.5keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/825. basilar artery occlusion due to spontaneous basilar artery dissection in a child.basilar artery occlusion (BAO) causing brainstem infarction occurred in a 7-year-old boy without any basic disorders. A diagnosis of BAO due to basilar artery dissection (BAD) was suspected at angiography, and this was confirmed by gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These investigations clearly showed all the typical diagnostic signs such as a pseudolumen, double lumen and intimal flap, and a pseudolumen in resolution. The spontaneous healing of the dissection was clearly demonstrated during 10 months of follow-up. We stress that BAD can occur in young children and that combined diagnosis with gadolinium-enhanced MRI and angiography is conclusive for diagnosis of dissecting aneurysms. Wider use of these combined diagnostic methods will allow the detection of less severe basilar artery dissection, thus extending the spectrum of presentation and prognosis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.5keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/825. Fatal haemorrhagic infarct in an infant with homocystinuria.Thrombotic and thromboembolic complications are the main causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with homocystinuria. However, it is unusual for thrombosis and infarction to be the presenting feature leading to investigation for homocystinuria and cerebrovascular lesions in the first year of life. We describe a previously healthy 6-month-old infant who presented with a large middle-cerebral-artery territory infarction and died of massive brain swelling. homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) deficiency was diagnosed by metabolite analysis and confirmed by enzymatic activity measurement in a postmortem liver biopsy. homocystinuria should be considered in the differential diagnosis of venous or arterial thrombosis, regardless of age, even in the absence of other common features of the disease. We recommend systematic metabolic screening for hyperhomocysteinemia in any child presenting with vascular lesions or premature thromboembolism.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.5keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/825. Omental transposition for cerebral infarction: a 13-year follow-up study.BACKGROUND: During the past decade there has been increasing use of omental transposition to the brain of patients who experienced neurologic sequelae after a cerebral infarction. This paper reports the long-term neurologic effects seen in a patient who underwent omental transposition 31 months after a stroke. Her postoperative follow-up period has been 13 years. CASE DESCRIPTION: The patient had an expressive aphasia, a right hemiparesis and the inability to read which occurred immediately after her stroke. After surgery she demonstrated subjective and objective improvement in her speech and mobility. She also regained her ability to read shortly after surgery. CONCLUSION: The patient demonstrated that omental transposition to the brain can improve neurologic function in the presence of a long-standing cerebral infarction and that the clinical improvement can be maintained over an extended period.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/825. Cerebellar infarct caused by spontaneous thrombosis of a developmental venous anomaly of the posterior fossa.Spontaneous thrombosis of a posterior fossa developmental venous anomaly (DVA) caused a nonhemorrhagic cerebellar infarct in a 31-year-old man who also harbored a midbrain cavernous angioma. DVA thrombosis was well depicted on CT and MR studies and was proved at angiography by the demonstration of an endoluminal clot.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.5keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/825. On some neurobiological and cultural-anthropological aspects of the contralateral-neglect syndrome.Contralateral neglect is a frequent clinical syndrome which can be provoked by lesions in several brain areas (primarily inferior parietal and frontal) and includes symptoms of motor and perceptual negligence of both real and imaginative contralateral hemi-space. Attentional and representative theories attempting to explain neglect are presently the most popular. This paper analyzes two cases of neglect patients. Paying attention especially to their reading defects, a possible role of the persons with contralateral neglect is proposed in the development of script. Other neurobiological and cultural-anthropological questions arising from the analysis of these cases are also discussed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.5keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/825. Plasticity of language-related brain function during recovery from stroke.BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to correlate functional recovery from aphasia after acute stroke with the temporal evolution of the anatomic, physiological, and functional changes as measured by MRI. methods: blood oxygenation level-dependent contrast and echo-planar MRI were used to map language comprehension in 6 normal adults and in 2 adult patients during recovery from acute stroke presenting with aphasia. perfusion, diffusion, sodium, and conventional anatomic MRI were used to follow physiological and structural changes. RESULTS: The normal activation pattern for language comprehension showed activation predominately in left-sided Wernicke's and Broca's areas, with laterality ratios of 0.8 and 0.3, respectively. Recovery of the patient confirmed as having a completed stroke affecting Broca's area occurred rapidly with a shift of activation to the homologous region in the right hemisphere within 3 days, with continued rightward lateralization over 6 months. In the second patient, in whom mapping was performed fortuitously before stroke, recovery of a Wernicke's aphasia showed a similar increasing rightward shift in activation recruitment over 9 months after the event. CONCLUSIONS: Recovery of aphasia in adults can occur rapidly and is concomitant with an activation pattern that changes from left to a homologous right hemispheric pattern. Such recovery occurs even when the stroke evolves to completion. Such plasticity must be considered when evaluating stroke interventions based on behavioral and neurological measurements.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = brain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/825. Transient mutism resolving into cerebellar speech after brain stem infarction following a traumatic injury of the vertebral artery in a child.A 3.7-year-old girl presented with an anterior neck injury followed by progressive subcutaneous emphysema and loss of consciousness. After resuscitation, a laceration on the first tracheal cartilage was closed surgically. As she was extubated one week later, she was found to have right hemiplegia and muteness. MRI showed a T2-bright lesion on the tegmentum of the left midbrain down to the upper pons. Right vertebral angiography disclosed an intimal flap with stenosis at the C3 vertebral level presumably caused by a fracture of the right C3 transverse process later confirmed in a cervical 3D-CT scan. Her muteness lasted for 10 days, after which she began to utter some comprehensible words in a dysarthric fashion. Her neurological deficits showed improvement within 3 months of her admission. Transient mutism after brain stem infarction has not been reported previously. We discuss the anatomical bases for this unusual reversible disorder in the light of previous observations and conclude that bilateral damage to the dentatothalamocortical fibers at the decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncle may have been responsible for her transient mutism.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 3.0773066813273keywords = brain, injury, trauma (Clic here for more details about this article) |
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