1/2677. 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. ( info) |
2/2677. Combined peripheral facial and abducens nerve palsy caused by caudal tegmental pontine infarction. Isolated peripheral facial and abducens nerve palsy could theoretically be caused by a caudal pontine infarction, but as far as we know, there has been no published case history which has demonstrated this point. We describe the cases of two hypertensive patients who showed combined peripheral facial and abducens nerve palsy without other neurologic symptoms or signs. Other than hypertension, there was no identifiable etiology. magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated compatible isolated ipsilateral ischemic infarction of the caudal tegmental pons. The present cases indicate that a well-placed small pontine infarction can cause isolated peripheral facial and abducens nerve palsy. ( info) |
| The alien hand syndrome classically consists of involuntary movements accompanied by a feeling of foreignness and personification of the affected limb. Autocriticism, in which patients criticize and express astonished frustration with the behavior of the autonomous limb, is a commonly noted feature. Most cases of alien hand are associated with lesions of the supplementary motor areas of the frontal lobes, the corpus callosum, or both. The authors report on a 79-year-old man who sustained a right posterior cerebral artery distribution infarction and developed alien hand syndrome in the absence of callosal involvement. Also unique is that the patient perceived the alien hand as acceptable and positive, not hostile and repugnant. This case suggests not only that the neuroanatomic regions responsible for alien hand syndrome may require re-examination, but also that its definition may need expansion. ( info) |
4/2677. 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. ( info) |
5/2677. rehabilitation of a case of pure alexia: exploiting residual abilities. We present a case study of a 43-year-old woman with chronic and stable pure alexia. Using a multiple baseline design we report the results of two different interventions to improve reading. First, a restitutive treatment approach using an implicit semantic access strategy was attempted. This approach was designed to exploit privileged access to lexical-semantic representations and met with little success. Treatment was then switched to a substitutive treatment strategy, which involved using the patient's finger to pretend to copy the letters in words and sentences. reading using this motor cross-cuing strategy was 100% accurate and doubled in speed after 4 weeks of intervention. We propose that this patient's inability to benefit from the implicit semantic access treatment approach may be in part related to her inability to suppress the segmental letter identification process of word recognition. ( info) |
6/2677. Treatment of naming disorders: new issues regarding old therapies. I report a series of single case studies involving an aphasic patient, H.G., which illustrates both the usefulness and the limitations of cognitive neuropsychological models and methods in aphasia rehabilitation. The first set of experiments analyze H.G.'s pattern of performance across lexical tasks in order to identify the loci of her damage to the cognitive mechanisms underlying the tasks of naming, comprehension, repetition, reading, and spelling. The second set of studies evaluates her response to two different types of treatment and identifies a few of the variables that influence the effectiveness of treatment. ( info) |
| We treated a patient diagnosed as central nervous system (CNS) aspergillosis with the combined use of cerebral diffusion-weighted echo-planar magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) and polymerase chain reaction of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF-PCR). DWI, a cutting-edge imaging modality to reveal the earliest changes of cerebral infarction, detected cerebral fungal embolization when the conventional computed tomographic scan and magnetic resonance imaging failed to reveal it. CSF-PCR demonstrated the presence of aspergillus-specific dna in the specimen, when the conventional examination and culture of CSF were nonspecific or negative. These diagnostic methods could be useful in the early diagnosis of CNS aspergillosis. ( info) |
8/2677. 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. ( info) |
9/2677. Carotid endarterectomy and intracranial thrombolysis: simultaneous and staged procedures in ischemic stroke. PURPOSE: The feasibility and safety of combining carotid surgery and thrombolysis for occlusions of the internal carotid artery (ICA) and the middle cerebral artery (MCA), either as a simultaneous or as a staged procedure in acute ischemic strokes, was studied. methods: A nonrandomized clinical pilot study, which included patients who had severe hemispheric carotid-related ischemic strokes and acute occlusions of the MCA, was performed between January 1994 and January 1998. Exclusion criteria were cerebral coma and major infarction established by means of cerebral computed tomography scan. Clinical outcome was assessed with the modified Rankin scale. RESULTS: Carotid reconstruction and thrombolysis was performed in 14 of 845 patients (1.7%). The ICA was occluded in 11 patients; occlusions of the MCA (mainstem/major branches/distal branch) or the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) were found in 14 patients. In three of the 14 patients, thrombolysis was performed first, followed by carotid enarterectomy (CEA) after clinical improvement (6 to 21 days). In 11 of 14 patients, 0.15 to 1 mIU urokinase was administered intraoperatively, ie, emergency CEA for acute ischemic stroke (n = 5) or surgical reexploration after elective CEA complicated by perioperative intracerebral embolism (n = 6). Thirteen of 14 intracranial embolic occlusions and 10 of 11 ICA occlusions were recanalized successfully (confirmed with angiography or transcranial Doppler studies). Four patients recovered completely (Rankin 0), six patients sustained a minor stroke (Rankin 2/3), two patients had a major stroke (Rankin 4/5), and two patients died. In one patient, hemorrhagic transformation of an ischemic infarction was detectable postoperatively. CONCLUSION: Combining carotid surgery with thrombolysis (simultaneous or staged procedure) offers a new therapeutic approach in the emergency management of an acute carotid-related stroke. Its efficacy should be evaluated in interdisciplinary studies. ( info) |
| 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. ( info) |