Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry articles from April 2001

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry archives from April 2001

Neurology in practice: another supplement: why?(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Over the past few years there has been a quiet revolution in neurological training in the United Kingdom and many other countries. In comparison with North American trainees, who have for many years benefited from structured coordinated 4-5...

The clinical impact of epilepsy genetics.
April 1, 2001... Abstract An overemphasis on molecular genetic advances in epilepsy is in danger of missing the major contribution that clinical genetic studies make in predicting the likely benefit of molecular research efforts. Genetic epidemiology,...

Magnetic resonance, magnetisation transfer, and diffusion weighted imaging correlates of optic nerve, brain, and cervical cord damage in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The association between Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy and multiple sclerosis has encouraged the search for susceptibility genes in multiple sclerosis. This symbiotic relation is reversed in the paper by Inglese et al [1] (this issue, pp...

The outcome of epilepsy surgery.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... The rapid expansion in epilepsy surgery over the past decade has been principally underpinned by advances in brain imaging. In particular, the development of high resolution MRI, which can identify and predict the pathology of underlying...

Intraspinal steroids: history, efficacy, accidentality, and controversy with review of United States Food and Drug Administration reports.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... This review, covering a timespan of almost a century, attempts to answer five pressing questions: (1) Are intraspinal steroid therapies effective for back pain or radicular syndromes? (2) Do epidural injections remain confined to the...

Magnetic resonance imaging, magnetisation transfer imaging, and diffusion weighted imaging correlates of optic nerve, brain, and cervical cord damage in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a mitochondrial disease leading to bilateral loss of central vision and severe optic nerve atrophy. A subtype of LHON presents additional clinical and MRI aspects...

Predictors of outcome and pathological considerations in the surgical treatment of intractable epilepsy associated with temporal lobe lesions.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To evaluate the influence of clinical, investigative, and pathological factors on seizure remission after temporal lobectomy for medically intractable epilepsy associated with focal lesions other than hippocampal...

Transient lesion in the splenium of the corpus callosum: three further cases in epileptic patients and a pathophysiological hypothesis.
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objective--Focal lesions limited to the splenium of the corpus callosum (SCC) are rare and little is known about their aetiology. Three patients were examined for presurgical evaluation in epilepsy with a transient lesion in the...

Deep brain stimulation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease: subthalamic nucleus versus globus pallidus internus.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Deep brain stimulation of the basal ganglia has become a promising treatment option for patients with Parkinson's disease who have side effects from drugs. Which is the best target--globus pallidus internus (GPi) or...

Levodopa reversible loss of the Piper frequency oscillation component in Parkinson's disease.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Although Parkinson's disease is typically characterised by bradykinesia, rigidity, and rest tremor, the possibility that two additional motor deficits are manifest during small hand muscle activity was...

Reducing everyday memory and planning problems by means of a paging system: a randomised control crossover study.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To evaluate a paging system designed to improve independence in people with memory problems and executive deficits. Methods--After a successful pilot study, a randomised control trial was conducted involving a...

Pentagon copying is more impaired in dementia with Lewy bodies than in Alzheimer's disease.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives-In many cases the clinical differentiation of patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been difficult. Because many neuropsychological studies have reported greater...

Gamma knife radiosurgery of recurrent central neurocytomas: a preliminary report.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--A series of three recurrent central neurocytomas treated by gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS), which were initially totally resected, are described. Up to now, no reports exist on this treatment modality for this rare...

Clinical trials of multiple sclerosis monitored with enhanced MRI: new sample size calculations based on large data sets.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objective--A new parametric simulation procedure based on the negative binomial (NB) model was used to evaluate the sample sizes needed to achieve optimal statistical powers for parallel groups (with (PGB) and without (PG) a...

Demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system occurring in black South Africans.
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To investigate the nature and cause in eight black South African patients of a recurrent (multiphasic), remitting, and relapsing demyelinating disease of the CNS. Methods--The clinical and laboratory investigations...

Acute functional reorganisation of the human motor cortex during resection of central lesions: a study using intraoperative brain mapping.
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Brain plasticity is supposed to allow the compensation of motor function in cases of rolandic lesion. The aim was to analyse the mechanisms of functional reorganisation during surgery in the central area. ...

Wilson's disease presenting in a family with an apparent dominant history of tremor.
April 1, 2001... Abstract A patient with Wilson's disease is described who presented with dystonic tremor in a family with an apparent dominant history of tremor. Subsequent investigation showed that the patient's mother had essential tremor, with...

"The other" Babinski's sign: paradoxical raising of the eyebrow in hemifacial spasm.
April 1, 2001... Joseph Babinski is famous for his description, in 1896, of the abnormal plantar reflex as an indicator of dysfunction in the pyramidal tract. After the works of Brissaud and Meige, his contribution to description of hemifacial spasm is much...

Reduction of striatal glucose metabolism in McLeod choreoacanthocytosis.
April 1, 2001... Abstract McLeod syndrome is a distinct form of neuroacanthocytosis. Its defining feature is the depression of erythrocyte Keli antigens. The underlying X chromosomal mutations cause a dysfunction of an erythrocyte membrane protein Kx. A...

Sir David Bruce (1855-1931) and Thermistocles Zammit (1864-1935).
April 1, 2001... Sir David Bruce was an Australian by birth. He graduated from Edinburgh in 1881 and spent a large part of his career as a military physician. While stationed in Malta, he studied Malta fever (brucellosis or undulant fever). In 1887 he...

Combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging demonstrate widespread modified organisation in malformation of cortical development.
April 1, 2001... Abstract A patient with a mild left hemiparesis and a malformation of cortical development in the right hemisphere was investigated with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and DTI (diffusion tensor imaging). The motor cortex was...

Neurology in ancient faces.(evidence of disease in Egyptian mummies)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Background--Clinical paleoneurology is almost non-existent, but recognition of neurological diseases in ancient people might be possible by scrutinising portraits apparently representing people as they appeared in life. ...

Diffusion imaging shows abnormalities after blunt head trauma when conventional magnetic resonance imaging is normal.
April 1, 2001... Abstract The investigation and management of patients after head injury must include the accurate and complete identification of cerebral damage. Using diffusion tensor imaging, abnormalities of diffusion in patients with head injuries and...

Inflammatory cytokines in subarachnoid haemorrhage: association with abnormal blood flow velocities in basal cerebral arteries.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Subarachnoidal release of inflammatory cytokines (interleukin (IL)-1[beta], IL-6, and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-[alpha]) was characterised in 35 patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) and control subjects and compared...

Treatment of sialorrhoea with ultrasound guided botulinum toxin type A injection in patients with neurological disorders.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To investigate the safety and efficacy of ultrasound guided botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) injections into salivary glands for the treatment of sialorrhoea in patients with neurological disorders. Methods--The...

Rub epilepsy: a somatosensory evoked reflex epilepsy induced by prolonged cutaneous stimulation.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract To delineate rub epilepsy--a type of reflex epilepsy induced by prolonged or repetitive cutaneous stimulation in a circumscribed area of the body--three cases are presented, as well as one of tooth brushing epilepsy for...

Measurement of spinal cord area in clinically isolated syndromes suggestive of multiple sclerosis.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Atrophy of the spinal cord is known to occur in multiple sclerosis but the cause and the timing of its onset are not clear. Recent evidence suggests that atrophy may start to occur early in the disease. The aim was to determine...

Disability and quality of life in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Gharcot-Marie-Tooth disease type I (CMT1) is a hereditary sensorimotor neuropathy causing variable degrees of handicap. The risk for relevant disability in respect to genetic counselling is unknown. An attempt was made...

Iron overload without the C282Y mutation in patients with epilepsy.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract To test the hypothesis that iron overload predisposes to epilepsy, transferrin saturation in 130 patients with epilepsy and sex and age matched 128 control subjects without epilepsy were studied. Mean transferrin saturation was...

High dose naltrexone for dyskinesias induced by levodopa.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract Ten patients with Parkinson's disease and levodopa induced dyskinesias (LIDs) took part in this randomised, placebo controlled, double blind, crossover trial to assess the efficacy and tolerability of high dose oral naltrexone for...

Pallidal and thalamic neurostimulation in severe tardive dystonia.
April 1, 2001... Abstract A 70 year old woman presented with a 6 year history of medically refractory severe tardive dystonia. After informed consent, a bilateral stereotactic electrode placement targeting the ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus (VIM)...

Indicators of rapid clinical recovery in Guillain-Barre syndrome.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Abstract To elucidate the features of patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome who show markedly rapid clinical recovery, clinical, serological, and electrophysiological data of 80 consecutive patients were reviewed. Antigangliosides, and...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
April 1, 2001... A transient dysfunction of the neuromuscular junction due to carbendazim intoxication Carbendazim ([C.sub.9][H.sub.9][N.sub.3][O.sub.2]; methyl 1-H-benzimidazol-2-yl carbamate) is widely used as an agricultural and horticultural fungicide...

CORRESPONDENCE.
April 1, 2001... How well does the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project classification predict the site and size of infarct of brain imaging? Mead et al very justifiably draw our attention to the value of clinical assessment of patients with stroke. The...

NEUROLOGY IN PRACTICE: CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASE.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Stroke medicine has evolved dramatically over the last 20 years. The major advances have arisen from large clinical trials, combining studies using meta-analysis, improved classification of stroke subtypes, and developments in investigation,...

SURFING FOR STROKE.(web sites on stroke for patients and professionals)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Exploring the internet for useful information on medical conditions can be an endlessly frustrating exercise. While many of the sites are intended as "all things to all people" the Stroke Network (http://www.strokenetwork.org/) is unusual in...

ASSESSMENT AND INVESTIGATION OF STROKE AND TRANSIENT ISCHAEMIC ATTACK.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Any discussion of the diagnosis and investigation of stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) must keep in mind the convincing evidence of the benefits of organised stroke care to patients of all ages, [1] the availability of evidence based...

RADIOLOGY OF STROKE.(techniques and procedural guidelines)
April 1, 2001... Stroke is a clinical syndrome. [1] In the investigation of stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) imaging is used to differentiate: * vascular from non-vascular lesions, such as tumours or infections * ischaemic from haemorrhagic...

MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF STROKE.
April 1, 2001... Management of stroke has been revolutionised over the past decade, and therapeutic nihilism is no longer justified. The advent of acute treatments, especially thrombolysis, where the window of opportunity for intervention is very short and the...

IDENTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT OF DIFFICULT STROKE AND TIA SYNDROMES.
April 1, 2001... Usually, difficulty in the diagnosis and management of stroke occurs because of the rarity of the presentation, ignorance about the condition, or the lack of scientific clinical trial data to support clinical decisions. This article focuses on...