Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry articles from August 2001

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry archives from August 2001

Restless legs syndrome.
August 1, 2001... The term restless legs syndrome (RLS) was first introduced by Karl A Ekbom, a Swedish neurologist and surgeon, in 1945, although the earliest description of restless legs associated with sleep disabilities possibly came from Sir Thomas Willis,...

Are two heads better than one?(magnetic resonance angiography and the diagnosis of arterial stenosis)
August 1, 2001... In the paper by Wardlaw et al (this issue, pp 155-160) the authors consider the question as to whether or not the severity of carotid bifurcation stenosis has some bearing on reader accuracy when interpreting magnetic resonance angiography. [1]...

Diagnosis of chronic peripheral neuropathy.
August 1, 2001... "The golden rule is that there are no golden rules." (George Bernard Shaw: Maxims for Revolutionists) The annual incidence of peripheral neuropathy is at least 118/100 000, [1] sufficiently common to justify investigating more efficient...

Ramsay Hunt syndrome.(peripheral facial nerve palsy with ear or mouth rash)
August 1, 2001... Abstract The strict definition of the Ramsay Hunt syndrome is peripheral facial nerve palsy accompanied by an erythematous vesicular rash on the ear (zoster oticus) or in the mouth. J Ramsay Hunt, who described various clinical...

How does the degree of carotid stenosis affect the accuracy and interobserver variability of magnetic resonance angiography?
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--The accuracy of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) was determined in patients with recently symptomatic tight (80%-99%) carotid stenosis (on Doppler ultrasound), and the effect of stenosis severity on the accuracy...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of working memory impairment after traumatic brain injury.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To examine patterns of brain activation while performing a working memory task in persons with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and healthy controls. It is well established that working memory is an area...

Microdialytical monitoring of uric and ascorbic acids in the brains of patients after severe brain injury and during neurovascular surgery.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Microdialysis has been extensively used to monitor brain metabolism in the extracellular fluid of patients with severe head injury, to detect the onset of secondary ischaemic damage. The aim was to investigate whether...

Fixed and dilated pupils after trauma, stroke, and previous intracranial surgery: management and outcome.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To clarify whether different causative events (trauma, stroke, intracranial surgery), time of intervention, and treatment mode influence outcome, patients with fixed and dilated pupils (FDPs) in a prospective...

Acute care in neurosurgery: quantity, quality, and challenges.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objective--Part of the daily routine in neurosurgery is the treatment of emergency room admissions, and acute cases from other departments or from outside hospitals. This acute care is not normally included in performance figures...

Ultrastructural and immunocytochemical evidence that an incompetent blood-brain barrier is related to the pathophysiology of cavernous malformations.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Cerebral cavernous malformations are linked to mutations of the KRIT1 gene at the CCM1 locus and to mutations at two other loci, CCM2 and CCM3, for which genes are not yet identified. There is little information...

Health related quality of life is improved by botulinum neurotoxin type A in long term treated patients with focal dystonia.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--The advent of botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) gave rise to substantial progress in the treatment of focal dystonias. In the light of the high costs of the toxin and the necessity to establish valid outcome indices...

Peripheral neuropathy in chronic occupational inorganic lead exposure: a clinical and electrophysiological study.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Background and objectives--Traditionally the neuromuscular disorder associated with lead poisoning has been purely motor. This study assessed peripheral nerve function clinically and electrophysiologically in 46 patients with...

Diagnostic investigation of patients with chronic polyneuropathy: evaluation of a clinical guideline.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objective--(1) To evaluate a clinical guideline for the diagnostic investigation of patients presenting with signs and symptoms (present for longer than 6 weeks) suggesting a chronic polyneuropathy. (2) To investigate the...

Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies in the Miller Fisher syndrome: evidence of corticospinal tract abnormality.(ataxia, areflexia, and ophthalmoplegia)(form of acquired inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy)
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives-To evaluate serial central motor conduction time in the Miller Fisher syndrome. Method-Three patients with classic Miller Fisher syndrome were evaluated clinically. They had serial central motor conduction times...

The Lewy body.(physiological manifestations of Parkinson's disease)
August 1, 2001... James Parkinson noted: "A diseased state of the medulla spinalis, in that part which is contained in the canal, formed by the superior cervical vertebrae, and extending, as the disease proceeds, to the medulla oblongata... is the...

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease: effects of variation in stimulation parameters.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objective--To investigate the relation between the variation of the parameters of stimulation and the clinical effectiveness in parkinsonian patients treated with deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), to provide...

Can item response theory reduce patient burden when measuring health status in neurological disorders? Results from Rasch analysis of the SF-36 physical functioning scale (PF-10).
August 1, 2001... Abstract Background--Indices of physical function may have a hierarchy of items. In cases where this can be demonstrated it may be possible to reduce patient burden by asking them to complete only those items which relate directly to their...

The five item Barthel index.(health measurement form)
August 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--Routine data collection is now considered mandatory. Therefore, staff rated clinical scales that consist of multiple items should have the minimum number of items necessary for rigorous measurement. This study explores...

Christjaan Eijkman (1858-1930).(famous for his research in the causes of beriberi and polyneuritis)
August 1, 2001... Eijkman was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the role polished rice played in causing polyneuritis in chickens. This work led to the first real understanding of a possible cure for beriberi and was the starting point of the field of...

Homozygous deletion mutation of the parkin gene in patients with atypical parkinsonism.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP) is characterised by homogenous clinical features and selective degeneration of nigral neurons. Recent progress in molecular genetic analyses of AR-JP has led to the identification...

Intravenous immune globulins in patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome and contraindications to plasma exchange: 3 days versus 6 days.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Plasma exchange is contraindicated in 10 to 20% of patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). The optimal schedule for intravenous immune globulin (IVIg) therapy has not yet been established in these patients. The objective...

Clinical study of 222 patients with pure motor stroke.
August 1, 2001... Abstract The objective was to assess the frequency of pure motor stroke caused by different stroke subtypes and to compare demographic, clinical, neuroimaging, and outcome data of pure motor stroke with those of patients with other lacunar...

Cerebral lymphoma presenting as a leukoencephalopathy.
August 1, 2001... Abstract Cerebral lymphoma is infrequent in immunocompetent patients. This tumour usually appears on CT and MRI as a single lesion or as multiple lesions with mass effect and homogeneous enhancement after contrast administration. A patient...

Clinical features of transient monocular blindness and the likelihood of atherosclerotic lesions of the internal carotid artery.
August 1, 2001... Abstract To assess which features of transient monocular blindness (TMB) are associated with atherosclerotic changes in the ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA), 337 patients with sudden, transient monocular loss of vision were...

Neuronal damage in the interval form of CO poisoning determined by serial diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging plus [1] H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy.(carbon monoxide poisoning)
August 1, 2001... Abstract In a patient with the interval form of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning diffusion weighted MRI and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ([H-MRS.sup.1]) were serially performed immediately after the appearance of delayed sequelae...

Selective impairment of facial recognition due to a haematoma restricted to the right fusiform and lateral occipital region.
August 1, 2001... Abstract A 67 year old right handed Japanese man developed prosopagnosia caused by a haemorrhage. His only deficit was the inability to perceive and discriminate unfamiliar faces, and to recognise familiar faces. He did not show deficits...

Relation between depression after stroke, antidepressant therapy, and functional recovery.
August 1, 2001... Abstract The aim was to evaluate the effects of poststroke depression and antidepressant therapy on the improvement of motor scores and disability, to verify if the negative effects of poststroke depression on functional recovery could be...

Cervical dystonia is associated with a polymorphism in the dopamine (D5) receptor gene.
August 1, 2001... Abstract The objective was to assess whether polymorphisms in the dopaniine receptor and transporter genes are associated with development of primary cervical dystonia. A case-control allelic association study is described of 100...

Motor neuron disease after electric injury.
August 1, 2001... Abstract The occurrence of motor neuron disease after electrical injury in six patients is reported and compared with patients from the literature. The patients were five men with spinal onset and one woman with bulbar motor neuron disease...

Neuropsychological and psychiatric complications in endoscopic third ventriculostomy: a clinical case report.
August 1, 2001... Abstract The clinical case report of a patient who underwent an endoscopic third ventriculostomy for the treatment of a slit ventricle syndrome is presented. After surgery the patient developed a severe complication consisting of an...

Efficacy of high dose steroid therapy in children with severe acute transverse myelitis.
August 1, 2001... Abstract No effective treatment has been demonstrated for patients with acute transverse myelopathy. In a multicentre controlled study, 12 children with severe acute transverse myelopathy were treated with intravenous methylprednisolone...

Bilateral substantia nigra lesions on magnetic resonance imaging in a patient with encephalitis lethargica.
August 1, 2001... A 21 year old man was admitted to hospital presenting with low grade fever (37.7[degrees]C), slight meningeal irritation, headache, visual hallucinations, dysarthria, insomnia, gait and limb ataxia, and a postural tremor. There was no...

Vertigo and amaurosis fugax secondary to Takayasu's arteritis.
August 1, 2001... Case report A 34 year old female outpatient presented with a 4 week history of vertigo and amaurosis fugax of her right eye. Physical examination showed arterial bruits in both subclavian regions, and reduced pulses of both radial and...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.(Sustained downgaze in coma after cardiac arrest)(Prion protein gene polymorphism and Alzheimer's disease: one modulatory trait of cognitive decline?)(Complex musical hallucinosis in a professional musician with a left subcortical haemorrhage)(Cochlear implantation in a profoundly deaf patient with MELAS syndrome)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2001... Sustained downgaze in coma after cardiac arrest Sustained downgaze eye deviation is occasionally associated with lesions affecting the dorsal midbrain, usually thalamic haemorrhage. In stuporous or comatose patients, however, this downgaze...

CORRESPONDENCE.(Lead poisoning from complementary and alternative medicine in multiple sclerosis)(Anti-GQ1b IgG antibody syndrome without ophthalmoplegia: clinical and immunological features)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2001... Lead poisoning from complementary and alternative medicine in multiple sclerosis In response to the article Lead poisoning from complementary and alternative medicine in multiple sclerosis, [1] we are very concerned that this case has been...

Critical Appraisal of Medical Literature.(Review)
August 1, 2001... Critical appraisal of medical literature. By DAVID MARCHEVSKY (Pp 304, [pound]55.25). Published by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2000. ISBN 0-306-46474-8. This book is written in three parts for medical professionals...

MRI and CT of the Brain.(Review)
August 1, 2001... MRI and CT of the brain. Edited by JAMES E GILLESPIE and ALAN JACKSON (Pp 299, [pound]75.00). Published by Arnold, London, 2000. ISBN 0 340 761 210. Several large scale textbooks cover much the same ground as this fairly modest, 300 page...

CORRECTION.(to "Affective-prosodic deficits in schizophrenia: profiles of patients with brain damage and comparison with relation to schizophrenic symptoms." J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2001;70:597-604)(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2001... ED Ross, DM Orbelo, J Cartwright, et al. Affective-prosodic deficits in schizophrenia: profiles of patients with brain damage and comparison with relation to schizophrenic symptoms. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2001;70:597-604. During the...