Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry articles from August 2002

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry archives from August 2002

Envenomation and consumption of poisonous seafood: effects of naturally occurring toxins on the human nervous system and available treatments are discussed. (Editorial: Natural Toxins).(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... Exposure to natural toxins is becoming more commonplace because of greater worldwide travel, increasing captivity of exotic animals in private and institutional collections, and an expansion in the trade in tropical seafood. Although the...

Some neurological signs: a series looking at aspects of clinical examination. (Editorial: Physical Signs).(Editorial)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... A series devoted to the value of particular physical signs in neurological practice needs no apology. Though one suspects that succeeding generations of neurologists have bemoaned the lack of clinical expertise among their juniors there can...

Neutralising antibodies to the beta interferons: determining and preventing neutralising antibodies. (Editorial Commentaries: Multiple Sclerosis).(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... The amazing ability of the immune system to make fine distinctions between self and non-self is critical to its function--but a problem for treatments that mimic natural proteins, such as recombinant human factor VIII, whose use is...

Functional reorganisation of memory following traumatic brain injury: a study with [H.sub.2] [O.sup.15] PET; neuroimaging holds future promise for before and after comparisons. (Editorial Commentary: Brain Injury).(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of deaths following accidents and a major cause of disablement and morbidity among the survivors. The clinical problem of treating this vast number of patients is not going to be solved by a...

Coffee and subarachnoid haemorrhage: the link between coffee and subarachnoid haemorrhage is unresolved. (Editorial Commentary: Subarachnoid Haemorrhage).(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... You may be making enemies, especially in Seattle, if you conclude from the study of Isaksen et al that coffee is a risk factor for subarachnoid haemorrhage (this issue, pp 185-7). (1) Love of java necessitates a critical evaluation. Are we...

The palmomental reflex: a useful clinical sign? (Review).
August 1, 2002... The palmomental reflex, an involuntary contraction of the mentalis muscle of the chin caused by stimulation of the thenar eminence, can be tested easily and rapidly. Its presence may alert the clinician to the possibility of cerebral...

Clinically important change in quality of life in epilepsy. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Background: Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is increasingly recognised as an important outcome in epilepsy. However, interpretation of HRQOL data is difficult because there is no agreement on what constitutes a clinically important...

Reproductive dysfunction in women with epilepsy: recommendations for evaluation and management. (Paper).
August 1, 2002... Background: Epilepsy is commonly associated with reproductive endocrine disorders. These include polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), isolated components of this syndrome such as polycystic ovaries, hyperandrogenaemia, hypothalamic amenorrhoea,...

Visual association test to detect early dementia of the Alzheimer type. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Background: The visual association test (VAT) is a brief learning task based on imagery mnemonics. The test materials consist of six line drawings of pairs of interacting objects or animals--for example, an ape holding an umbrella. The person...

Differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease using a dopaminergic presynaptic ligand. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Background: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is one of the main differential diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Key pathological features of patients with DLB are not only the presence of cerebral cortical neuronal loss, with Lewy bodies...

Progressive ventricular enlargement in patients with clinically isolated syndromes is associated with the early development of multiple sclerosis. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Background: In patients with clinically isolated syndromes (CIS) suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS), the extent of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lesion load influences the probability and time to development of clinically definite...

Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928). (Neurological Stamp).
August 1, 2002... The Japanese born microbiologist Hideyo Noguchi's brilliant career had humble origins. He was born in the village of Sanjogata. His father the village postman, and his mother toiling in the rice fields barely made a living. A childhood...

Differential effects of three interferon betas on neutralising antibodies in patients with multiple sclerosis: a follow up study in an independent laboratory. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Objective: To evaluate the incidence and the prevalence of neutralising antibodies (NABs) to three interferon beta (IFN[beta]) products in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: Sera were tested from 125 patients with...

Van Swieten's concept of cerebral embolic stroke. (Historical Note).(Gerhard van Swieten )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The Swiss physician Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620-95) showed that apoplexy is due to cerebral haemorrhage. (1) Vascular engorgement or congestion, not occlusion or stenosis, was at that time thought to cause non-haemorrhagic (serous) apoplexy....

Bladder dysfunction in acute transverse myelitis: magnetic resonance imaging and neurophysiological and urodynamic correlations. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Aims: To evaluate micturition abnormalities in acute transverse myelitis and correlate these with evoked potentials, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and urodynamic findings. Setting: Tertiary care teaching hospital. Patients: 18...

Sensitivity of clinical and behavioural tests of spatial neglect after right hemisphere stroke. (Paper).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... Objectives: The lack of agreement regarding assessment methods is responsible for the variability in the reported rate of occurrence of spatial neglect after stroke. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of different tests of...

Effectiveness of bed rest after mild traumatic brain injury: a randomised trial of no versus six days of bed rest. (Paper).
August 1, 2002... Background: Outcome after mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is determined largely by the appearance of post-traumatic complaints (PTC). The prevalence of PTC after six months is estimated to be between 20 and 80%. Bed rest has been advocated...

Functional reorganisation of memory after traumatic brain injury: a study with [H.sub.2][O.sup.15] positron emission tomography. (Paper).
August 1, 2002... Objective: To study the effects of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) on the functional neuroanatomy supporting memory retrieval. Methods: Subjects were six patients who had sustained a moderate to severe TBI about four...

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging in a case of acute Wernicke's encephalopathy. (Neurological Picture).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... A 71 year old man was transferred to our hospital with a two week history of gait disturbance and disorientation. He had no apparent history of malnutrition, surgery of digestive tract, or alcoholism. Eye movements were limited vertically....

Increase in focal concentration of deoxyhaemoglobin during neuronal activity in cerebral ischaemic patients. (Short Report).
August 1, 2002... Background and Purpose: Blood oxygenation level dependent contrast functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) has been applied to functional mapping in brain disorders, based on the assumption that normal adults and patients with brain...

Risk factors for aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: the Tromso study. (Short Report).
August 1, 2002... Objectives: To conduct a population based case-control study with premorbid registration of potential risk factors to address the difficulty in identifying risk factors for aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). SAH is rare in prospective...

Comparison of the psychometric characteristics of the functional independence measure, 5 item Barthel index, and 10 item Barthel index in patients with stroke. (Short Report).
August 1, 2002... Objectives: To compare the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the motor subscale of the functional independence measure (FIM), the original 10 item Barthel index (BI), and the 5 item short form BI (BI-5) in inpatients with stroke...

Cognitive dysfunction after isolated brain stem insult. An underdiagnosed cause of long term morbidity. (Short Report).
August 1, 2002... Cognitive dysfunction adversely influences long term outcome after cerebral insult, but the potential for brain stem lesions to produce cognitive as well as physical impairments is not widely recognised. This report describes a series of...

Viewing less to see better. (Short Report).
August 1, 2002... Objective: To assess the efficacy, as well as the long term duration, of a new procedure for the rehabilitation of visuo-spatial neglect in patients with right hemisphere stroke. Methods: Patients with right unilateral hemispheric damage...

Detection of preclinical motor neurone loss in SOD1 mutation carriers using motor unit number estimation. (Short Report).
August 1, 2002... Objective: To determine the pattern of motor neurane loss in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In particular, to determine whether there is a gradual life long presymptomatic motor neurone loss or, alternatively, a sudden catastrophic loss...

Comprehensive Care For People With Epilepsy: Current Problems in Epilepsy.
August 1, 2002... Edited by Margarete Pfafflin, Robert T Fraser, Rupprecht Thorbecke, Ulrich Specht, and Peter WolF (Pp 375, [pounds sterling]60.00). Published by John Libbey, London, 2001. ISBN 0-86196-610-4 Epilepsy is beyond question a condition with...

Molecular Neuropharmacology: A Foundation For Clinical Neuroscience.
August 1, 2002... Edited by Eric J Nestler, Steven E Hyman, and Robert C Malenka (Pp 503, [pounds sterling]36.99). Published by McGraw-Hill, New York, 2001, ISBN 0-8385.6379-1 For clinicians and students of clinical neuroscience, the pace at which...

Handbook of Transcranial Stimulation.
August 1, 2002... Edited by A Pascal-Leone, N J Davie, Rothwell, E M Wasserman, and B K Pun (Pp 406, [pounds sterling]110.00). Published by Arnold Publishers, London, 2002. ISBN 0-340-72009-3 This multiauthored book, with contributions from 60 authors,...

Pain in Peripheral Nerve Diseases.
August 1, 2002... Edited by C Sommer (Pp 202, us$170.50). Published by Karger, Basel, 2001. ISBN 3-8055-7268-9 Despite having a subspeciality interest in peripheral nerve disease, often I am perplexed by patients with neuropathic pain. Yet pain is a...

Brain Tumors: An Encyclopedic Approach.
August 1, 2002... Edited by Andrew H Kaye and Edward Laws Jr (Pp 1052, [pounds sterling]175). Published by Harcourt Publishers Ltd, London, 2001. ISBN 0-4430-4261 This is the second edition of the highly acclaimed textbook on tumours of the central...

The Year in Neurology 2001.(Review)
August 1, 2002... Edited by Massimo Feliciani, Thomas Warner, Niall Quinn, Anette Schrag, Matthew Walker, Simon Lovestone, and John Zajicek (Pp 320, [pounds sterling]49.50). Published by Clinical Publishing Services, Oxford, 2001. ISBN 0-953-7339-55 This...

Adams and Victor's Manual of Neurology.
August 1, 2002... By M Victor and A H Ropper (Pp 547, US$39.95). Published by McGraw-Hill Companies, New York, 2002. ISBN 0-07-137351-9 Nearly 20 years ago I used books to learn my neurology in three stages. First was an introductory reading of the late...

Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes.
August 1, 2002... Edited by M David Enoch and Hadrian N Ball (Pp 260, [pounds sterling]25.00). Published by Arnold Publishers, London, 2001. ISBN 0-340-76388-4 This is the fourth edition of a book first published in 1967, which at that time was what can...

Cognitive Deficits in Brain Disorders.
August 1, 2002... Edited by John E Harrison and Adrian M Owen (Pp 370, [pounds sterling]39.95). Published by Martin Dunitz, London, 2002. ISBN 1-85317-921-3 Conceived by its editors over a beer in the Cambridge Arms pub, this multiauthored volume aims to...

Headache and Migraine in Childhood and Adolescence.
August 1, 2002... Edited by Vincenzo Guidetti, George Russell, Matti Sillanpaa, and Paul Winner (Pp 487, [pounds sterling]75.00). Published by Martin Dunitz, London, 2002. ISBN 1-85317-810-1 Most patients with migraine report that their headaches started...

ABN medal award 2002.(Association of British Neurologists)
August 1, 2002... Proceedings of the Association of British Neurologists, University of Oxford, 3 April -- 5 April 2002. Pauline Monro was an outstanding medical student, gaining first class honours in her BSc at University College London, and then...

Neuroferritinopathy. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... We have identified an adenine insertion at position 460-461 in the ferntin light polypeptide gene (FTL) in affected members of a large Cumbrian family with a late-onset movement disorder. The clinical features of this disease are highly...

The genetic basis and phenotypic variability in early onset parkinsonism. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Introduction: Three loci have been mapped in autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonsim: PARK2 (parkin) on chromosme 6 and PARK6 and PARK7 both on chromsome 1. Mutations in PARK2, parkin, are a common cause of young onset parkinsonism. PARK6...

Re-emergence of encephalitis lethargica: new evidence of an autoimmune CNS disease. (ABN Astracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Encephalitis lethargica (EL) is an acute encephalitic illness with somnolent-ophthalmoplegic, hyperkinetic and Parkinsonian phenotypes. Pathology reveals inflammatory disease of the basal ganglia and midbrain. The presence of CSF...

Natural history of multiple sclerosis: implications for interpretation of relapse suppression. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: It is still widely believed that the progression of disability in multiple sclerosis results from accumulative effect of focal exacerbations. Although this is most clearly true for patients with the Devic's phenotype, it has not...

The predictive value of brain lesion load in determining brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis: 14 year follow up data following first presentation with a clinically isolated syndrome. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Studies suggest that brain lesion load and atrophy may be related in multiple sclerosis (MS), but the time course of this relationship is unclear. This study investigates the relationship between brain atrophy and lesion load in...

[beta]-Interferon treatment does not immediately slow the progression of axonal injury in multiple sclerosis. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Progression of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) appears related to axonal damage in white matter. Histopathological studies have linked inflammatory activity directly to axonal injury and transection. [beta]-Interferon (BIFN)...

Validation of the McDonald criteria in patients with clinically isolated syndromes. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Traditionally, multiple sclerosis (MS) has been diagnosed on the basis of clinical evidence of dissemination in time and space. Recently the international panel on MS diagnosis published the McDonald criteria which hove integrated...

Isolated asymmetric dominatly postural temor with or without resting tremor: a variant presentation of long latency tremulous parkinson's disease? A clinical follow up. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Considerable diagnostic uncertainty exists in patients presenting with isolated asymmetric postural tremor (PT), with or without resting tremor (RT) in the absence of significant bradykinesia, or rigidity. Whether such patients...

Antiparkinsonian actions of the selective dopamine D3 receptor antagonist S33084. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... The significance of dopamine D3 receptors in the control of movement remains unclear. It has been suggested that D3 agonist properties of widely used D2/D3 agonists such as ropinirole (hD3, Ki=56 nM and hD2, Ki=154 nM) and pramipexole (hD3,...

Clinical features of the geste antagoniste in cervical dystonia. (ABN Abstracts).(Association of British Neurologists)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... A unique feature of dystonia is that patients are often able to reduce! eliminate the abnormal posture by using certain manoeuvres that involve tactile or proprioceptive stimulation. Although widely recognised, these manoeuvres or "gestes...

Is dystonia a disorder of muscle? (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: The vibration induced illusion of movement (VIIM) is subserved by muscle spindle la afferents, and is subnormal in dystonic subjects. We examined the effect of muscle fatigue on VIIM and its perception in asymptomatic first degree...

Antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy: update of the UK epilepsy and pregnancy register. (ABN Abstracts).(United Kingdom)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Objective: To determine the relative risks for major congenital malformations (MCM) of in utero exposure to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Design--Prospective, observational, registration and follow up study. Subjects: --Women with...

Nurse led epilepsy clinics: a telemedicine approach. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Patients with epilepsy consistently express a desire to see nurse specialists as well as a neurologist. We have developed nurse led epilepsy clinics at two rural hospitals, supported by telephone and videolink to a distant neurologist and...

Quantitative validation of MR intensity abnormalities in variant CJD. (ABN Abstracts).(magnetic resonance)(Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... High signal in the posterior thalamus on MRI scanning has emerged as an important diagnostic sign in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. We carried out quantitative analysis of 39 dual echo (PD and T2l MRI scans from a variety of scanners. 11...

Mapping the evolution of regional atrophy in Alzheimer's disease using fluid registered MRI. (ABN Abstracts).(magnetic resonance imaging)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Objective: To assess altering patterns of significant regional atrophy during the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: Patients with presymptomatic AD (n=4), mild AD (n=10) and moderate AD (n=12) were compared with age and...

Early experience with mitoxantrone in aggressive relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Data from three randomised controlled trials supports the use of mitoxantrone, a cytotoxic agent, in active relapsing and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). The drug has recently been licenced in the United States for...

Intrathecal immune response against axonal cytoskeletal components in patients with multiple sclerosis: a prognostic study. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: We have recently reported a significant correlation between clinical disability and intrathecal release of antibodies against axonal cytoskeleton in patients with primary and secondary-progressive MS. Objectives: To determine...

Oligodendrocytes promote the survival of axons in vitro. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Late onset axonopathy, occurring in the absence of inflammation, is an increasingly recognised feature of multiple sclerosis. The pathophysiology of this process however remains unknown, but loss of trophic support provided by...

A 5 year longitudinal MRI study of ventricular volume in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. (ABN Abstracts).(magnetic resonance imaging)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Progressive atrophy resulting from axonal loss is one of the proposed mechanisms underlying disability in Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). In this lengthy study of PPMS we measure ventricular changes over 5 years....

Ten year survival data from the Scottish MND register. (ABN Abstracts).(Motor Neuron Disease)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Aim: to describe survival from MND using a 10 year population-based disease register. Methods: survival analysis of Scottish adults with MND diagnosed between 1989 and 1998, using time-dependent cox regression. Results: 1226 cases...

Neurological and cognitive dysfunction in "never-encephalopathic" patients awaiting liver transplantation. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Introduction: Patients with liver failure who are not clinically encephalopathic can show evidence of neuropsychological impairment. Inadequate treatment of previous hepatic encephalopathy is often blamed. Repeated episodes of hepatic...

Are Vertebrobasilar territory TIAs and minor strokes lower risk than carotid territory events? (ABN Abstracts).(transient ischemic attack)(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Vertebrobasilar (VB) TIAs and minor strokes are perceived to have a better prognosis than carotid events, and are sometimes managed less aggressively. However, this notion stems mainly from a few small studies in the 1960s and 70s, which did...

Haemodynamic determinants of carotid plaque instability. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Plaque rupture is the main cause of acute coronary events and an important cause of ischaemic stroke. Haemodynamic forces, such as shear stress and pulse pressure (PP), are important in early plaque formation, but little is known about their...

Imagin unstable carotid plaques with [Flurodeoxyglucose.sup.18] position emission tomography. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: There is increasing evidence that rupture of carotid plaques causing transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) and is the consequence of plaque formation. Current imaging techniques provide mainly structural information about the degree...

Inhibition of trigeminovascular nociceptive transmission by a, receptor agonists in the cat. (ABN Abstract).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Introduction: Interest in the fundamental mechanisms underlying headache, particularly the pathophysiology of migraine and cluster headache, has led to the study of the physiology and pharmacology of the trigeminovascular system. The...

Dropped head syndrome: the differential diagnosis. (ABN Abstract).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Dropped head syndrome (DHS) is a disorder presenting with focal failure of neck extension that is usually found in elderly patients. The aetiology is variable with both primary neuromuscular and extra-pyramidal causes. We describe 12...

Health, disability and death: a new spectrum of disease for homoplasmic mutations of mitochondrial DNA. (ABN Abstract).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... One of the cardinal features ascribed to pathogenic mutations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is that of heteroplasmy, a situation where both wild type and mutant copies of mtDNA coexist within a cell or tissue. Notable exceptions include the...

Early onset familial Alzheimer's disease: mutation frequency in 31 families. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: Three causative genes have been identified for autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease (AD): the amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 (PSEN1) and presenilin 2 (PSEN2) genes. In addition a risk gene for AD has been...

The effect of epilepsy on the brain: findings of a longitudinal community based quantitative MRI study. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... Background: The question of whether epilepsy causes cerebral damage remains unanswered, We report the first community-based quantitative MRI study investigating the longitudinal effect of seizures. Methods: Serial MRI brain scans were...

The Wrexham area epilepsy project. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... An increasing proportion of patients with epilepsy are diagnosed by neurologists. However, there is a large reservoir of patients with this label who have never seen a specialist. Our aim was to describe a sample of such patients living in...

Cerebral metabolite and nurotransmitter concentrations in idiopathic generalised epilepsy measured with short echo time proton MR spectroscopy. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Glutamate is the most important excitatory transmitter and [gamma]-amino butyric acid (GABA) the dominant inhibitory neuratransmitter in the neacortex. We have developed proton MR spectroscapy (MRS) methods for reliably measuring...

Posterior mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: a distinct syndrome?(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: We propose a posterior mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) syndrome that is indistinguishable clinically from anterior TLE, but less amenable to epilepsy surgery. Methods: We compared the presurgical T1 weighted magnetic...

Transient monocular blindness due to vasospasm: video reconstruction of the retinal vasculature during an attack. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Transient monocular blindness (TMB) may be due to vasospasm embolism or other factors affecting retinal perfusion. Retinal vasospasm responds to calcium channel blockers. Methods: Case presentation Results: A 25 year old...

A successful domicillary treatment for patients with homonymous hemianopia. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Patients with homonymous hemianopia (HH) are disabled because they cannot scan the visual world effectively. We have therefore devised o simple rehabilitation tool based on a visual search (VS) paradigm. We hypothesised that by training...

High frequency saccadic oscillations are generated by brain stem, not cerebellar, neurons. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Methods: We measured visually guided saccades and saccadic-vergence movements in a patient with a midline surgical lesion that included both fastigial nuclei, and in five age-matched control subjects, using the magnetic search coil technique....

Detection of asymptomatic lacunar infarcts with diffusion weighted MRI: a portential surrogate marker of disease activity in ischaemic leukoaraiosis and cadasil. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Cerebral small vessel disease is an important cause of cognitive impairment. It is usually sporadic but also occurs in the auto-somal dominant disorder CADASIL. Recurrent lacunar stroke contributes to disease burden but...

Does diffusion weighted imaging alter management in patients with subacute minor stroke and TIA? (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Diffusion weighted brain imaging (DWI) is used in acute stroke, but may also be useful in patients wits minor stroke or TIA when seen several days or weeks after symptom onset. Although visualisation of an acute ischaemic lesion, and...

Impaired spatial memory contributes to unilateral neglect. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Right hemisphere stroke patients with unilateral neglect ignore stimuli to the left in everyday life, as well as on bedside tests that require them to search for visual objects. Such left neglect may reflect a bias to direct attention...

Periodic paralysis, malignant ventricular arrhythmia and dysmorphism (Andersen's syndrome): a skeletal muscle potassium channel disorder. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Andersen's syndrome is a triad of periodic paralysis (hypo or hyper), malignant ventricular arrhythmias and dysmorphism. The syndrome is often overlooked as the dysmorphism is subtle and the ventricular arrhythmias may not become...

Evidence for underdiagnosis of myasthenia gravis in the elderly. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) can be confirmed by a positive acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody test, but the diagnosis can be missed in older patients. We looked for evidence of underdiagnosis of MG in the UK. Methods: We...

Characterisation of the cell death pathway in a cellular model of familial motor neuron disease. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Motor neuron disease (MND) ia a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorder, primarily affecting the upper and lower motor neurons. Around 10% of MND cases are familial, of which one fifth are associated with mutations in the...

Proteomic analysis of protein alterations in a cell culture model of familal motor neuron disease. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Mutations in the gene encoding Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) account for 20% of cases of familial motor neuron disease (MND). There is evidence that motor neuron (MN) injury results from a toxic gain of function of mutant...

Detection of musk antibodies in seronegative myasthenia gravis using human musk as antigen. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Seronegative myasthenia gravis (SNMG), in which acetylcholine receptor antibodies cannot be detected, constitutes 20% of generalised and 50% of ocular myasthenia gravis. We have recently discovered that the muscle specific kinase,...

Randomised double blind trial of methotrexate and steroids compared with azathioprine and steroids in the treatment of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are a group of immune-mediated disorders characterised by muscle weakness and lymphocytic infiltrate in striated muscle. Corticosteroids form the mainstay of treatment with immunosuppressive...

How much do neuroradiologists agree in their assessment of angiograms of arteriovenous malformations of the brain? Implications for management. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: The vascular anatomy (angioarchitecture) of brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) demonstrated on intro-arterial digital subtraction angiograms is thought to influence their prognosis, and is used by interventionists to decide...

Mechanisms of idiopathic intracranial hypertension in vasculitis patients without cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... An association between systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and intracranial hypertension is well recognised but rare. Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is identified as the underlying cause in same patients, whilst in the majority the...

A comparison of the effects of carotid endarterectomy and carotid endovasular treatment on blood pressure in the acute postoperative period. (ABN Abstracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Background: Acute haemodynamic instability has been documented after both carotid endarterctomy and carotid angioplasty and stenting. This can result in prolonged hospital admission or neurological complication. This study compares the...

Acute onset new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in a compulsive jelly eater. (ABN Abstracts).(Abstract)
August 1, 2002... A case of variant CJD (tonsillar biopsy confirmed) is p resented, exhibiting some interesting features which may shed new light on this enigmatic disease. Clinical presentation: Our patient presented to her GP with depression. She...