Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry articles from August 2003

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry archives from August 2003

Transition from paediatric to adult medical services for young people with chronic neurological problems: some form of structured transition to adult orientated services is required for many young people with chronic disease.(Editorials)
August 1, 2003... Adolescence is a time of great change for all young people. As independence increases, adolescents may have difficulties in their relationships with adults and may engage in risk taking behaviour. Young people are often not registered with a...

Neuroscience for neurologists: a new series of review articles on neurosciences.(Editorials)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The last decade has seen great advances in our understanding of the basic scientific principles that underpin clinical neurology. Many of these advances have already had a major impact on routine clinical practice, and this is likely to...

Mental deterioration late after head injury--does it happen? The relation between cognitive state after a head injury and APOE status is still ambiguous.(Editorial Commentaries)
August 1, 2003... The possibility of late mental deterioration after head injury has been raised for many years, although infrequently until recently. It is now becoming quite a hot topic, with three separate and interacting strands of research and ideas. The...

Spinal cord atrophy and disability in multiple sclerosis over four years: a reproducible measure of cord area for detecting atrophy rates.(Editorial Commentaries)
August 1, 2003... It is natural to focus on spinal cord damage as a major factor in disability. Indeed, interest in the use of MRI to study the spinal cord in multiple sclerosis, and its relation to locomotor disability, has been on the increase for over 10...

Cruveilhier and acoustic neuroma.(Historical Note)
August 1, 2003... Some 20 years after the first observations published on neuromas (William Wood in 1828), (1) Robert William Smith published his treatise on neuromas, (2) which included a full description of von Recklinghausen's multiple neurofibromatosis. (3)...

Neurovirological methods and their applications.(Neuroscience For Neurologists)
August 1, 2003... Over the last 30 years neurovirology has emerged as a major discipline which has much relevance to both human disease and many aspects of neuroscience. This overview of the field aims to define briefly most of the major neurovirological...

A novel quality of life instrument for deep brain stimulation in movement disorders.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objective: To develop a short instrument to examine quality of life (QoL) which specifically addresses patients with movement disorders treated by deep brain stimulation (DBS). Design: The instrument was developed within an existing concept...

Identification of target areas for deep brain stimulation in human basal ganglia substructures based on median nerve sensory evoked potential criteria.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objective: In the interventional treatment of movement disorders, the thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) and the subthalamic nucleus (STN) are the most relevant electrode targets for deep brain stimulation (DBS). This study tested the...

MS society websites: www.mssociety.org.uk and www.nationalmssociety.org.(Neuronline)
August 1, 2003... Patients turning up with folders full of printouts from the internet are increasingly common sights in outpatient departments. The response from clinicians often tends towards annoyance and even suspicion. Furthermore, a disease such as...

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease: evaluation of active electrode contacts.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: The subthalamic nucleus is the preferred target for deep brain stimulation in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. The site of permanent stimulation is the subject of ongoing debate, as stimulation both within and adjacent to...

Long term neuropsychological outcome after head injury: relation to APOE genotype.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: Existing evidence suggests that some patients who sustain a head injury suffer cognitive decline many years later, and that head injury and possession of the APOE [epsilon]4 allele are each risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. ...

Cerebral vasomotor reactivity testing in head injury: the link between pressure and flow.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: It has been suggested that a moving correlation index between mean arterial blood pressure and intracranial pressure, called PRx, can be used to monitor and quantify cerebral vasomotor reactivity in patients with head injury. ...

Social deprivation and adult head injury: a national study.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objectives: To establish the association between measures of social deprivation, mechanisms of injury, patterns of care, and outcome following closed head injury. Methods: All Scottish adult A&E attendees with closed head injury (AIS Head...

Counterfactual cognitive deficit in persons with Parkinson's disease.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: Counterfactuals are mental representations of alternatives to past events. Recent research has shown them to be important for other cognitive processes, such as planning, causal reasoning, problem solving, and decision making--all...

A note on hiccups.(Historical Note)
August 1, 2003... The word hiccup (hiccough or singultus) appears, from its date, to be a variation of the earlier hickock, or hicket. Hiccough, a later spelling, appearing under the erroneous impression that the second syllable was cough; it ought to be...

Entacapone is beneficial in both fluctuating and non-fluctuating patients with Parkinson's disease: a randomised, placebo controlled, double blind, six month study.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objective: To study the effect of entacapone, a specific peripherally acting catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor used in combination with levodopa treatment, in cases of Parkinson's disease with both fluctuating and non-fluctuating...

Post-transplantation HTLV-1 myelopathy in three recipients from a single donor.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objectives: This paper reports for the first time three cases of infection by HTLV-I via organ transplantation; all the organs coming from the same asymptomatic infected donor. The need is considered for the implementation of compulsory...

Neuropsychological assessment in HTLV-1 infection: a comparative study among TSP/HAM, asymptomatic carriers, and healthy controls.(Paper)(human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1)(tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1 associated myelopathy)
August 1, 2003... Background: Human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) can cause tropical spastic paraparesis/ HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM) and adult T cell leukaemia/lymphoma. More recently other diseases such as isolated peripheral...

Spinal cord atrophy and disability in multiple sclerosis over four years: application of a reproducible automated technique in monitoring disease progression in a cohort of the interferon [beta]-1a (Rebif) treatment trial.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: Pathology in the cervical spinal cord is considered an important cause of disability in multiple sclerosis. However, the majority of serial studies have failed to find a correlation between spinal cord atrophy and disability. ...

The management of refractory generalised convulsive and complex partial status epilepticus in three European countries: a survey among epileptologists and critical care neurologists.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objective: To survey the current clinical treatment of refractory status epilepticus and to identify steps in its management which may need further investigation. Methods: Epileptologists and critical care neurologists were surveyed using...

Antithrombotic drugs in secondary stroke prevention among a community dwelling older population.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: Patients who suffer a cerebrovascular event are at high risk of a recurrence. Secondary prevention is crucial in reducing the burden of cerebrovascular disease. Objective: To estimate the percentage of stroke survivors receiving...

August von Wassermann (1866-1925).(Neurological Stamp)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Wassermann was a German physician and bacteriologist who was educated at the Universities of Erlangen, Vienna, Munich, and Strasbourg. He graduated in 1888. From 1890 he was a student of Robert Koch at the Institute of Infectious Diseases in...

Evidence of underdiagnosis of myasthenia gravis in older people.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: Myasthenia gravis is a potentially serious but treatable muscle disease caused by autoantibodies directed at the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) on the postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction. There is anecdotal evidence...

Motor system abnormalities in hereditary spastic paraparesis type 4 (SPG4) depend on the type of mutation in the spastin gene.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Background: Hereditary spastic paraparesis (HSP) denotes a group of inherited neurological disorders with progressive lower limb spasticity as their clinical hallmark; a large proportion of autosomal dominant HSP belongs to HSP type 4, which...

Hemisensory syndrome is associated with a low diagnostic yield and a nearly uniform benign prognosis.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objective: To describe the diagnostic yield and prognosis for patients with hemisensory syndrome. Background: The aetiology, utility of diagnostic procedures, and outcome of hemisensory syndrome in patients with exclusive hemibody...

Predictors of successful self control during brain-computer communication.(Paper)
August 1, 2003... Objectives: Direct brain-computer communication uses self regulation of brain potentials to select letters, words, or symbols from a computer menu to re-establish communication in severely paralysed patients. However, not all healthy subjects,...

Clinical MRI dissociation in myelopathy: a clue to sarcoidosis?(Neurological Picture)
August 1, 2003... A 35 year old man developed, over a one month period, lumbosacral radicular symptoms and prominent nocturnal lower back pain of pulsating-burning quality, together with proximal weakness and an ill defined difficulty in coordination of the...

Features involved in the diagnostic delay of cluster headache.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Background: Cluster headache (CH) is a comparatively rare, very severe primary headache. Although circumscript and recognisable criteria are available, the diagnosis is often missed or delayed. Besides, while adequate and evidence based...

Acute headache as a presenting symptom of tacrolimus encephalopathy.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... A 24 year old woman presented with a sudden excruciating headache mimicking an acute vascular event. She had undergone a lung transplantation because of cystic fibrosis and was receiving maintenance treatment with tacrolimus and prednisone....

Genetic loading in familial migraine with aura.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Migraine with aura (MA) arises from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The sibling risk, age at onset, and aura type were compared in 54 MA probands categorised by family history of MA. Three family types were ascertained each...

Pseudosubarachnoid haemorrhage in subdural haematoma.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Two patients with large bilateral subdural haematomas with patterns of non-enhanced brain computed tomography (CT) falsely suggesting coexistent subarachnoid haemorrhage are presented. The CT images showed marked effacement of the basal...

Pituitary deficiency following aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Objective: To investigate the incidence and severity of pituitary insufficiency after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage. Methods: Pituitary function was tested in a series of patients more than 12 months but less than 60 months after...

Increased visual cortical excitability in ecstasy users: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Objectives: To test the presence of abnormalities of visual cortical excitability in people using ecstasy as a recreational drug. Methods: Ecstasy users and control subjects underwent single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of...

Corticosteroids do not prevent optic nerve atrophy following optic neuritis.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Corticosteroids shorten the period of functional impairment following relapses in optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis (MS); however they have not, thus far, been shown to affect the final level of function compared with placebo. (1) There has...

The West Riding Lunatic Asylum.(Historical Note)
August 1, 2003... "Few subjects in medicine are so intimately connected with the history and philosophy of the human mind as insanity. There are still fewer, where there are so many errors to rectify, and so many prejudices to remove. Derangement of the...

Progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy with unusual inflammatory response during antiretroviral treatment.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... A case of biopsy verified progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy (PML) in an HIV patient is presented. Imaging and histological examination confirmed remarkable inflammatory activity accompanied by an unusually benign clinical course...

Spatial vision in visually asymptomatic subjects at high risk for multiple sclerosis.(Special Report)
August 1, 2003... Objective: To investigate the state of spatial vision in visually asymptomatic subjects at high risk for multiple sclerosis. Methods: Fifteen subjects suffering a first neurological episode suggestive of multiple sclerosis in clinical...

Prospective Belgian study of neurodegenerative and vascular dementia: APOE genotype effects.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Objective: The authors conducted a prospective study of neurodegenerative and vascular dementia in Belgium. Strict diagnostic inclusion criteria were used to include well defined patients and controls. The results of apolipoprotein E (APOE)...

Deterioration of pre-existing hemiparesis brought about by subsequent ipsilateral lacunar infarction.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Mechanisms of post-stroke recovery are still poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that cortical reorganisation in the unaffected hemisphere plays an important role. A 59 year old man developed a small lacunar infarct in the left corona...

The effect of fatigue on abnormal vibration induced illusion of movement in idiopathic focal dystonia.(Short Report)
August 1, 2003... Background: Perception of vibration induced illusionary movement (VIIM) is subnormal in dystonic patients, suggesting abnormal sensory-motor processing in patients with idiopathic focal dystonia. Objective: To examine the effects of fatigue...

Crohn's associated NOD2 gene variants are not involved in determining susceptibility to multiple sclerosis.(Letters)
August 1, 2003... Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease, are believed to result from the effects of environmental agents acting on genetically susceptible individuals. Evidence from segregation analysis and systematic whole genome...

Favourable outcome of a brain trauma patient despite bilateral loss of cortical somatosensory evoked potential during thiopental sedation.(Letters)
August 1, 2003... We would like to present an observation that somewhat questions the predictive value of somatosensory evoked potentials on the outcome of brain trauma patients treated with thiopental coma. (1 2) A 30 year old woman suffered a high velocity...

Epidemiology of the mitochondrial DNA 8344A>G mutation for the myoclonus epilepsy and ragged red fibres (MERRF) syndrome.(Letters)
August 1, 2003... The myoclonus epilepsy and ragged red fibres (MERRF) syndrome is a maternally inherited progressive mitochondrial encephalomyopathy caused by a 8344A>G mutation in the MTTK gene that encodes mitochondrial tRNA for lysine. Its common clinical...

Shifts in angiotensin I converting enzyme insertion allele frequency across Europe: implications for Alzheimer's disease risk.(Letters)
August 1, 2003... Early studies suggested that angiotensin I converting enzyme (peptidyl-dipeptidase A) 1 (ACE) gene polymorphism is associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease and, more recently, with sporadic late onset Alzheimer's disease....

Polymorphisms of toxifying and detoxifying hepatic enzymes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.(Letters)
August 1, 2003... A contribution of hepatic enzymes responsible for detoxification and toxification of xenobiotics and endogenous compounds has been suspected to contribute to the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We studied 12 potentially...

Neutralising antibodies to interferon [beta] during the treatment of multiple sclerosis.(Correspondence)
August 1, 2003... Giovannoni and colleagues are to be commended for their detailed analysis of the impact of neutralising antibodies (NAB) to interferon [beta] (IFN[beta]) during the treatment of multiple sclerosis. (1) We are in general agreement with many of...

Neutralising antibodies to interferon [beta].(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... I read the editorial by Dr G Giovannoni and Colleagues (1) with great interest. I have, however, to report a minor error concerning the list of the excipients of the Rebif reported in their table 1. In the table the authors reported the...

A 1908 systematic review of the laterality of hysterical hemiplegia.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Since the publication of our systematic review of the laterality of functional or medically unexplained weakness and sensory disturbance (1965-2000) (1) we have come across a study from 1908 with a similar aim. Ernest Jones, later an...

Resolution of psychiatric symptoms secondary to herpes simplex encephalitis.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... We read with interest the editorial by Kennedy et al, (1) detailing the short-term treatment of herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE). We agree with the authors that we cannot overemphasise the seriousness of the neuropsychiatric symptoms that a...

Radiofrequency neurotomy.(Correspondence)
August 1, 2003... In reading the study by Govind and colleagues, (1) in which they report the findings of an unblinded, uncontrolled, nonrandomised trial of radiofrequency neurotomy for the treatment of third occipital headache, we are surprised that the authors...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2003... In the neurological picture of the June issue (Komotar JR, Clatterbuck RE. Coccidiomycosis of the brain, mimicking en plaque meningioma. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74:806) the initials of the first author were reversed; his name should...