Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry articles from November 2003

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry archives from November 2003

Should i start all my ischaemic stroke and TIA patients on a statin, an ACE inhibitor, a diuretic, and aspirin today?(Editorial)
November 1, 2003... Stroke is eminently preventable. (1 2) A combination of individual and population based interventions could lower the global incidence of vascular events by as much as 50%. (2) However, the public health and legislative changes required to...

Psychopathology in people with epilepsy and intellectual disability: both behavioural and psychiatric disorders are common in people with learning disability and epilepsy.(Editorial Commentaries)
November 1, 2003... From the time of the Isle of Wight study (1) it became evident that children with epilepsy who also had other brain problems had a high rate of behavioural disturbance. Although there is a lack of good epidemiological studies of...

Stroke: neuroplasticity and recent approaches to rehabilitation: neuroplasticity and rehabilitation.(Editorial Commentaries)
November 1, 2003... It is good to see that stroke, and in particular stroke rehabilitation, is losing its Cinderella status in the world of neurology. In this issue, Cauraugh and Kim (p 000) present the results of some recent work on the rehabilitation of arm...

Nanotechnology for neuronal ion channels.(Review: Neuroscience for Neurologists)
November 1, 2003... Ion channels provide the basis for the regulation of electrical excitability in the central and peripheral nervous systems. This review deals with the techniques that make the study of structure and function of single channel molecules in...

Human cellular inflammation in the pathology of acute cerebral ischaemia.(Review)
November 1, 2003... leucocytes form important effector pathways for inflammation. This article reviews the clinical evidence for the presence of a cellular inflammatory response in cerebral ischaemia, and attempts to define its temporal profile and spatial...

Psychopathology in people with epilepsy and intellectual disability; an investigation of potential explanatory variables.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1485-1492 Objectives: There are few studies on epilepsy and psychopathology in people with intellectual disability (mental retardation) despite epilepsy prevalence rates that are thirty times higher...

Surgery for drug resistant partial epilepsy in children with focal cortical dysplasia: anatomical-clinical correlations and neurophysiological data in 10 patients.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1493-1501 Objective: To analyse a population of children with focal cortical dysplasia operated on for drug resistant partial epilepsy, with emphasis on clinical features, seizure semiology, interictal...

Neurological picture: knitting artifact.
November 1, 2003... Artifacts are recorded signals that are non-cerebral in origin (1) and may be either physiological, due to body activities, or non-physiological, which arise from either external electrical interference or internal electrical malfunctioning of...

Parkinson's disease patients undershoot target size in handwriting and similar tasks.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1502-1508 Objectives: Previous research suggested that people with Parkinson's disease are able to increase handwriting stroke size up to 1.5 cm without an increase of stroke duration; whereas age...

CO poisoning seems to spare memory.(Echo)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning seems not to harm memory in the short term, according to a controlled preliminary study that has used objective psychometric testing for the fist time. Functional memory and attention and memory one month...

Childhood onset generalised dystonia can be modelled by increased gain in the indirect basal ganglia pathway.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1509-1515 Clinical experience suggests an important role of the indirect basal ganglia pathway in the genesis of childhood onset generalised dystonia, but it has been difficult to reconcile the...

Familial motor neurone disease with dementia: phenotypic variation and cerebellar pathology.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1516-1520 Objectives: To characterise the neuropathological phenotypes of two affected individuals from a family with an unusual clinical phenotype resembling motor neurone disease and dementia. ...

The topography of metabolic deficits in posterior cortical atrophy (the visual variant of Alzheimer's disease) with FDG-PET.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1521-1529 Background: The term "posterior cortical atrophy" (PCA) refers to a clinical syndrome in which higher order visual processing is disrupted owing to a neurodegenerative disorder, the most...

Serum lipids and memory in a population based cohort of middle age women.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1530-1535 Objective: To assess the relation between serum lipids and memory in a healthy middle age cohort of women. Methods: For 326 women in the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project aged...

Gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery for unilateral acoustic neuromas.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74:1536-1542 Objective: To evaluate the clinical results achievable using current techniques of gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery to treat sporadic unilateral acoustic neuromas. Methods: A...

Defining a role for the subthalamic nucleus within operative theoretical models of subcortical participation in language.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1543-1550 Objective: To investigate the effects of bilateral, surgically induced functional inhibition of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) on general language, high level linguistic abilities, and...

The longitudinal relation between brain lesion load and atrophy in multiple sclerosis: a 14 year follow up study.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1551-1554 Background: Studies have suggested that T2 lesion activity is prominent in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, whereas brain atrophy, while seen early, appears more evident in later...

A variant of multifocal motor neuropathy with acute, generalised presentation and persistent conduction blocks.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1555-1561 Objective: Multifocal motor neuropathy with persistent conduction blocks is classically described as a chronic neuropathy with progressive onset, and acute forms have not previously been...

Eye traits identify coma types.(Echo)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... In future, comatose patients--the bulk of those seen in emergency departments--could have the cause of their coma identified by simple eye tests. A prospective probabilistic study has for the first time confirmed loss of light reflex and...

Stroke motor recovery: active neuromuscular stimulation and repetitive practice schedules.(Paper)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74:1562-1566 Objective: To investigate progress toward motor recovery in patients with chronic hemiparesis (mean time since stroke 3.2 years), comparing different types of practice schedules. Design:...

A randomised placebo controlled study to assess the effects of cholinergic treatment on muscarinic receptors in Alzheimer's disease.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1567-1570 Objective: To determine the effects of cholinergic treatment on the muscarinic receptor in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Methods: 12 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's...

Cerebral embolism in endocarditis: William Senhouse Kirkes (1823-64).(Historical Note)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The distinction between thrombosis and haemorrhage was unclear until the mid-19th century, (1) despite the clinical and pathological descriptions of Abercrombie, Cheyne, Cooke, and, in France, Serres. Small softenings were first designated...

Awakenings from persistent vegetative state: report of three cases with parkinsonism and brain stem lesions on MRI.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1571-1573 Three patients with a persistent vegetative state after severe head injury are reported. They recovered from a prolonged disturbance of consciousness after the administration of levodopa....

Neuronline: eye simulator: http://cim.ucdavis.edu/eyerelease.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... EyeSim is a well designed, interactive website that simulates eye movements and pupillary responses. Virtual lesions induce defects that are not subtle, making the simulator more useful for teaching undergraduates and junior postgraduates than...

Medical and environmental risk factors for sporadic frontotemporal dementia: a retrospective case--control study.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1574-1576 A retrospective case-control study was carried out on 80 patients with sporadic frontotemporal dementia and 124 age, sex, and surrogate informant matched controls with respect to various...

Spinal cord MRI in clinically isolated optic neuritis.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1577-1580 Background/methods: One hundred and fifteen patients with clinically isolated optic neuritis underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and spinal cord within 3 months of the...

Family shares a new nystagmus locus.(Echo)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A genetic study of one family may improve our understanding of early eye stabilisation and squint because it suggests that their control may lie in single gene. Linkage analysis for nystagmus showed linkage with markers between 13q31-q33, not...

Lymphocytic hypophysitis successfully treated with azathioprine: first case report.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1581-1583 An aggressive case of lymphocytic hypophysitis is described which was successfully treated with azathioprine after failure of corticosteroids. The patient, aged 53, had frontal headache,...

Mood changes with deep brain stimulation of STN and GPi: results of a pilot study.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1584-1586 The results of this study suggest that there are mood changes associated with deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and the globus pallidus interna (GPi). Further, optimal...

Prevalence and impact of depression and pain in neurology outpatients.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1587-1589 Background: We examined the prevalence and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of depression and/or pain in neurology outpatients. Methods: Patients at outpatient clinics completed...

SUNCT syndrome secondary to prolactinoma.(Short Report)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1590-1592 Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) syndrome is a rare form of primary headache disorder, although secondary causes,...

Intramedullary migration of spinal cord lipoma.(Letters)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;000: 1593-1597 Spinal cord lipomas may grow with changes in body fat, and can produce neurological manifestations due to nervous tissue compression or cord tethering. It is very unusual for the tumour to...

Economy class stroke syndromes: vertebral artery dissection revisited.
November 1, 2003... J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2003;74: 1593-1597 Economy class syndrome was first reported in 1988 and refers to an association between air travel and venous thromboembolism. Recently, three cases of stroke in young adults without risk...

Adult paraneoplastic opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome associated with antimitochondrial autoantibodies.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Paraneoplastic opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) is a rare complication of cancer characterised by chaotic, synchronous eye movements (opsoclonus), spontaneous muscle jerks (myoclonus), and ataxia. In children OMS is almost exclusively...

Adult tethered cord syndrome presenting with refractory diarrhoea.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Adult tethered cord syndrome presents with various neurological symptoms such as bladder/bowel disturbance, motor and sensory disturbance, and pain. (1 7) A common bowel disturbance is constipation and incontinence, which may recover depending...

Deep brain stimulation for cervical dystonia.(Correspondence)
November 1, 2003... I read with interest the recent case report by Chang and colleagues on unilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) in a patient with delayedonset posttraumatic cervical dystonia. (1) I congratulate the authors...

Failure of regular external ventricular drain exchange to reduce CSF infection.(Correspondence)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Dr Wong and colleagues undertook quite a careful prospective randomised trial aiming to determine whether routine changing of external ventricular drainage, catheters reduces the risk of CSF infection. (1) Patients were randomised into two...

Non-convulsive status epilepticus.(Correspondence)
November 1, 2003... In a recent article, Husain et al argue that severely impaired mental state, ocular movement abnormalities, and the patient's history could suggest a diagnosis of non-convulsive status epilepticus (NCSE), and then be a selection criterion for...

Hemicraniectomy for large middle cerebral artery territory infarction: do these patients really benefit from this procedure?(Correspondence)
November 1, 2003... Pranesh et al presented a series of 19 patients undergoing decompressive hemicraniectomy for large middle cerebral artery infarction with clinical and radiological signs of transtentorial herniation. (1) Among these, 10 patients (53%) suffered...

Psychiatric Genetics and Genomics.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... Edited by Peter McGuffin Michael J Owen, and Irving J Gottesman. Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002, pp 472, [pounds sterling]65.00. ISBN 0-19-263148-9 At all turns we can less and less speak of medicine without qualifying...

Psychiatric and cognitive disorders in Parkinson's disease.(Postscript)
November 1, 2003... This comprehensive account of the common (but frequently overlooked and under treated) emotional and cognitive aspects of Parkinson's disease is thoughtfullysorganised and well written. The two authors have presented their material in a...

Surgical treatment of Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.(Postscript)
November 1, 2003... The editors have assembled a panel of leading experts to produce this book, which is well referenced and its black and white figures nicely produced. The book is predominantly concerned with the role of stereotactic surgery for movement...

Concise guide to neuropsychiatry and behavioural neurology, 2nd edition.(Postscript)
November 1, 2003... Cognitive neurology is on the up. In Britain, at least, the numbers of trainee neurologists who aim to make this their focus of interest is--at last--increasing. And this is not only because of the attraction of the bright, kaleidoscopic lights...

Neural stem cells for brain and spinal cord repair.(Postscript)
November 1, 2003... For scientists, clinicians, patients, and the biotech industry, transplantation of stem cells has become one of the major hopes for repair of what are currently incurable degenerative diseases and trauma to the brain and spinal cord. The 16...

Perspectives in affective disorders, Vol 21.(Postscript)
November 1, 2003... This book is a summary of an international symposium held in September 2001 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the depression unit at the Weissenau Centre for Psychiatry in collaboration with the University of Ulm. This unit was founded as...

Obsessive compulsive disorder: a practical guide.(Postscript)
November 1, 2003... The stated aim of this book is to provide a practical and accessible guide to the diagnosis, assessment, and management of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The 14 chapters include contributions from an international panel of expert...