Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Aug 2012
Cortical border-zone infarcts: clinical features, causes and outcome.
To report the clinical features, causes and outcome of cerebral cortical border-zone infarcts BZI (C-BZI). ⋯ Some clinical features are overrepresented in such infarctions, including initial transient symptoms preceding the onset of a completed deficit, transcortical aphasia and early seizures. Despite lower initial severity, C-BZIs justify early management in stroke unit, often followed by carotid surgery, leading to an overall good prognosis.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Aug 2012
Thalamic sensory strokes with and without pain: differences in lesion patterns in the ventral posterior thalamus.
Vascular lesions of the posterolateral thalamus typically result in a somatosensory syndrome in which some patients develop central neuropathic post-stroke pain (CPSP). Damage to the spinothalamic tract terminus is assumed to be a prerequisite for thalamic CPSP. At the nuclear level, it remains a matter of debate whether the ventral posterolateral nucleus (VPL) or the posterior portion of the ventral medial nucleus (VMpo) constitutes the decisive lesion site. The hypothesis of the study was that lesion location in thalamic CPSP patients differs from that in thalamic stroke patients without pain, and the aim was to identify whether this difference comprises the VPL and/or the VMpo. ⋯ This study specifies the role of the VPL in thalamic CPSP and shows that the posterolateratal and inferior parts in particular are critically lesioned in pain patients. In this thalamic subregion, afferents of the spinothalamic tract are known to terminate. In contrast, the data do not support a pivotal impact of the VMpo on thalamic CPSP.
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(1) To study the neuropsychological and psychopathological profile in myoclonus-dystonia (M-D) patients with and without a mutation in the DYT11 gene. (2) To explore whether cognitive and psychiatric impairments are related to severity and duration of motor symptoms. Herewith, this study may help to clarify whether neuropsychological and psychiatric symptoms are associated with the DYT11 mutation or are secondary to the burden of motor impairments that originated in early childhood. ⋯ The findings of this study suggest that anxiety disorders and executive dysfunctions may be part of the phenotype of M-D patients with a DYT11 mutation, whereas depressive symptoms and semantic fluency impairments may be secondary to suffering from a chronic movement disorder, regardless of DYT11 gene mutation.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Aug 2012
ReviewFunctional (conversion) neurological symptoms: research since the millennium.
Functional neurological symptoms (FNS) are commonly encountered but have engendered remarkably little academic interest. 'UK-Functional Neurological Symptoms (UK-FNS)' was an informal inaugural meeting of UK based clinicians in March 2011 with a variety of research and clinical interests in the field. This narrative review reflects the content of the meeting, and our opinion of key findings in the field since the turn of the millennium.