Ideggyogy Szemle
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By the spring of 2020 the COVID-19 outbreak caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has become a pandemic, requiring fast and efficient reaction from societies and health care systems all over the world. Fever, coughing and dyspnea are considered the major signs of COVID-19. In addition to the involvement of the respiratory system, the infection may result in other symptoms and signs as well. ⋯ A drop in the volume of services for other acute diseases has been described in countries with healthcare systems focusing on COVID-19. During the COVID-19 epidemic it is also important to provide appropriate continuous care for those with chronic neurological disorders. It will be the task of the future to estimate the collateral damage caused by the COVID-19 epidemic on the outcome of other neurological disorders, and to screen for the possible late neurological complications of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection.
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Review Case Reports
[Symptomatic trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia without headache].
We report the case of a 60-year-old man who exhibited trigeminal autonomic symptoms on his right side (numbness of the face, reddening of the eye, nasal congestion) occurring several times a day, for a maximum of 60 se-conds, without any pain. The complaints were similar to trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia, just without any headache. Our 60-year-old male patient underwent a craniocervical MRI as part of his neurological workup, which revealed lesions indicative of demyelination. ⋯ Perhaps the most interesting among these is one in which the author describes a family: a 54-year-old female exhibiting the autonomic characteristics of an episodic cluster headache, only without actual headache, her son, who had typical episodic cluster headaches with autonomic symptoms, and the woman's father, whose short-term periorbital headaches were present without autonomic symptoms. We had not previously encountered a case of trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia without headache in our practice, nor have we had an MS patient exhibiting similar neurologic symptoms. The significance of our case lies in its uniqueness.
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Until recently, the diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) has been associated with severe life-long motor disability in adults and with early death in infants. The new experimental therapeutic approaches of the last few years have become more and more promising, while nusinersen was approved for the treatment of SMA in December 2016 in the USA, and in May 2017 in Hungary. Our paper presents mechanisms and clinical benefits of this new medication, and highlights some of the other therapeutic strategies still in experimental stages.
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Chronic administration of antiepileptic drugs without history of unprovoked epileptic seizures are not recommended for epilepsy prophylaxis. Conversely, if the patient suffered the first unprovoked seizure, then the presence of epileptiform discharges on the EEG, focal neurological signs, and the presence of epileptogenic lesion on the MRI are risk factors for a second seizure (such as for the development of epilepsy). Without these risk factors, the chance of a second seizure is about 25-30%, while the presence of these risk factors (for example signs of previous stroke, neurotrauma, or encephalitis on the MRI) can predict >70% seizure recurrence. ⋯ Beacuse ZNS can be administrated once a day, it is an optimal drug for maintaining patient's compliance and for those patients who have a high risk for developing a non-compliance (for example teenagers and young adults). Due to the low interaction potential, ZNS treatment is safe and effective in treating epilepsy of elderly people. ZNS is an ideal drug in epilepsy accompanied by obesity, because ZNS has a weight loss effect, especially in obese patients.
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the autoimmune, demyelinating, neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system (CNS). There are nine drugs available in Hungary reimbursed by the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary (OEP) to reduce the activity of the disease, from which seven can be used as first line therapies. We have approximately 20 years of experience with the interferon beta-1a/1b and glatiramer-acetate products. ⋯ Teriflunomide 14 mg once daily was able to demonstrate in two consecutive placebo-controlled phase 3 clinical trials that significantly reduces the relapse rate (31.5% and 36.3%) and in both studies significantly reduces the sustained disability progression (29.8% and 31.5%) moreover delays the appearance of the clinically definitive MS in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). According to the TENERE study there were no significant differences observed between teriflunomide 14 mg and IFNβ-α a s.c. in time to failure and annualized relapse rate but the treatment satisfaction domains of global satisfaction, side-effects and convenience were significantly improved with teriflunomide compared with s.c. IFNβ-α.