scholarly journals HIV-Associated Vacuolar Encephalomyelopathy

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory R Madden ◽  
Molly E Fleece ◽  
Akriti Gupta ◽  
M Beatriz S Lopes ◽  
Scott K Heysell ◽  
...  

Abstract We report a case of HIV-associated vacuolar encephalomyelopathy with progressive central nervous system dysfunction and corresponding vacuolar degeneration of the spinal cord, cranial nerves, and brain, the anatomic extent of which has not previously been described. Vacuolar myelopathy classically presents as a spinal syndrome with progressive, painless gait disturbance in the setting of advanced HIV and AIDS. Vacuolar involvement of the brain and cranial nerves, as illustrated in this case report, is a newly described variant of this condition that we term vacuolar encephalomyelopathy.

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-241
Author(s):  
Ioana Cociasu ◽  
◽  
Irene Davidescu ◽  
Ioan Buraga ◽  
Bogdan O. Popescu ◽  
...  

The most common tumours of the central nervous system, meningiomas are frequently diagnosed by accident when patients undergo imaging studies of the brain for other reasons. Most patients lack symptoms and thus can live their whole lives without knowing they have a brain tumour. Less fortunate patients seek medical advice for troubling symptoms – like seizures or disturbances of the cranial nerves – get surgery for the excision of the tumour and years later fi nd out their tumour has come back. We are presenting the case of such a patient with a recurrent parietal meningioma.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
James B. Talmage ◽  
Jay Blaisdell

Abstract Injuries that affect the central nervous system (CNS) can be catastrophic because they involve the brain or spinal cord, and determining the underlying clinical cause of impairment is essential in using the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), in part because the AMA Guides addresses neurological impairment in several chapters. Unlike the musculoskeletal chapters, Chapter 13, The Central and Peripheral Nervous System, does not use grades, grade modifiers, and a net adjustment formula; rather the chapter uses an approach that is similar to that in prior editions of the AMA Guides. The following steps can be used to perform a CNS rating: 1) evaluate all four major categories of cerebral impairment, and choose the one that is most severe; 2) rate the single most severe cerebral impairment of the four major categories; 3) rate all other impairments that are due to neurogenic problems; and 4) combine the rating of the single most severe category of cerebral impairment with the ratings of all other impairments. Because some neurological dysfunctions are rated elsewhere in the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, the evaluator may consult Table 13-1 to verify the appropriate chapter to use.


1908 ◽  
Vol 54 (226) ◽  
pp. 560-561
Author(s):  
David Orr ◽  
R. G. Rows

At a quarterly meeting of this Association held last year at Nottingham, we showed the results of our experiments with toxins upon the spinal cord and brain of rabbits. Our main conclusion was, that the central nervous system could be infected by toxins passing up along the lymph channels of the perineural sheath. The method we employed in our experiments consisted in placing a celloidin capsule filled with a broth culture of an organism under the sciatic nerve or under the skin of the cheek; and we invariably found a resulting degeneration in the spinal cord or brain, according to the situation of the capsule. These lesions we found to be identical in morphological type and anatomical distribution with those found in the cord of early tabes dorsalis and in the brain and cord of general paralysis of the insane. The conclusion suggested by our work was that these two diseases, if toxic, were most probably infections of lymphogenous origin.


Author(s):  
Peggy Mason

The central nervous system develops from a proliferating tube of cells and retains a tubular organization in the adult spinal cord and brain, including the forebrain. Failure of the neural tube to close at the front is lethal, whereas failure to close the tube at the back end produces spina bifida, a serious neural tube defect. Swellings in the neural tube develop into the hindbrain, midbrain, diencephalon, and telencephalon. The diencephalon sends an outpouching out of the cranium to form the retina, providing an accessible window onto the brain. The dorsal telencephalon forms the cerebral cortex, which in humans is enormously expanded by growth in every direction. Running through the embryonic neural tube is an internal lumen that becomes the cerebrospinal fluid–containing ventricular system. The effects of damage to the spinal cord and forebrain are compared with respect to impact on self and potential for improvement.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Aminoff

In 1811, Bell had printed privately a monograph titled Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain. In it, Bell correctly showed that the anterior but not the posterior roots had motor functions. François Magendie subsequently showed that the anterior roots were motor, and the posterior roots were sensory. This led to a dispute about priority during which Bell republished some of his early work with textual alterations to support his claims. Bell was involved in a similar dispute with Herbert Mayo concerning the separate functions of the fifth (sensory) and seventh (motor) cranial nerves, and Mayo today is a forgotten man. In both instances, Bell deserves credit for the concepts and initial experimental approach, and Magendie and Mayo deserve credit for obtaining and correctly interpreting the definitive experimental findings.


Neurosurgery ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A. Rodriguez ◽  
Michael Prados ◽  
Dorcas Fulton ◽  
Michael S. B. Edwards ◽  
Pamela Silver ◽  
...  

Abstract Twenty-one patients with recurrent malignant central nervous system gliomas were treated with a combination of 5-fluorouracil, CCNU, hydroxyurea, and 6-mercaptopurine. Thirteen patients had brain stem gliomas, 3 patients had spinal cord gliomas, 3 patients had thalamic gliomas, and 2 patients had cerebellar astrocytomas. All patients had received radiation therapy, and 4 brain stem patients had also been treated with chemotherapy. Sixteen patients (76%) responded to treatment with either stabilization of disease or improvement. Nine of the 13 patients with brain stem gliomas (71%) had response or stabilization of disease. The median time to tumor progression (TTP) for the brain stem patients who responded or had stabilization of disease was 25 weeks. The median survival from recurrence for the brain stem glioma patients was 27 weeks. Patients with cerebellar, thalamic, and spinal cord tumors did very well, with an 87% response or stabilization of disease and a median TTP of 122 weeks.


2003 ◽  
Vol 370 (2) ◽  
pp. 557-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying SUN ◽  
David P. WITTE ◽  
Peng JIN ◽  
Gregory A. GRABOWSKI

The expression of prosaposin is temporally and spatially regulated at transcriptional and post-translational levels. Transgenic mice with various 5′-flanking deletions of the prosaposin promoter fused to luciferase (LUC) reporters were used to define its temporal regulatory region. LUC expression in the transgenic mice carrying constructs with 234bp (234LUC), 310bp (310LUC) or 2400bp (2400LUC) of the 5′-flanking region was analysed in the central nervous system and eye throughout development. For 310LUC and 2400LUC, low-level LUC activity was maintained until embryonal day 18 in brain, eye and spinal cord. The peak level of LUC activity was at birth, with return to a plateau (1/3 of peak) throughout adulthood. Deletion of the region that included the retinoic acid-receptor-related orphan receptor (RORα)-binding site and sequence-specific transcription factor (Sp1) cluster sites (44—310bp) suppressed the peak of activity. By comparison, the peak level for 234LUC was shifted 2 weeks into neonatal life in the brain, but not in the eye, and no peak of activity was observed in the spinal cord. The endogenous prosaposin mRNA in eye, spinal cord and cerebellum had low-level expression before birth and continued to increase into adulthood. In cerebrum, the endogenous mRNA showed similar expression profile to constructs 310LUC, 2400LUC and 234LUC, with the peak expression at 1 week and a decreased level in adult. In the brain of the newborn, 2400LUC was highly expressed in the trigeminal ganglion and brain stem regions when compared with the generalized expression pattern for endogenous prosaposin mRNA. These results suggest that the modifiers (RORα- and Sp1-binding sites) residing within 310bp of the 5′-flanking region mediate developmental regulation in the central nervous system and eye. Additional regulatory elements outside the 5′ region of the 2400bp promoter fragment appear to be essential for the physiological control of the prosaposin locus.


1913 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-866
Author(s):  
Harold Axel Haig

The specimens submitted for examination were:(a) Portions of the brain (labelled Specimen XXXI.).(b) Portions of spinal cord (labelled Specimen XXIV.).Both were in excellent condition as regards fixation and hardening, having been preserved for many years in a fluid composed of formol and 95 per cent. alcohol (the fluid was also injected into the cerebral vessels). They were, previous to histological examination, submitted to the following processes:—i. Comparatively thin slices were taken from various regions and placed for twenty-four hours in absolute alcohol.ii. Then transferred to acetone for twelve hours.iii. Placed in xylol until permeated.iv. Embedded in paraffin of melting-point 52° C. Sections were then taken with an improved form of the Cambridge rocking microtome, and fixed to slides by means of the albumen method.


1978 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 895-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Yen ◽  
Frederick L. Reiss ◽  
Harold K. Kimelberg ◽  
Robert S. Bourke

✓ The kinetics of distribution of 3H methotrexate (3HMTX) in the central nervous system, plasma, and urine after intraventricular, lumbar percutaneous puncture, and spinal catheter injections were compared. Levels of 3HMTX in whole brain after lumbar percutaneous injection were 40 times less than after intraventricular injection. Injection of 3HMTX via a spinal catheter increased the level of 3HMTX in whole brain but this was still tenfold less than after direct intraventricular instillation. Also, it was found that a disproportionately high amount of 3HMTX was in the brain-stem-cerebellum region which would further reduce the concentration of methotrexate in the cerebral hemispheres. Both intraventricular and lumbar spinal catheter administration of 3HMTX produced 3HMTX levels greater than 10−6M (moles/kg wet weight) in spinal cord tissue as measured by 3H specific activity between 2 to 8 hours after injection. Administration by lumbar percutaneous puncture, however, rarely resulted in this suggested therapeutic level of 10−6M. Initial 3HMTX levels in plasma after lumbar percutaneous instillation was 24 times greater than after intraventricular or lumbar spinal catheter injections. This indicated significant and unavoidable extradural leakage after lumbar percutaneous puncture, which may account for the substantially lower levels of 3HMTX in the brain and spinal cord tissue. It is concluded that intraventricular instillation of methotrexate is the best route of administering the drug to achieve therapeutic levels of methotrexate in both whole brain and throughout the spinal cord.


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