Revista de neurologia
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Revista de neurologia · Oct 2000
Review[Cortical plasticity and restoration of neurologic functions: an update on this topic].
Neuroplasticity is a natural property of the nervous system to change its function and to reorganize due to a lesion or environmental changes. We review some of the main experimental and clinical experiences on cortical sensorimotor plasticity related to central nervous system (CNS) lesions. ⋯ Plastic changes after CNS lesions make it possible the restoration of neurological functions in a high number of patients. It is important now to understand which changes are related to the clinical improvement of patients, and what might be done to promote or facilitate this changes and to inhibit maladaptive phenomena, for the design of rationale therapeutics strategies with modulatory influence on this process.
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Revista de neurologia · Oct 2000
Review[Characteristics of drugs used in the treatment of acute convulsions and convulsive status].
To evaluate the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the drugs used in the treatment of acute seizures and status epilepticus. ⋯ Parenteral valproate should be included in the normal guidelines for the treatment of convulsions. In this paper we include the recommended measures for the treatment of acute seizures and status epilepticus in childhood and suggest the development of similar measures for adult patients.
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Revista de neurologia · Oct 2000
Review[Congenital errors of metabolism with repercussion on the nervous system of the newborn infant. When and how to investigate them].
In the last years we have assisted to a great knowledge of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM). As consequence, the clinical suspicion of IEM in neuropediatrics is more frequent. The IEM must be investigated in the newborn with neurologic symptoms without any evident etiology, when anamnesis of gestation and delivery is not informative. The IEM play an important role in infants with severe hypotonia, seizures, some dysmorphic children and when there is a multisystem disorder. They must be investigated too when the fetus shows hydrops fetalis, seizures, cardiomyopathy, and pericardial effusion; also when there is a family history of IEM or sudden infant death in a brother or HELLP syndrome in the pregnant mother. Some times routine laboratory investigations may be useful for diagnosis, although in other occasions more specific and sophisticated laboratory studies are necessary. ⋯ This is a review of different neurological presentation of IEM in the newborn and the importance of different investigations in the diagnosis. We comment the diagnosis problems in some diseases, and new neurometabolic diseases with presentation in the first months of life and how to diagnose them.