European journal of neurology : the official journal of the European Federation of Neurological Societies
-
Comparative Study
Telephone follow-up for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The relentless evolution of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a severe neurodegenerative disorder of the upper and lower motoneurons, leads to an increasing level of disability. Most patients, during the course of the disease, become unable to attend the tertiary clinical care center and are thus prevented from enrolling in clinical trials or benefiting from specialized care and management. The main objective of this study was to verify whether the ALS functional rating scale (ALSFRS) could be reliably administered by telephone to patients, when unable to attend the ALS clinic, or to their caregivers. ⋯ The symptoms most frequently reported were a worsening of muscle strength, swallowing and breathing problems, constipation, and inability to clear lung secretions. Several patients asked for assistive and adaptive equipment. All patients and caregivers found the telephone clinic very useful and considered it a good complement to the management and care programme.
-
Comparative Study
Hormone replacement therapy and headache prevalence in postmenopausal women. The Head-HUNT study.
Conflicting evidence exists whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a risk factor for headache. The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of headache and migraine amongst postmenopausal women using HRT. In the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study 1995-97 (HUNT 2), 18,323 (62%) out of 29,679 women aged 40 years or more responded to headache questions (Head-HUNT). ⋯ This was found for non-migrainous headache (OR = 1.3, 95% CI 1.1-1.5) and migraine (OR = 1.6, 95% CI 1.4-1.9). Both migraine and non-migrainous headache were more probably amongst users of postmenopausal HRT than amongst those who had never used HRT. Whether HRT caused headache or was used partly because of headache cannot be determined in this cross-sectional study.
-
We observed a 32-year-old female who had suffered from a left hemisphere ischemic stroke with right hemiparesis at the age of seven. At that time, a CT scan demonstrated a left ischemic lesion in nucleo-capsular region and a cerebral angiogram documented a complete occlusion of the supraclinoid segment of the internal carotid artery. When we observed the patient neurological examination demonstrated a moderate right brachio-crural hemiparesis. ⋯ A cerebral rotational angiogram with 3-D reconstructions demonstrated a dolichoectatic left middle cerebral artery with an unusual 'corkscrew' aspect. Middle cerebral artery dolichoectasia is a rare pathological condition that may manifest with a stroke. The patients with intracranial arterial dolichoectasia (IADE) are most often hypertensive elderly men, and, to the best of our knowledge, an ischemic stroke associated with IADE has never been reported in children.