Journal of the neurological sciences
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Orolingual angioedema (OA) is a well known early complication of treatment with alteplase in ischemic stroke patients. Our aim was to study risk factors for OA in these patients, namely insular cortex ischemia. ⋯ Female sex and ACE-I use are independent risk factors for OA occurrence in ischemic stroke patients treated with alteplase. Early signs of insular cortex ischemia on pre-thrombolysis CT were not significantly associated with OA.
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Olfactory dysfunction and REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) are recognized as pre-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Cognitive dysfunction is observed at a high rate even in the early stages of PD as an important non-motor symptom. PD has been classified in different subtypes and it is unknown if olfactory dysfunction and RBD occur more often in one particular subtype. We investigated the relationship between olfactory impairment, RBD, initial cognitive performance and motor phenotype in PD. ⋯ Olfactory dysfunction and RBD differed according to the motor phenotypes of PD. This suggests that olfactory dysfunction and RBD might relate to prognosis in patients with PD. Patients who have both hyposmia and RBD were more likely to exhibit cognitive dysfunction.
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Our objective was to apply the technique of measuring diameters of optic nerve sheath (ONSD) for the intracranial pressure assessment for the cases with traumatic head injury without hemorrhage. In a retrospective study, CT data of 720 adult patients were collected and analyzed. ONSDs were measured at the point where the ophthalmic artery crosses the optic nerve (anatomical landmark) together with the eyeball transverse diameter (ETD). ⋯ ONSD/ETD ratio was 0.28±0.05 against 0.19±0.02 in healthy adults (p=0.02). We did not find correlation between ONSD/ETD ratio with initial Glasgow Coma Scale score but there was an inverse correlation between ONSD/ETD ratio and the Glasgow Outcome Score (r=-0.64). We conclude that in majority of cases with traumatic head injury without hemorrhage the ONSD is significantly enlarged indicating elevated intracranial pressure even if CT scans are negative.