Rinshō shinkeigaku = Clinical neurology
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A 63-year-old man was admitted because of sudden transient consciousness disturbance and left-side hemiparesis 110 minutes after the onset. Typical symptoms of aortic dissection, such as chest pain, back pain, neck pain, laterality of blood pressure or hypotension were not found. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed multiple acute brain infarction of the right middle cerebral artery territory. ⋯ Thus our patient showed thoracic aortic dissection with extension of the dissection toward the right internal carotid artery. And the patient complained of neither the pain in the chest, the back nor the neck. So we emphasize the necessity of carotid duplex ultrasonography examination before intravenous administration of rt-PA in the treatment of the cerebral infarction, regardless of having chest pain, back pain, neck pain or not.
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Case Reports
[A case of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) following treatment for pneumococcal meningoencephalitis].
A 58-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with fever, vomiting and disturbance of consciousness after common cold-like symptoms for 2 days. Physical examination showed high fever, moderate hypertension and tachycardia. There were no superficial lymph nodes swelling nor skin rashes. ⋯ Herpes simplex virus and herpes zoster virus DNA in the CSF were undetectable by PCR. After 6 days of treatment with corticosteroid pulse therapy, left facial palsy and paresis of the left arm gradually improved and MRI showed the disappearance of tumor-like hyperintense signals. Although ADEM usually develops as a complication after viral infection such as measles, rubella, mumps and herpes zoster, this case suggests that ADEM complication should be considered even after pneumococcal meningoencephalitis.
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Review Case Reports
[A case of cavernous angioma in the lower pons, showing subacute onset of unilateral cranial nerve palsy and segmental sensory disturbance].
We report a 54-year-old man with right abducent nerve palsy, right facial nerve palsy, and left segmental sensory disturbance, which progressed for 2 weeks. He was found to have cavernous angioma in the lower pons. When he visited our hospital, he had right facial palsy, sensory disturbance of left half of the face and left upper limb, and diplopia. ⋯ But several cases with similar symptoms following a brainstem lesion have been reported. Most of them had stroke, showing acute onset of illness. Our case showed subacute onset of illness; cranial nerve palsy and segmental sensory disturbance progressed for 2 weeks.
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Cardiac uptake of meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is specifically reduced in Lewy body disease (LBD). To see pathological basis of the reduced cardiac uptake of MIBG in LBD, we immunohistichemically examined cardiac tissues from patients with LBD, related movement disorders and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In LBD, cardiac sympathetic denervation occurs, which accounts for the reduced cardiac uptake of MIBG. ⋯ We further investigate how a-synuclein aggregates are involved in degeneration of the cardiac sympathetic nerve in PD. Accumulation of alpha-synuclein aggregates in the distal axons of the cardiac sympathetic nervous system precedes that of neuronal somata or neurites in the paravertebral sympathetic ganglia and that it heralds centripetal degeneration of the cardiac sympathetic nerve in PD. This chronological and dynamic relationship between alpha-synuclein aggregates and degeneration of the cardiac sympathetic nervous system may represent the pathological mechanism underlying a common degenerative process in PD.
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Genetic and biological studies provide evidence that the production and deposition of amyloid-beta peptides (Abeta) contribute to the etiology of Alzheimer's disease. Thus, beta- and gamma-secretases, that are involved in the Abeta generation, are plausible molecular targets for Alzheimer's disease treatment. gamma-Secretase is an unusual aspartic protease that cleaves the scissile bond within the transmembrane domain. ⋯ Thus, understanding the molecular mechanism whereby gamma-secretase recognizes and cleaves its substrate is a critical issue for the development of compounds that specifically regulate Abeta-generating gamma-secretase activity. I will review our structural studies on the gamma-secretase complex, and envision the direction for developing effective and selective gamma-secretase inhibitors as therapeutics for AD.