Acta Neurológica Latinoamericana

The authors report the case of a 42 years-old electrician man, with an 8 months progressive manual difficulties in his specific job, with a complete disability for the last 2 months. These symptoms were associated with anemia, deterioration of the general condition, and slight fever. Three days after the first neuropsychological examination he, suddenly, developed a left hemiparesis. Laboratory investigations confirmed the occurrence of a systemic lupus erythematosus. The neuropsychological examination showed: normal intellectual level with slight memory deficit; severe constructional and ideomotor apraxia; gaze ataxia; optical ataxia; hemisomatoagnosia, anosognosia, and autotopagnosia; agraphia...

The authors analyzed the clinicoangiographic correlation of cerebral vasospasm in a series of 120 cases of subarachnoid hemorrhage due to aneurysmal rupture. They made such correlation in the pre and postoperative course, in the follow-up, and in relation with the pathological findings. All patients were studied with one to three angiographies in the pre and postoperative course. For the clinical grading the authors have used the classification of Botterell modified by Hunt et al, and for the cerebral vasospasm, the classification of Pool and Potts and Saito et al...

Twenty four patients with spastic paraparesis due to cervical myelopathy were operated on by the anterior approach. They all received anterior cervical discectomy and/or osteophytes resection with the operating microscope, without fusion. There were no deaths and no one deteriorated after surgery. The results in the 21 patients with a year or more of post-operative follow-up are described. Seven had a congenital narrow canal associated with discopathy, with a history of up to 9 years. In 6, the spastic paraparesis improved, in 2, dramatically...

The authors report three cases of multiple sclerosis which presented, during its course, paroxysmal attacks, also denominated brain-stem seizures. They review the literature with special reference to the incidence and the clinical forms of these paroxysmal phenomena, and they discuss the proposed pathogenic mechanisms. According to the authors, the literature review and the clinical picture of their cases, have shown a direct relation between these paroxysmal symptoms and a neighboring bout of the disease. They may also appear as an isolate "abortive bout"...

A retrospective study of 70 cases of posttramatic epilepsy is undertaken. The clinical and electroencephalographic characteristics are analyzed and it is emphasized: (1) The predominance of generalized seizures over focal fits, and among these last, the higher incidence of motor seizures are stressed. (2) The incidence of early seizures was of 5% in this series. (3) The occurrence of epilepsy usually was within 2 years after head injury. (4) Frequent correlation between the clinical course and the EEG is noted...

A retrospective study of 20 patients with somatosensory seizures is undertaken. The cases were obtained from the series of 1000 patient histories from the Division Epilepsy of the Neurological Institute of Montevideo. Several clinical variables are analyzed and especially the etiological factors are studied. A high incidence of surgical treatable causes was found (50%), especially tumor (35%). Similar results are reported by other authors. A comparative study concerning the tumor etiology in somatosensory and in other types of partial seizures is performed...

From March 1976 until March 1979, 28 patients with disabling emotional symptoms were studied in the Psychiatry and Neurosurgery Departments at Tulane University, and pre-selected for cerebellar electrode implantation and subsequent cerebellar stimulation. This series include 12 patients with different types of schizophrenia; 7 epileptic patients with Grand Mal and/or psychomotor attacks, and concomitant psychiatric symptoms; 5 patients with intractable depression; and 4 patients with miscellaneous psychiatric symptoms...

A histological study of end-to-side anastomosis on the carotid arteries of the rat, is presented comparing the results according to the type of suture material and the number of stitches. Two groups of 5 animals were studied. Group "A" in which the 11-0 monofilament nylon (18 microns; needle of 70 microns) was utilized with an average of 11 stitches; and group "B" corresponding to the 10-0 nylon (25 microns; needle of 100 microns) with an average of 8 stitches. The patency of the anastomosis was ascertain in all cases except one where a complete thrombosis of the donor artery was discovered...

Neuropsychology is a new discipline placed between neurosciences (neurophysiology, neurochemistry, comparative neuroanatomy) and psychology (experimental psychology. psycholinguistics, linguistics). History of neuropsychology shows, during last and the beginning of the present centuries, a marked trend to localization and association (one center for each function, followed later by a period where globalistic trends predominate, according to which a localized lesion is important mostly because of the modification it produces in the functions of brain as a whole...

A head holder for guinea-pigs to be used in posterior fossa or cochlear surgery and electrophysiological recordings is described. Cochlear microphonic and auditory nerve potentials are shown.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Two cases of crossed aphasia in dextrals are presented. Twenty six cases of crossed aphasia in dextrals are reviewed, and compared with a group of aphasics by left-sided lesions. This analysis is made attending to the clinical typology of aphasia, sex, age, associated higher cortical functions defects and familial left-handedness. Crossed aphasia in dextrals is due to right or bilateral language representation. It is concluded that anomalous language is accompanied by lesser intrahemispheric specialization of the classic areas of language...

Lhermitte-Duclós disease is an infrequent condition of which there are only 37 cases described in the literature. Although presently considered as a displasic process, its clinical presentation is of a typical posterior fossa tumour and should be treated as such. Even though it is a benign growth there are only 7 cases described with postoperative survival. The uniform pathological anatomy in all the cases presented makes the definitive diagnosis. The authors present a new case with postoperative survival and discuss its clinical presentation, treatment and origin of the disease...

The authors review the literature and report a case that illustrate the large spectrum of clinical presentation of the anterior-sacral meningocele. It is analized the presently available diagnostic procedures and it is emphasized the importance of the plain film and mielography in the correct diagnosis of this lesion.

Disturbance of motor reaching behavior was found in a patient submitted to a partial lobectomy including the posterior regions of the parietal cortex. The altered function could be objectivated by means of a battery of tests designed to detect visuo-spatial appreciation following which the subject has to point out to the center of figures with different configurations. Likewise, the damaged motor function could also be detected when the patient intended to reproduce, by copying, models of a figure as well as of straight lines of different lengths...

A family of 6 siblings, 4 of which have Hallgren's syndrome, i.e., retinitis pigmentosa, congenital deafness and ataxia is described. Hallgren's series in Sweden is referred to. This affection was ascribed by Hallgren to a single gene with almost complete penetrance. However, 3 brothers of the present series show neurological anomalies not present in the Swedish cases.

This study analyzes the results obtained in the child from an application of the Token Test of the De Renzi and Vignolo and compares them with those obtained from the application of a similar Test, in which objects of more familiar semantic field were employed. Normal children ranking from 4 years 0 month to 8 years 11 months were studied for this purpose.

Four patients with predominantly unilateral Parkinsonism are reported in whom involuntary movements in the affected limbs developed while on levodopa. Based on the known pathological and biochemical abnormalities underlying Parkinson's disease, it is suggested that these observations support the concept of denervation supersensitivity as the pathogenetic mechanism in the development of levodopa dyskinesias.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Basic changes of the striated muscle fiber are described after the electron microscopy study of 200 surgical muscle biopsies from the Montevideo Neurological Institute. The inventory of these changes--true ultrastructural "signs" of muscle derangement--is presented according to the involved organelle. The value of these data is considerably enhanced by a systematic approach to the study of a muscle biopsy that should begin with the in situ examination of the muscle territory before the excision of the tissue...