Articles

Many patients with chronic cerebrovascular diseases complain “dizziness”, which is a distortion of static gravitational orientation, or an erroneous perception of motion of the sufferer or of the environment. In the vestibular cortical system, the parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC) serves as the core region having the strong interconnections with other vestibular cortical areas and the vestibular brainstem nuclei. By forming the reciprocal inhibitory interactions with the visual cortex (VISC), it also plays a pivotal role in a multisensory mechanism for self-motion perception. In a line of our studies on post-stroke patients, we found that there was a significant decrease in the cerebral blood flow in both the VISC and PIVC in the patients who suffered from dizziness. In this article, we provide a new concept that due to dysfunction of the visual-vestibular interaction loop, low cerebral blood perfusion in the PIVC and VISC might elicit post-stroke dizziness.

Objective: Atlantoaxial subluxation (AAS) occurs when there is misalignment of the atlantoaxial joint. Several etiologies confer increased risk of AAS in children, including neck trauma, inflammation, infection, or inherent ligamentous laxity of the cervical spine. Methods: A single-center, retrospective case review was performed. Thirty-four patients with an ICD-10 diagnosis of S13.1 were identified. Demographics and clinical data were reviewed for etiology, imaging techniques, treatment, and clinical outcome. Results: Out of thirty-four patients, twenty-two suffered cervical spine trauma, seven presented with Grisel’s Syndrome, four presented with ligamentous laxity, and one had an unrecognizable etiology. Most diagnoses of cervical spine subluxation and/or instability were detected on computerized tomography (CT), while radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were largely performed for follow-up monitoring. Six patients underwent cervical spine fusion, five had halo traction, twelve wore a hard and/or soft collar without having surgery or halo traction, and eight were referred to physical therapy without other interventions. Conclusion: Pediatric patients with atlantoaxial subluxation may benefit from limited 3D CT scans of the upper cervical spine for accurate diagnosis. Conservative treatment with hard cervical collar and immobilization after reduction may be attempted, but halo traction and halo vest immobilization may be necessary. If non-operative treatment fails, cervical spine internal reduction and fixation may be necessary to maintain normal C1-C2 alignment.

Introduction: Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a common helminthic infection of the nervous system that occurs when humans become intermediate hosts in the life cycle of the pig tapeworm (Taenia solium) after ingesting its eggs. The objective of this study was to analyze socio-demographic, clinical and paraclinical features of patients with NCC in Lubumbashi, DRC. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 2 years within the Neuropsychiatric Center of Lubumbashi. Socio-demographic, clinical, paraclinical and therapeutic features were studied. Results: A total of 18 patients with NCC were listed. Epilepsy was found in 72.2% (13/18) of the cases. The mean age of the patients was 30.2 ± 13.5 years; males accounted for 61.2% of the cases. 84.6% were consumers of pork. Generalized epilepsy was found in 84.6% of the cases and hypereosinophilia in 38% of the cases. On the neuroimaging, the parietal location of lesions represented 92.3%; calcifications were the type of lesion in 53.8% of the cases and 69.2% of the cases presented lesions in the 4th evolutionary stage. Electroencephalogram was normal in 84.4% of the cases. Phenobarbital was the antiepileptic drug used in 69.3%; albendazole and prednisone were used in 53.9% of the cases. Conclusion: This study shows that NCC is one of the causes of epilepsy in Lubumbashi. Generalized tonic-clonic seizures are the most common form of presentation and calcified parenchymal lesions are the most common radiological feature of NCC. So, any patient with acute onset of afebrile seizure should be screened for NCC provided other common causes been ruled out.

Blood vessels that supply and feed the central nervous system (CNS) possess unique and exclusive properties, named as blood–brain barrier (BBB). It is responsible for tight regulation of the movement of ions, molecules, and cells between the blood and the brain thereby maintaining controlled chemical composition of the neuronal milieu required for appropriate functioning. It also protects the neural tissue from toxic plasma components, blood cells and pathogens from entering the brain. In this review the importance of BBB and its disruption causing brain pathology and progression to different neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD) etc. will be discussed.

Introduction: Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) are potential differences recorded on the scalp in response to visual stimulation. They are obtained with slowly repeated stimuli. The aim of this study was to determine the normative values of the visual evoked potentials in our setting. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional study from February 1 to April 30, 2019 at the Clinical Neurophysiology laboratory of the I.P. Ndiaye Clinic at CHNU Fann in Dakar (Senegal). Results: We found that men had high averages of N75, P100 and N145 wave latencies and low averages of P100 wave amplitude (p>0.05). However, neither age nor body mass index influenced the parameters of VEPs. Conclusion: Sex is important physiological variable in establishing laboratory normative values for VEPs. There is a marked difference between the sexes for the VEPs parameters.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive degenerative motor symptoms (e.g., tremors, impaired balance and gait) and nonmotor symptoms (e.g., fatigue, sleep disturbances, pain) that can negatively influence health and mental wellbeing by decreasing quality of life. It affects nearly 10 million people and more and more cases are diagnosed because of the advancement seen in movement disorder clinics and diagnostic tools worldwide. Individuals with PD also complain about anxiety arising out of these symptoms of postural instability, low back pain etc., which may lead to increased risk of falls and fall related injuries of brain, bone or other organ systems. Stress is one factor which has been shown to directly correlate to neurodegenerative pathology. Ways to reduce stress at a given point of time and across one’s life span is considered to be a prime necessity in today’s world. Various body-mind exercises like yoga, tai chi, qi gong, tango, ballet etc., has been in research for quite some time now, which has shown benefits in PD patients. In this article evidences related to yoga and its role in PD will be reviewed in a detailed fashion.

Pleurothotonus, commonly known as Pisa Syndrome (PS), is a rare neurological disorder characterized by lateral bending of the trunk with a tendency to lean to one side. This is typically mobile and resolves in supine position. It often presents as an incapacitating symptom of underlying neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s disease, multisystem atrophy, dementia with Lewy bodies, progressive supranuclear palsy and even subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. It is known to be associated with neuroleptics, dopaminergic agents, valproic acid and lithium. PS is also seen in neurosurgical disorders like subdural hematoma, normotensive hydrocephalus, or as a late complication of pallidotomy in patients with PD. It can present either as an acute emergency or can develop gradually over time.PS tend to happen in coronal plane and can be controlled and managed if diagnosed in early stage. However, a chronic form known as “camptocormia” occurs often in a combined fashion with anteroposterior flexion which can improve to some extent, remain stable or even get worse. Pathophysiologic mechanism is not completely understood. This review will discuss all the updated literatures published in PS in terms of prevalence, pathophysiology, clinical manifestation, and treatment modalities.

The authors present the case of a 45-year-old female patient with diabetes and chronic kidney disease (CKD). She had unsatisfactory glycemic control, and showed some intellectual limitations. Her urine exam was unremarkable, and her renal ultrasound revealed single right kidney with aspects suggesting ureteropelvic junction syndrome. Her mother had also suffered from diabetes and CKD G5D presenting in the sixth to seventh decade. An hereditary cause for CKD was considered, which led the authors to investigate an autosomal dominant cause for CKD with a tubulointerstitial phenotype, taking into account the personal and family history for diabetes and also the renal imaging; a large deletion in the HNF-1β gene was identified through Multiplex Ligand Probe Assay (MLPA) analysis, explaining the phenotype. Genetic causes of CKD should be considered in the presence of positive family history for CKD, and the coexistence of diabetes with bland urine sediment should raise the possibility of a syndromic cause of the phenotype, namely involving HNF-1β gene mutations or deletions. 

Currently brain connectivity modelling, constructed from data acquired by non-invasive technique such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), is a well-received approach to illustrate brain function. However, not all connectivity models contains equal amount of information. There are two types of connectivity model that could be constructed from fMRI data, functional and effective connectivity. Effective connectivity includes information about the direction of the connection, while functional connectivity does not. This makes interpretation of effective connectivity more meaningful than functional connectivity. The objective of this study is to show the improvement in interpretability of effective connectivity model in comparison to functional connectivity model. In this study, we show how the difference in the information contained within these two model impacts the interpretation of the resulting connectivity model by analyzing resting-state fMRI data on episodic memory-related cognitive function using CONN Toolbox bivariate correlation measurement for functional connectivity analysis and Tigramite causal discovery framework for effective connectivity analysis on an episodic memory related resting-state fMRI dataset. The comparison between functional and effective connectivity results show that effective connectivity contains more information than the functional connectivity, and the difference in the information contained within these two types of model could significantly impact the intepretation of true brain function. In conclusion, we show that for the connectivity between specific pair of brain regions, effective connectivity analysis reveals more informative characteristic of the connectivity in comparison to functional connectivity where the depicted connectivity lack any additional characteristic information such as the direction of the connection or whether it is a unidirectional or bidirectional. These additional information improve interpretability of brain connectivity study. Thus, we would like to emphasis the important of brain function study using effective connectivity modelling to obtain valid interpretation of true brain function as currently a large body of research in this field focuses only on functional connectivity model.

Obesity has become a worldwide Epidemic affecting more than 300 million people. Overweight is defined as BMI (Body Mass Index) of 25-29.9 kg/m2. Obesity is defined as BMI greater than 30 kg/m2, and Morbid Obesity is a BMI of > than 35 kg/m2 [1].