Quality monitoring of acute stroke care in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, 2001-2006.

Background And Purpose: Quality monitoring projects are useful tools to improve the quality and to assess temporal trends of stroke care in larger populations.

Methods: In Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a statewide, hospital-based, acute stroke care quality monitoring project was started in 2001. Initially, participation was mandatory for all hospitals with dedicated stroke units and from 2006 onward was mandatory for all hospitals.

Neurological symptoms accompanying urinary tract infections.

The spectrum of para-infectious neurological symptoms was examined by a retrospective study of 57 patients admitted with acute neurological symptoms which were eventually interpreted as secondary to urinary tract infection. The symptoms encountered most frequently were confusion, gait disturbances, and drowsiness. Patients with Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis or a previous stroke often experienced a deterioration of their preexisting neurological deficits.

Prevalence of taste disorders in idiopathic and B. burgdorferi-associated facial palsy.

The frequency of taste disorders in idiopathic facial palsy (IFP) and B. burgdorferi-associated facial palsy (BFP) was retrospectively assessed in a cohort of patients with acute peripheral facial palsy (AFP). A significant (>10/microl) CSF pleocytosis was found in 17% of the patients who underwent lumbar puncture for AFP.

Anisotropy of callosal motor fibers in combination with transcranial magnetic stimulation in the course of motor development.

Objectives: The corpus callosum (CC) represents a key structure for hand motor development and is accessible to investigation by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). To identify quantifiable markers for motor development, we combined DTI with TMS.

Materials And Methods: We examined groups of 11 healthy preschool-aged children, 10 healthy adolescents, and 10 healthy adults with both, DTI and TMS/ipsilateral silent period (iSP).

A girl with headache, confusion and green urine.

The case of a 17-year-old girl with a history of headache, blurred vision, confusion, ataxia and syncope is presented. On admission, she had already recovered except for a slurring of speech. Her urine was found to be green.

Canalicular magnetic stimulation lacks specificity to differentiate idiopathic facial palsy from borreliosis in children.

Objective: To investigate the role of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to differentiate between idiopathic facial nerve palsy (iFNP) and facial nerve palsy due to borreliosis (bFNP).

Patients And Methods: Transcranial and intracanalicular magnetic and peripheral electrical stimulation of the facial nerve together with clinical grading according to the House and Brackmann scale were performed in 14 children and adolescents with facial palsy (median age 11.5 yr, range 4.