Dexterity in the Acute Phase of Stroke: Impairments and Neural Substrates.

Background: Stroke can impair manual dexterity, leading to loss of independence following incomplete recovery. Enhancing our understanding of dexterity impairment may improve neurorehabilitation.

Objectives: The study aimed to measure dexterity components in acute stroke patients with and without hand motor deficits, compare them to those of healthy controls (HC), and to explore the neural substrates involved in specific components of dexterity.

Evidence of Motor Skill Learning in Acute Stroke Patients Without Lesions to the Thalamus and Internal Capsule.

Background: It is currently unknown whether motor skill learning (MSkL) with the paretic upper limb is possible during the acute phase after stroke and whether lesion localization impacts MSkL. Here, we investigated MSkL in acute (1-7 days post) stroke patients compared with healthy individuals (HIs) and in relation to voxel-based lesion symptom mapping.

Methods: Twenty patients with acute stroke and 35 HIs were trained over 3 consecutive days on a neurorehabilitation robot measuring speed, accuracy, and movement smoothness variables.

Central skull base osteomyelitis: a rare but life-threatening disease.

We present the case of a 70-year-old non-diabetic patient who presented to the emergency department with unrelenting otalgia. A severe otitis externa (OE) and mastoiditis were treated with broad spectrum antibiotics and surgical drainage. No bacteria was isolated from surgical samples.

Trigeminal melanoma metastasis.

We present the case of a 70-year-old patient presented to our institution for paresthesia of the right hemiface associated with dysarthria in aggravation since 1 year. He was diagnosed with right trigeminal melanoma metastasis. This case is characterized by a thickening of the right trigeminal nerve from his cisternal segment to his mandibular branch V3.

Granulomatous meningitis due to rheumatoid arthritis.

Meningoencephalitis is a rare but aggressive complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The most common complications of RA occur in the severe and chronic stages of the disease. Only a few cases have been reported in the literature.