Students Practicing Interprofessional Collaboration in the Context of Hospice and Palliative Care.

Interprofessional education allows students to collaborate with students and professionals of multiple disciplines. An Interdisciplinary Palliative Care (IPC) Seminar, held in the Midwest, involves students from disciplines of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, and chaplaincy. The curriculum of the seminar incorporates asynchronous and synchronous didactic presentations, experiential learning through group exercises and discussion, along with home visits by students in interdisciplinary dyads.

Interdisciplinary education in palliative care: impact on attitudes of students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, and chaplaincy.

Introduction: Interdisciplinary education among health professions has been recommended, and related evaluation can be found in the literature. However questions remain on how effective interdisciplinary education is and what impact it has. The objective of this study was to determine changes in student attitudes and perceptions upon completion of a 5-week interdisciplinary palliative care seminar.

Education in end-of-life care: bridging disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

This paper describes the development of an interdisciplinary, interinstitutional seminar in palliative care for South Dakota students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, chaplaincy, and social work. Student outcomes from six seminars conducted during 2001-2004 are reported, and recommendations for future educational efforts are outlined.

[Out-of-body experience as possible seizure symptom in a patient with a right parietal lesion].

Out-of-body experiences are reported in a variety of diseases and physiologic conditions. We report a 44-year-old patient with epigastric auras, psychomotor and grand mal seizures, and paroxysmal experiences during which he believed to have left his body and seen himself from the outside. Electroencephalography showed a right temporal and right parietal seizure pattern on several occasions, and a lesion in the right parietal lobe was detected by cranial magnetic resonance imaging.

Superficial siderosis of the central nervous system: pathogenetic heterogeneity and therapeutic approaches.

Objective: Superficial siderosis of the central nervous system (CNS) is a rare chronic progressive disorder caused by chronic subarachnoid hemorrhage. We present four patients with superficial siderosis of the CNS to describe the characteristic symptoms, and to discuss the pathogenetic heterogeneity and possible new therapeutic approaches.

Results: The causes of chronic subarachnoid bleeding in superficial siderosis were different.

Prognostic and diagnostic value of global cerebral blood flow volume and cerebral transit time in acute stroke.

Conventional duplex sonography is a well-established method for the assessment of the brain-supplying arteries in acute stroke. However, ultrasound (US) remains inconclusive in a significant number of stroke patients. Recently, two new US parameters, the cerebral transit time (cTT) and the global cerebral blood flow volume (CBF), have been introduced.

MRI in isolated sixth nerve palsies.

In previous studies the origin of the majority of isolated sixth nerve palsies was not clear or was ascribed to vascular disease. Our purpose was determine how frequently a causative lesion was demonstrated on MRI in patients with an acute unilateral sixth nerve palsy. We performed a prospective study of 43 patients using a standardised protocol.

Proximal myotonic myopathy and proximal myotonic dystrophy: two different entities? The phenotypic variability of proximal myotonic syndromes.

Multisystemic myotonic myopathies are characterised by a variable pattern of symptoms and signs and a variable degree of disease severity. Proximal myotonic dystrophy has been described as an entity distinct from proximal myotonic myopathy because of severe proximal muscle weakness and dystrophic changes on magnetic reasonace imaging and on muscle histopathology. We describe two siblings, one of them presenting with a proximal myotonic myopathy phenotype, the other with a proximal myotonic dystrophy-like phenotype.

MRI-findings after uncomplicated anterior cervical discectomy.

Background: The anterior approach for cervical discectomy with methacrylate-implant involves manipulations on vertebral bodies and ligaments. Foreign materials like methacrylate and fibrin sponge are inserted. On postoperative MRI it may be difficult to differentiate pathological from "normal" findings caused by routine manipulations.

Does additional discectomy and the degree of dural sac compression influence the outcome of decompressive surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis?

The discussion regarding factors that reliably predict the long-term surgical results in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis is still going on. This retrospective study analyses the relation between the dimensions of the dural sac and patients' clinical status before and after decompressive operations performed with or without additional discectomy. The type of surgery performed in 134 patients and the dural sac dimensions measured on postmyelograpic computed tomography in 100 of these patients were related to the Prolo scores before surgery and at follow-up (mean 46 months).

[Cerebral aneurysms in the posterior circulation. Treatment results in 44 consecutive cases].

Purpose: Evaluation of clinical and morphological results in 44 consecutive patients with 45 aneurysms of the posterior circulation.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of patient charts and angiograms of all vertebrobasilar aneurysms diagnosed in our department between 10/95 and 08/99. All aneurysms were treated.

Early childhood MRI findings in complex partial seizures and hippocampal sclerosis.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on an infant with typical complex partial seizures. Visual analysis revealed MRI signs of left hippocampal sclerosis (HS) at an age of 9 months. Morphometric data including volumetry and relaxometry confirming the diagnosis are shown.

[Extravasation of contrast medium in local intra-arterial fibrinolysis of the carotid territory].

The safety of fibrinolytic therapy is determined with the incidence of intraparenchymatous hemorrhage. When interpreting CT studies after local intra-arterial fibrinolysis (LIF) in the carotid territory, one must consider that a hyperdense lesion may also be caused by extravasation of contrast material during angiography. In this study we retrospectively analyzed CT scans of 24 patients performed within 24 h after LIF and correlated the results with clinical and angiographic findings before and after therapy.

Heat-related illness. Plan ahead to protect your patients.

Environmental heat illnesses range from irksome to devastating. People at particular risk are the elderly, the chronically mentally ill, the community-dwelling developmentally delayed, people without social contacts, athletes, and those without access to air-conditioning. Because heat-related deaths are preventable, community-wide response to heat emergencies, together with individual and community education programs, could greatly decrease morbidity and mortality.

MRI in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: correlation with clinical and neuropathological data.

To ascertain whether increased grey matter signal intensity on T2-weighted images in patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) corresponds to the stage and severity of this disease, we correlated MRI findings in four of our own and previously reported patients with sporadic CJD with the clinical variants, neuropathological changes at autopsy, duration of the disease and survival time after MRI examination. Of 15 patients with the extrapyramidal type of CJD, 10 showed increased signal in the basal ganglia on T2-weighted images. One of seven patients with the Heidenhain variant had increased signal in the occipital cortex.

[Craniocervical dissections: study strategies in MR imaging and MR angiography].

Purpose: To define the diagnostic efficacy of MR imaging, "time of flight" (TOF) and phase contrast (PC) MR angiography in craniocervical arterial dissections.

Material And Methods: The MR examinations of 16 patients with proven arterial dissections (n = 20) were retrospectively analysed by three independent readers. The MR protocol included T1w spin echo sequences with and without fat saturation (SPIR), T2w-turbo-spin echo, 2D- and 3D-TOF- and 3D-PC-MRA.

Sarcoidosis presenting as an intra- or extra-axial cranial mass: report of two cases.

Sarcoidosis may also present as an extra- or intra-axial mass involving the central nervous system. These lesions are sometimes operated upon, because a neoplasm is suspected. We report two cases of unusual tumour-like extra- and intra-axial sarcoidosis.

[Detectability of new medial infarcts by CT: appearance of ischemic signs].

Purpose: To evaluate the detectability of acute middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarctions by CT with regard to the time interval after symptom onset and to the infarction size. Analysis of the chronological appearance of signs of ischaemia.

Material And Methods: Two examiners retrospectively and independently evaluated CT scans from 171 patients with acute MCA infarctions performed within 24 hours after onset of symptoms.

Cytomegalovirus encephalitis and primary cerebral lymphoma mimicking Wernicke's encephalopathy.

We report a 29-year-old HIV-positive patient admitted with dysarthria, ataxia and somnolence. Imaging findings were typical of Wernicke's encephalopathy, but autopsy revealed cytomegalovirus encephalitis and primary cerebral lymphoma.

[Radiologic diagnosis of hypophyseal adenomas].

During the last few years the radiological approach to the diagnosis of pituitary adenomas has changed. In the present article we review the current status of techniques and indications for imaging of pituitary adenomas. First the clinical presentation and pertinent biochemical tests for the various types of adenomas are discussed.