Autoimmune encephalitis in glial fibrillary acidic protein astrocytopathy.

Autoimmune encephalitis due to glial fibrillar acidic protein (GFAP) astrocytopathy is a rare cause of subacute neuropsychiatric changes. In this case, a young patient presented with a viral prodrome and meningismus, followed by progressive encephalopathy and movement disorders over the span of 2 weeks. Due to his clinical trajectory, inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, initial normal brain imaging and negative serum autoimmune encephalopathy panel, his initial diagnosis was presumed viral meningoencephalitis.

Teaching Video NeuroImage: Monocular Rotational Nystagmus Caused by Superior Oblique Myokymia.

A 61-year-old man presented with 2 days of "flickering" vision. The symptom resolved with closure of the left eye. Examination demonstrated involuntary high-frequency, low-amplitude intorting movements of the left eye, consistent with superior oblique myokymia (Video 1).

Intravascular Lymphoma as a Cause of Recurrent Strokes - Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Background: Intravascular lymphoma is an uncommon cause of ischemic strokes. Because of its rarity and atypical pattern, most diagnoses are made post-mortem.

Case Study: We present a case of a 68-year-old male with multiple cardiovascular risk factors and recent SARS-CoV-2 infection who presented with recurrent strokes.

Case report: Anti-neurexin-3α-associated autoimmune encephalitis secondary to contrast-induced encephalopathy.

A 54-year-old man complained of episodic stinging in his left eye along with weakness and numbness in his right upper and lower extremities for 1 month. The neurological examination was negative. MRI showed bilateral paraventricular demyelination.

Evaluating consciousness and awareness during focal seizures: responsiveness testing versus recall testing.

Objective: The current International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) guidelines classify focal seizures based on awareness, defined as successful postictal recall of ictal experiences, and exclude the use of responsiveness during seizures for classification. One reason for this exclusion is that responsiveness was thought to not be commonly tested during seizures. Our goal was to determine whether, in at least some settings, responsiveness testing during seizures is relatively common.

Alterations in Cortical-Subcortical Metabolism in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy With Impaired Awareness Seizures.

Objective: The features of cerebral metabolism associated with loss of consciousness in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) have not been fully elucidated. We aim to investigate the alterations in cortical-subcortical metabolism in temporal lobe epilepsy with impaired awareness seizures (IAS).

Methods: Regional cerebral metabolism was measured using fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (F-FDG PET) in patients with TLE-IAS and healthy controls.

Migration characteristics as a prognostic factor in cerebral sparganosis.

Objective: To differentiate diagnostic and prognostic factors from the clinical material of patients with cerebral sparganosis in central South China.

Methods: Consecutive patients with cerebral sparganosis from our hospital between 2010 and 2018 were retrospectively enrolled. The clinical manifestations, radiographic features, treatment, and outcomes of these patients were analyzed.

Reliability of patient self-report of cognition, awareness, and consciousness during seizures.

Objective: Clinicians rely on patient self-report of impairment during seizures for decisions including driving eligibility. However, the reliability of patient reports on cognitive and behavioral functions during seizures remains unknown.

Methods: We administered a daily questionnaire to epilepsy patients undergoing continuous video-EEG monitoring, asking about responsiveness, speech, memory, awareness, and consciousness during seizures in the preceding 24 hours.

End-of-Life Care Decision-Making in Stroke.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability in the United States. Though advances in interventions have improved patient survival after stroke, prognostication of long-term functional outcomes remains challenging, thereby complicating discussions of treatment goals. Stroke patients who require intensive care unit care often do not have the capacity themselves to participate in decision making processes, a fact that further complicates potential end-of-life care discussions after the immediate post-stroke period.

Acute cerebral atrophy in autoimmune encephalitis complicated by haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

Autoimmune encephalitis is a disease characterised by neural-specific antibodies. This case report presents a 20-year-old young man with a recent history of suspected viral encephalitis who presented with recurrent fevers and episodes of confusion. He was found to have anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid 1 receptor (AMPAR1) positive autoantibodies and was diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis.

Parallel pathways to decreased subcortical arousal in focal limbic seizures.

Focal limbic seizures can cause loss of consciousness. Previous work suggests that hippocampal seizures can increase activity in the lateral septum (LS) and decrease cholinergic output from the basal forebrain (BF), leading to deficits in conscious arousal. The mechanism by which LS and BF interact is unclear.

Thalamic Stimulation Improves Postictal Cortical Arousal and Behavior.

The postictal state following seizures is characterized by impaired consciousness and has a major negative impact on individuals with epilepsy. Previous work in disorders of consciousness including the postictal state suggests that bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the thalamic intralaminar central lateral nucleus (CL) may improve level of arousal. We tested the effects of postictal thalamic CL DBS in a rat model of secondarily generalized seizures elicited by electrical hippocampal stimulation.

Application of the APE-CHN and RITE-CHN scores for autoimmune seizures and epilepsy in Chinese patients: A retrospective study.

Purpose: To assess the performance of the Antibody Prevalence in Chinese Patients with Epilepsy and Encephalopathy (APE-CHN) and Response to Immunotherapy in Chinese Patients with Epilepsy and Encephalopathy (RITE-CHN) scores in Chinese patients with epilepsy of unknown etiology.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of selected patients from Xiangya Hospital, Central South University (01/01/2017-02/28/2019) whose serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were examined for autoimmune encephalitis antibodies. Of these, patients with diagnostic code of seizure or epilepsy were selected in our study.

A Tale of Immune-Related Adverse Events With Sequential Trials of Checkpoint Inhibitors in a Patient With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy is approved for the treatment of many cancers. As its use becomes more prevalent, sequential trials with different CPIs as monotherapy or combination therapy will become more common. It is thought that the increased cumulative dose of CPIs over multiple trials increases the risk of immune-related adverse events (irAEs).

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia relapse with atypical localised presentation mimicking ankle trauma in a 28-year-old man.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a common paediatric cancer with a tendency to relapse, usually within 3 years of remission. Most patients present with hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, pallor, fever and bruising. Localised muskuloskeletal presentation is extremely rare.

Neural network models of the tactile system develop first-order units with spatially complex receptive fields.

First-order tactile neurons have spatially complex receptive fields. Here we use machine-learning tools to show that such complexity arises for a wide range of training sets and network architectures. Moreover, we demonstrate that this complexity benefits network performance, especially on more difficult tasks and in the presence of noise.

Anatomy Based Networks and Topology Alteration in Seizure-Related Cognitive Outcomes.

Epilepsy is a paroxysmal neurological disorder characterized by recurrent and unprovoked seizures affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. Cognitive dysfunction induced by seizures is a severe comorbidity of epilepsy and epilepsy syndromes and reduces patients' quality of life. Seizures, along with accompanying histopathological and pathophysiological changes, are associated with cognitive comorbidities.

Dynamic functional disturbances of brain network in seizure-related cognitive outcomes.

Epilepsy is a prevalent neurologic disorder affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. Cognitive dysfunction induced by seizures is one of the severe comorbidities of epilepsy and epileptic syndrome, which has a negative impact on epileptic patients' quality of life. Several mechanisms may be associated with cognitive impairment in patients with epilepsy.

Folding of an intrinsically disordered protein by phosphorylation as a regulatory switch.

Intrinsically disordered proteins play important roles in cell signalling, transcription, translation and cell cycle regulation. Although they lack stable tertiary structure, many intrinsically disordered proteins undergo disorder-to-order transitions upon binding to partners. Similarly, several folded proteins use regulated order-to-disorder transitions to mediate biological function.