Atypical Motor Neuron Disease variants: Still a diagnostic challenge in Neurology.

Motor neuron disease (MND) represents a wide and heterogeneous expanding group of disorders involving the upper or lower motor neurons, mainly represented by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), primary lateral sclerosis, progressive muscular atrophy and progressive bulbar palsy. Primary motor neuronopathies are characterized by progressive degenerative loss of anterior horn cell motoneurons (lower motor neurons) or loss of giant pyramidal Betz cells (upper motor neurons). Despite its well-known natural history, pathophysiological and clinical characteristics for the most common MND, atypical clinical presentation and neurodegenerative mechanisms are commonly observed in rare clinical entities, so-called atypical variants of MND-ALS, including flail-leg syndrome, flail-arm syndrome, facial-onset sensory and motor neuronopathy (FOSMN), finger extension weakness and downbeat nystagmus (FEWDON-MND) and long-lasting and juvenile MND-ALS.

Prevalence of Peripheral Neuropathy and associated factors in HIV-infected patients.

The progress on HIV infection treatment has allowed a longer survival for HIV-infected patients. However, chronic comorbidities are emerging. Peripheral Neuropathy (PN) represents one of the most prevalent neurologic disorders among these patients, and comprehensive studies may contribute to a reduction in the morbidity of this condition.

Variables associated with physical health-related quality of life in Parkinson's disease patients presenting for deep brain stimulation.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) benefits Parkinson's disease (PD) patient's quality of life specially in domains as mobility, activities of daily living (ADL) and bodily discomfort (BD), but little is known about the variables associated with these HRQOL domains in patients presenting for DBS. The objective is to evaluate variables associated with of HRQOL in a Brazilian sample of PD patients presenting for DBS treatment, specifically in the domains related with motor symptoms. In a cross-sectional study of 59 PD patients evaluated at outpatient Unit for Movement Disorders, multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify independent variables associated with mobility, ADL and BD domains of the 39-item Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39).

Prevalence of headache in patients with Parkinson's disease and its association with the side of motor symptom onset.

We compared the lifetime prevalence and the prevalence of headache during the previous year in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and control subjects. We also investigated the association between the side of PD symptom onset and the side of the headache. We interviewed 98 consecutive patients with an established diagnosis of PD between December 2010 and January 2012.