[The correlation between the type of positivity of the tilt test and a simultaneous electroencephalogram: the preliminary results].

Background: Today the first-choice examination to study neurally-mediated syncope is the tilt test. There are still many aspects to be clarified on the pathophysiology of neurally-mediated syncope, and much uncertainty remains on the therapeutic procedure to adopt. Recent research has investigated the role of neurohumoral agents, thus shifting interest to the pathogenetic role of the central nervous system, over and above that of the already widely studied vegetative nervous system.

High dose intravenous immune globulins and plasma exchange in Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

We report the effects of treatment with plasma-exchange (PE) and intravenous immune globulins (IVIg) in 36 out of 50 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) recruited by an incidence study in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Comparison of the patients treated with PE and IVIg showed no significant differences in terms of effectiveness in improving the clinical course of GBS: at one month, respectively 11.1% and 25% had recovered, and 55.

Transient global amnesia: neuropsychological findings after single and multiple attacks.

We examined by neuropsychological tests 41 patients who had presented attacks of transient global amnesia (TGA; 31 had single and 10 multiple episodes), comparing them with 41 matched normal controls. Patients with single attacks showed only two impaired memory tasks with respect to controls (immediate and long-term verbal memory), while patients with multiple attacks showed more impaired tasks in memory and visuoperceptual ability. These data confirm that TGA is a benign syndrome, but could leave a few subclinical memory deficits probably exacerbated by repeated attacks.

Epileptic transient amnesia.

A patient with epileptic amnesic attacks suffered three prolonged episodes similar to transient global amnesia. Clinical, electroencephalographic and neuropsychological observations during 2 years' follow-up are reported.