[Neuropsychological impairment in Parkinson's disease without dementia].

Cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease (PD) has been consistently reported, but little is known about cognitive impairment in PD patients without dementia, and its association with clinical characteristics, neuropsychiatric disturbance and functional activities. Therefore, we evaluated 52 non-demented PD patients, 22 of them with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) who were matched with 52 healthy controls. Our results confirm the existence of dysfunction in information processing speed, executive function, verbal memory and visuo-perceptual processing in PD.

Recurrent coital headache associated with an unruptured carotid saccular aneurysm.

We report the case of a 48-year-old woman whose recurrent coital headache ceased following intracranial internal carotid artery aneurysm embolization.

Phenotypic variability in familial prion diseases due to the D178N mutation.

Background: Between January 1993 and December 2003, 19 patients with familial prion diseases due to the D178N mutation were referred to the regional epidemiological registry for spongiform encephalopathies in the Basque Country in Spain, a small community of some 2,100,000 inhabitants.

Methods: Ten further patients belonging to the same pedigrees were retrospectively ascertained through neurological or neuropathological records. In four of the patients, the diagnosis was confirmed by analysing DNA obtained from paraffin blocks.

Familial prion diseases in the Basque Country (Spain).

In 1995, a surveillance system for prion diseases was set up in the Basque Country, an autonomous region in northern Spain (2.1 million inhabitants). In the period from January 1993 to December 2003, we diagnosed 21 patients with familial prion diseases prospectively and another 4 patients retrospectively.

[Dementia with frontal lobe atrophy: clinical study from 18 patients with cognitive impairment and frontal lobe involvement detected by structural and functional neuroimaging].

Objective: To characterize clinically patients with cognitive impairment and frontal lobe degeneration at neuroimaging.

Patients And Methods: Patients diagnosed of dementia or mild neurocognitive impairment by DSM IV criteria and neuropsychological tests with frontal lobe atrophy and hipoperfusion detected by computed tomography and single photon emission computed tomography.

Results: 18 patients, 5:1 on behalf of women; mean age at onset, 74 years; hereditary for dementia, 38%; mean duration of illness at first testing, 2 years; the most common initial symptoms, memory loss.