Pediatric Intracranial Tumors over a 5-Year Period in a Tertiary Care Center of North Kerala, India: A Retrospective Analysis.

Background: Pediatric brain tumors are unique in terms of distribution, clinical presentation, pathologic types, management, and prognosis. There are not many studies from India which have looked into the epidemiology of pediatric brain tumors.

Aims: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiology of pediatric brain tumors in North Kerala and compare it with data from the rest of India and other countries.

Intractable Yawning as a Predominant Symptom of Temporal Lobe Ganglioglioma: Case Report and Review of Literature.

Yawning, a physiologic reflex exhibited by vertebrates, is seldom noticed as a symptom of a disease. Not too often is a patient aware of it as a symptom, unless it is of such a distressing nature to seek attention. In this situation, to distinguish between normal and abnormal behavior would pose a diagnostic dilemma for the attending physician.

Embryonal Tumor with Multilayered Rosettes in a 3-Year-Old Girl: Case Report.

Embryonal tumor with multilayered rosettes (ETMR) is a new entity in the group of primitive neuroectodermal tumors of the central nervous system (CNS). It combines histopathological features of neuroblastoma and ependymoblastoma. This tumor occurs mostly in the first five years of life.

Pathogenesis of intracranial aneurysm is mediated by proinflammatory cytokine TNFA and IFNG and through stochastic regulation of IL10 and TGFB1 by comorbid factors.

Background: Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is often asymptomatic until the time of rupture resulting in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).There is no precise biochemical or phenotype marker for diagnosis of aneurysm. Environmental risk factors that associate with IA can result in modifying the effect of inherited genetic factors and thereby increase the susceptibility to SAH.

Association of Versican (VCAN) gene polymorphisms rs251124 and rs2287926 (G428D), with intracranial aneurysm.

Intracranial aneurysm (IA) accounts for 85% of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH) and is mainly caused due to the weakening of arterial wall. The structural integrity of the intracranial arteries is mainly influenced by the extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. The Proteoglycan Versican plays an important role in extracellular matrix assembly and plays a major role in the pathogenesis of IA.

Lack of association of lysyl oxidase (LOX) gene polymorphisms with intracranial aneurysm in a south Indian population.

Intracranial aneurysm (IA) accounts for 85 % of haemorrhagic stroke and is mainly caused due to weakening of arterial wall. Lysyl oxidase (LOX) is a cuproenzyme involved in cross linking structural proteins collagen and elastin, thus providing structural stability to artery. Using a case-control study design, we tested the hypothesis whether the variants in LOX gene flanking the two LD block, can increase risk of aSAH among South Indian patients, either independently, or by interacting with other risk factors of the disease.

Solitary fibrous tumor of the tentorium: a case report.

The authors describe the clinical and pathological features of a solitary fibrous tumor of the tentorium, a rare location for the tumor in the CNS. A 52-year-old lady presented to the neurosurgical services with headache of four months and vertigo of one and a half months duration. On examination, she had left-sided cerebellar signs and bilateral papilloedema.

Primary myxopapillary ependymoma of the fourth ventricle with cartilaginous metaplasia: a case report and review of the literature.

Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE), which is a benign histological subtype of ependymoma, is found predominantly in the cauda equina region. It occurs rarely in the brain and mostly as a metastatic deposit from a spinal lesion. The occurrence of primary intracranial MPE is exceptional, with only 11 cases reported to date.

Supratentorial and cerebellar liponeurocytomas: report of four cases with review of literature.

Liponeurocytoma is not exclusive to the cerebellar or fourth ventricular location. Since its inclusion in the central nervous system tumor classification in 2000, six cases with similar radiological, histomorphological and immunohistochemical features have also been described in the lateral ventricles. In the present study, we report clinical, radiological and pathological findings of three supratentorial and one cerebellar liponeurocytoma from our records, evaluated with an extensive panel of immunohistochemistry, and review published cases in the literature.

Risk factors for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in an Indian population.

Background: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) has a mortality rate as high as 50%. The prevalence of intracranial aneurysms from various parts of India varies from 0.75 to 10.

A case of cerebral toxoplasmosis in a pregnant non-immunocompromised patient.

Cerebral toxoplasmosis, a disease of immunocompromised individuals, is rare in immunocompetent persons. We present a case of cerebral toxoplasmosis in a non-immunocompro-mised pregnant woman. Her imaging studies revealed a mass lesion involving the right basal ganglia, periventricular grey matter, midbrain and pons suggesting a neoplastic pathology along with hydrocephalus.

Garcin's syndrome--a case report.

Background: Garcin's syndrome in its complete form is very rare, and hence, this case is reported.

Case Description: A 45-year-old patient presented to us with proptosis of the right eye and progressive weakness of all cranial nerves on the right side without associated features of raised intracranial pressure or long tract dysfunction. He had a bulge in the right buccolabial fold, from which fine needle aspiration cytology was done.

Middle and posterior fossa aspergilloma.

Background: Aspergilloma of the brain is a rare disease. Among its varied presentations, a solitary intracranial mass is very uncommon. A preoperative diagnosis of it is very difficult, but a perioperative squash smear/frozen section can identify the pathology.