Non-surgical spinal cord infarction: case series & long-term follow-up of functional outcome.

Introduction: Spinal cord infarction is a rare but often devastating disorder. The pathogenesis of most non-surgical cases involves atherothrombosis and treatment with anticoagulation and antiplatelet agents may be indicated. Functional recovery in most cases is poor.

A Rare Cause of Myoclonus: A Cupric Conundrum.

A woman aged 22 years presented with a 3-year history of jerks when brushing her teeth and a tremor when carrying drinks. Examination revealed a bilateral jerky tremor, stimulus-sensitive myoclonus, and difficulty with tandem gait. Thyroid and liver function test results were normal, but she had rapidly progressive renal failure.

Deletions at 22q11.2 in idiopathic Parkinson's disease: a combined analysis of genome-wide association data.

Background: Parkinson's disease has been reported in a small number of patients with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. In this study, we screened a series of large, independent Parkinson's disease case-control studies for deletions at 22q11.

Bone health in Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) and osteoporosis are chronic diseases associated with increasing age. Single studies have reported associations between them and the major consequence, namely, increased risk of fractures. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the relationship of PD with osteoporosis, bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk.

Pisa syndrome in Parkinson's disease: a mobile or fixed deformity?

Background: Although Pisa syndrome and scoliosis are sometimes used interchangeably to describe a laterally flexed postural deviation in Parkinson's disease (PD), the imaging findings of Pisa syndrome in PD have not been previously studied in detail.

Methods: Patients with PD and Pisa syndrome (lateral flexion >10° in the standing position) were examined clinically and underwent radiological assessment using standing radiograph and supine CT scan of the whole spine.

Results: Fifteen patients were included in this observational study.

Parkin disease: a clinicopathologic entity?

Importance: Mutations in the gene encoding parkin (PARK2) are the most common cause of autosomal recessive juvenile-onset and young-onset parkinsonism. The few available detailed neuropathologic reports suggest that homozygous and compound heterozygous parkin mutations are characterized by severe substantia nigra pars compacta neuronal loss.

Objective: To investigate whether parkin-linked parkinsonism is a different clinicopathologic entity to Parkinson disease (PD).

Primary progressive aphasia with parkinsonism.

A 65-year-old man presented with word-finding difficulty and gait disturbance. His speech was nonfluent with word retrieval impairment and difficulties with sentence repetition. Other cognitive domains were intact initially.

Decision making, impulsivity, and addictions: do Parkinson's disease patients jump to conclusions?

Links between impulsive-compulsive behaviors (ICBs) in treated Parkinson's disease (PD), behavioral addictions, and substance abuse have been postulated, but no direct comparisons have been carried out so far. We directly compared patients with PD with and without ICBs with illicit drug abusers, pathological gamblers, and age-matched healthy controls using the beads task, a test of reflection impulsivity, and a working memory task. We found that all patients with PD made more impulsive and irrational choices than the control group.

Globular glial tauopathies (GGT) presenting with motor neuron disease or frontotemporal dementia: an emerging group of 4-repeat tauopathies.

A number of recent studies have described cases with tau-positive globular oligodendroglial inclusions (GOIs) and such cases have overlapping pathological features with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), but present with clinical features of motor neuron disease (MND) and/or frontotemporal dementia (FTD). These two clinical phenotypes have been published independently and as a result, have come to be considered as distinct disease entities. We describe the clinicopathological and biochemical features of two cases with GOIs: one with clinical symptoms suggestive of MND and the other with FTD.

Postural deformities in Parkinson's disease.

Postural deformities are frequent and disabling complications of Parkinson's disease (PD) and atypical parkinsonism. These deformities include camptocormia, antecollis, Pisa syndrome, and scoliosis. Recognition of specific postural syndromes might have differential diagnostic value in patients presenting with parkinsonism.