The Contribution of Normal Pregnancy to Eclampsia.

Eclampsia, clinically defined as unexplained seizure in a woman with preeclampsia, is a life threatening complication unique to the pregnant state. However, a subpopulation of women with seemingly uncomplicated pregnancies experience de novo seizure without preeclamptic signs or symptoms, suggesting pregnancy alone may predispose the brain to seizure. Here, we hypothesized that normal pregnancy lowers seizure threshold and investigated mechanisms by which pregnancy may affect seizure susceptibility, including neuroinflammation and plasticity of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR) subunit expression.

Magnesium sulfate treatment reverses seizure susceptibility and decreases neuroinflammation in a rat model of severe preeclampsia.

Eclampsia, defined as unexplained seizure in a woman with preeclampsia, is a life-threatening complication of pregnancy with unclear etiology. Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) is the leading eclamptic seizure prophylactic, yet its mechanism of action remains unclear. Here, we hypothesized severe preeclampsia is a state of increased seizure susceptibility due to blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and neuroinflammation that lowers seizure threshold.

A novel presentation of an ocular geste antagoniste in cervical dystonia: a case report.

Background: A geste antagoniste or sensory trick is a well described phenomenon associated with primary cervical dystonia. Craniocervical tactile stimulation or stereotyped limb movements allow patients to transiently ameliorate dystonic activation of cervical musculature.

Case Report: We report a patient with primary cervical dystonia who presented with a novel "ocular" geste antagoniste.

Pathology of bilateral pulvinar degeneration following long duration status epilepticus.

Purpose: To define the neuropathological findings of pulvinar degeneration seen in long duration status epilepticus.

Methods: We review the clinical, radiologic, neurophysiologic, investigational and neuropathological findings on a 27 year old woman who died after 162 days of prolonged refractory status epilepticus.

Results: Continuous EEG monitoring confirmed recurrent uncontrolled seizure activity bilaterally and independently, most frequent in the right fronto-temporal region.

Low back pain associates with altered activity of the cerebral cortex prior to arm movements that require postural adjustment.

Objective: To determine whether low back pain (LBP) associates with altered postural stabilization and concomitant changes in cerebrocortical motor physiology.

Methods: Ten participants with LBP and 10 participants without LBP performed self-initiated, voluntary arm raises. Electromyographic onset latencies of the bilateral internal oblique and erector spinae muscles were analyzed relative to that of the deltoid muscle as measures of anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs).

People with chronic low back pain exhibit decreased variability in the timing of their anticipatory postural adjustments.

Variability in the constituents of movement is fundamental to adaptive motor performance. A sustained decrease in the variability of anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) occurs when performing cued arm raises following acute, experimentally induced low back pain (LBP; Moseley & Hodges, 2006). This observation implies that these changes in variability may also be relevant to people with chronic LBP.

Emerging patterns of diffusion-weighted MR imaging in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: case report and review of the literature.

We report the use of diffusion-weighted MR imaging in the early diagnosis and monitoring of the progression of a histopathologically proved case of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Ribbon-like areas of hyperintensity in the cerebral cortex on diffusion-weighted images corresponded to the localization of periodic sharp-wave complexes on the electroencephalogram.