Executive Function and Personality Predict Instrumental Activities of Daily Living in Alzheimer Disease.

Objective: Previous research shows that executive function (EF) and personality independently predict functional decline. Our objective was to determine whether personality traits predict independence with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), after accounting for executive dysfunction, in a mixed sample of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD).

Methods: In a cross-sectional analysis at a university medical center, 63 healthy older adults (median age: 67.

Acquired cervical spine impairment in young adults with cerebral palsy.

Three patients with spastic cerebral palsy and no associated movement disorder--each of whom presented with loss of functional skills and delay in the definitive diagnosis of cervical myelopathy--are reported, in order to increase awareness of the possibility of cervical spine pathology in these adults. The possibility of myelopathy should be investigated when considering the etiology of functional deterioration. A functional neurological examination for all multiply disabled individuals is proposed as a reference for future comparison.

Tremor studies in 1886 through 1889.

From biblical times to 1886, tremors were partially characterized by patterns of activation and associated disease states. William Richard Gowers and Frederick Peterson devised methods to determine the frequencies of the tremors of Parkinson's disease, alcoholism, hysteria, and other diseases. Their values concur closely with the contemporary ranges of 4.

The neurophysiological profile of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Reports of the incidence and severity of physiological abnormalities of vitamin B12 deficiency sharply differ. To resolve these controversies we performed evoked response and nerve conduction studies in 10 males with vitamin B12 deficiency. The minimum criteria for this diagnosis were diminished position and vibration sensation and vitamin B12 levels less than 220 pg/ml.

Asymmetrical growth of scalp hair in syringomyelia.

Trophic alterations in the skin take place consequent to interruption of its motor, sensory, and autonomic innervation. The hair in denervated areas is often less abundant and grows more slowly. Syringomyelia is a common cause of cutaneous trophic alterations that are often unilateral.