Management of an acute intracranial emergency in pregnancy.

We report a case of a mid-20s primigravida at 37 weeks' gestation who presented with severe headache and acute neurological deterioration. The CT brain scan showed hydrocephalus caused by a colloid cyst in the third ventricle. The patient underwent emergency placement of an external ventricular drain for decompression of acute hydrocephalus.

A 71-year-old woman with an intracranial dural-based mesenchymal chondrosarcoma.

Intracranial mesenchymal chondrosarcoma is a rare, high-grade malignancy with the highest prevalence in young adults. Because of its rarity, most data regarding survival are limited to case studies and small series. We present a 71-year-old woman with an intracranial dural based mesenchymal chondrosarcoma located in the anterior skull base, to our knowledge the oldest patient reported with this tumor.

Occurrence of malignant vertebral fractures in an emergency room setting.

Background: To perform a risk analysis study to determine the probability of a spinal fracture being of malignant origin in patients presenting at a level I trauma centre emergency room after trauma.

Patients And Methods: Data from 334 consecutive patients were retrospectively obtained from 1993 to 2003. They were divided into two groups: group 1--(benign) traumatic fractures; and group 2--malignant fractures (n = 32).

Analysis of immunoglobulin H gene rearrangement by polymerase chain reaction in primary central nervous system lymphoma.

Object: Diagnosing primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) may be difficult either because of a paucity of tumor cells in the brain biopsy specimens or a failure to demonstrate monoclonality on immunomorphological studies. Monoclonality can also be demonstrated by amplification of the rearranged immunoglobulin H genes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to the framework region (FR)3 and FR2 complementarity determining region (CDR)-III and CDR-II of these genes. The PCR method is feasible with formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsy material and has proven to be helpful in the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on biopsy samples obtained from various locations in the body.