Severe ileus and urinary retention in a patient with tuberculous meningitis.

An acute ileus and/or urinary retention are recognized as emergent complications requiring appropriate depressurizing treatments. Meningitis should be suspected as a cause of these autonomic disturbances.

Convulsion and cerebellar ataxia associated with maternally inherited diabetes and deafness: a case report.

Convulsion in diabetics is often considered as a result from fluctuation of blood glucose level. However, if a diabetic patient also presents abnormal neurological signs, mitochondrial diseases need to be considered in the differential diagnosis.

The long-term effects of pitavastatin on blood lipids and platelet activation markers in stroke patients: impact of the homocysteine level.

To examine the impact of the plasma homocysteine level on the anti-atherosclerotic effects of pitavastatin treatment, we retrospectively examined 59 patients who had a history of stroke and had been prescribed pitavastatin for the treatment of dyslipidemia at the Neurology department of Toho University Ohashi Medical Center Hospital. The patients were classified into two groups according to their homocysteine levels. Carotid artery plaque progression was determined before and after pitavastatin treatment.

Legionellosis presenting as singultus and external ophthalmoplegia.

We report a 71-year-old man with legionellosis, who presented with abducens nerve palsy, singultus, confusion, memory impairment, ataxia, and hyporeflexia. Legionella pneumonia was diagnosed on the basis of detection of Legionella pneumophila antigen in the urine. The cerebrospinal fluid was negative for the antigen and antibody, but an oligoclonal band was detected, and the IgG index was elevated.

Anti-TNF therapy using etanercept suppresses degenerative and inflammatory changes in skeletal muscle of older SJL/J mice.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2B and Miyoshi myopathy are characterized by muscle fiber necrosis caused by a defect in dysferlin and inflammatory changes. SJL/J mice are deficient in dysferlin and display severe inflammatory changes, most notably the presence of cytokines, which may be related to destruction of the sarcolemma. We tested the hypothesis that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) contributes to myofibril necrosis.

[Case of neuralgic amyotrophy with anti GT1a antibody].

A 48-year-old-man had intense pain in the neck and muscle weakness in the left upper limb after he presented low grade fever and appetite loss for a week. Several days later, he developed intense pain and severe muscle weakness in bilateral upper limbs. Laboratory examination showed elevated liver enzyme levels.

Triphasic waves in a patient with tuberculous meningitis.

We report on the case of a 32-year-old woman with tuberculous meningitis (TBM) with electroencephalogram (EEG) output displaying triphasic waves (TWs). The EEG on day 8 revealed generalized slowing, frontal bilateral TWs, a background of 2Hz delta waves, and no epileptiform activity. The patient's condition improved slowly with antituberculosis chemotherapy treatment.

Autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 2 with myasthenia gravis crisis.

We describe a rare case of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 2 initially presenting as Addison disease and autoimmune thyroid disease, with subsequent development of autoimmune hepatitis and myasthenia gravis (MG) crisis in a Japanese woman. MG improved with oral prednisolone followed by plasmapheresis for immunoadsorption; thymectomy was not performed. Conventional treatment for MG was effective and safe in this case, in which there was positivity for human leukocyte antigen A23, B52, B62, DR11, and DR15.

Familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease with a codon 200 mutation presenting as thalamic syndrome: diagnosis by single photon emission computed tomography using (99m)Tc-ethyl cysteinate dimer.

The clinical features of familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with a codon 200 point mutation [fCJD (E200K)] are similar to those of sporadic CJD (sCJD). MRI diffusion-weighted imaging (MRI-DWI) has been reported to be useful for the early diagnosis of CJD. We describe a Japanese fCJD (E200K) case in which thalamic symptoms were the initial manifestations.