Opalski syndrome: a rare variant of Wallenberg syndrome: a case report and literature review.

Background: Opalski syndrome is a rare variant of Wallenberg syndrome (lateral medullary syndrome) that demonstrates concomitant ipsilateral hemiplegia due to infarctions within the lateral medulla and the cervical spinal cord, which also extend to the post-pyramidal decussation to affect the corticospinal tract.

Case Presentation: A 56-year-old man initially presented with a unilateral headache with right cervical pain. Consequently, he developed symptoms that indicate Wallenberg syndrome: vertigo, dysphonia, dysarthria, right limb ataxia with a tendency to fall, and ptosis, in addition to ipsilateral hemiparesis.

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators and Chronic Kidney Disease.

Use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) is the treatment of choice for heart failure patients with ejection fraction <35% to prevent sudden cardiac death. Whether this benefit remains among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or end stage renal disease (ESRD) is yet to be elucidated. We conducted a systematic review of studies in PubMed that have investigated the use of ICDs among patients with CKD or ESRD.

Differences and similarities between patients with and without end-stage renal disease, with regard to location of intracardiac calcification.

It has been known for some time that mitral annulus calcification is common in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on long-term dialysis, as well as in elderly patients without renal failure. However, a systematic comparison of cardiac calcification in these two types of patients has not yet been made. We examined two-dimensional echocardiograms in 33 patients with ESRD (mean age 66 +/- 10 years) and in 34 other patients with intracardiac calcification but no ESRD (mean age 69 +/- 9 years), with particular attention to precise anatomic location of calcification.