Acute necrotizing encephalopathy.

Influenza virus infection is a rare cause of neurological complications, with acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) being among the deadliest. Due to the low incidence of ANE, literature about its association with influenza B infection is limited. We present the case of a 29-year-old previously healthy man with an imaging and clinical diagnosis of influenza B virus infection and sudden decline in mental status.

Increased creativity associated with dopamine agonist therapy: A case report and short review of the literature.

Impulse control disorder (ICD) has been linked to dopamine agonist use in patients with Parkinson's disease. Increased creativity is another cognitive side effect of dopaminergic therapy. While ICD is well recognized in the literature, enhanced creativity as a positive phenomenon is underreported because it does not negatively affect the patients' quality of life.

Psychosis.

Purpose Of Review: Psychosis can manifest in primary psychotic disorders, neurologic diseases, and medical conditions. This article reviews the definition of psychotic symptoms and the evaluation and management of psychosis in primary psychiatric and neurologic disorders frequently seen in neurologic practice.

Recent Findings: Emerging evidence supports significant connections between psychosis and structural and functional brain changes in both primary psychotic and neurologic disorders.

Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome due to unilateral anterior opercular infarction with leukoaraiosis.

Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome (FCMS) is a cortical-subcortical pseudobulbar palsy characterized by automatic voluntary dissociation of facio-masticatory-pharyngo-glosso-laryngeal movements. FCMS is typically caused by vascular insults on the bilateral anterior opercular or adjacent subcortical areas. Acute onset of FCMS secondary to a unilateral lesion is extremely rare.

Validity of the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes in Staging and Detection of Cognitive Impairment in Mexican Americans.

Objective: We evaluated the utility of the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes score (CDR-SB) in staging and detecting amnestic-mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) among Mexican Americans.

Methods: Receiver operator curves were generated to evaluate the validity of the CDR-SB in staging and detecting a-MCI and AD in 1,073 Mexican Americans (758 controls, 163 a-MCI, and 152 AD).

Results: Optimal ranges of the CDR-SB were 0, 0.

Degenerative dementia with proximal radial and lower vertical spatial neglect.

A 75 year-old man had a two-year history of progressive memory loss, trouble with finances and getting lost. On examination, he scored 16/30 in MoCA test, noticeably impaired on the attentional tasks. His screening bloodtests werenormal.

Proactive interference apraxic agraphia: a writing and drawing disorder associated with corticobasal syndrome.

Proactive interference is when a previously performed task impairs performance on a current task. It is often associated with memory tasks and has not been reported to interfere with writing or drawing. We evaluated a left-handed man diagnosed with corticobasal syndrome who had a two-year history of progressive agraphia.

Rapidly progressive dementia-associated N-type voltage-gated calcium channel antibody encephalopathy.

Autoimmune encephalopathy is one of the treatable causes of rapidly progressive dementia; however, it is often underdiagnosed. Autoantibodies against voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) have been linked to several neurological disorders, including Lambert-Eaton syndrome, but VGCC antibody-associated encephalopathy is uncommon. Herein, we present a case of a 74-year-old woman with prominent neuropsychiatric symptoms followed by rapid cognitive decline.

Early-Motor Phenotype Relates to Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Disorders in Huntington's Disease.

Objective: To determine the relationships between the motor phenotype and the presence of specific neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological disorders in patients with early motor-manifest Huntington's disease (HD).

Methods: From the Enroll-HD study, 3,505 individuals with HD who had ≤5 years of motor symptoms were classified based on the predefined parkinsonism/chorea index into chorea-dominant (n = 1125), parkinsonism-dominant (n = 867), and mixed-motor phenotype (n = 1513) groups. An analysis was performed on the results of the short Problem Behaviors Assessment.

Mild cognitive impairment and dementia in motor manifest Huntington's disease: Classification and prevalence.

Objectives: To identify the characteristics and prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in patients with motor-manifest Huntington's disease (HD) and to propose a new mild cognitive impairment (HD-MCI) classification for HD.

Methods: We included 307 motor-manifest HD participants from the ENROLL-HD study who completed the evaluation in four neurocognitive domains including executive functions, processing speed, language, and memory. Cognitive impairment in each domain was determined by age- and education-adjusted cutoffs (> 1.

Vertical and Radial Attentional Neglect in Corticobasal Syndrome.

Corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a tau-related neurodegenerative disease, is characterized by limb rigidity, dystonia, myoclonus, apraxia, and cognitive deficits. We report a patient with probable corticobasal syndrome, a major phenotype of CBD, who revealed both lower vertical and proximal radial attentional neglect on line bisection tests. Brain imaging revealed bilateral parietal atrophy with hypometabolism in the bilateral parietal, dorsolateral prefrontal, and premotor cortices.

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: ongoing challenges in finding mechanisms and prevention.

To summarize recent studies on the pathophysiology and preventive strategies for SUDEP. Databases and literature review. Patients with epilepsy have a significantly higher risk of death than the general population.

Lower Activation in Frontal Cortex and Posterior Cingulate Cortex Observed during Sex Determination Test in Early-Stage Dementia of the Alzheimer Type.

Face-labeling refers to the ability to classify faces into social categories. This plays a critical role in human interaction as it serves to define concepts of socially acceptable interpersonal behavior. The purpose of the current study was to characterize, what, if any, impairments in face-labeling are detectable in participants with early-stage clinically diagnosed dementia of the Alzheimer type (CDDAT) through the use of the sex determination test (SDT).

White Matter Deterioration May Foreshadow Impairment of Emotional Valence Determination in Early-Stage Dementia of the Alzheimer Type.

In Alzheimer Disease (AD), non-verbal skills often remain intact for far longer than verbally mediated processes. Four (1 female, 3 males) participants with early-stage Clinically Diagnosed Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (CDDAT) and eight neurotypicals (NTs; 4 females, 4 males) completed the emotional valence determination test (EVDT) while undergoing BOLD functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We expected CDDAT participants to perform just as well as NTs on the EVDT, and to display increased activity within the bilateral amygdala and right anterior cingulate cortex (r-ACC).

The illiterate brain and the neuropsychological assessment: From the past knowledge to the future new instruments.

The lifetime learning of illiterate and low-educated individuals shapes their cognitive skills, which are challenging to grade by the current available neuropsychological tools. Eight hundred million of the global population are illiterate. It is very challenging to interpret the cognitive performance of this population by the available formal neuropsychological tests, mainly developed for higher educated people.

Isolated left posterior insular infarction and convergent roles in verbal fluency, language, memory, and executive function.

The posterior insular cortex-a complex structure interconnecting various brain regions for different functions-is a rare location for ischemic stroke. We report a patient with isolated left posterior insular infarction who presented with multiple cognitive impairment, including impairment in semantic and phonemic verbal fluency.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension: ongoing clinical challenges and future prospects.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is an uncommon disorder characterized by increased intracranial pressure without radiological or laboratory evidence of intracranial pathology except empty sella turcica, optic nerve sheath with filled out cerebrospinal fluid spaces, and smooth-walled nonflow-related venous sinus stenosis or collapse. This condition typically affects obese women. The incidence of IIH is increasing with the rising prevalence of obesity.

Cardiac Arrhythmias and Abnormal Electrocardiograms After Acute Stroke.

Cardiac arrhythmias and electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities occur frequently but are often underrecognized after strokes. Acute ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes in some particular area of brain can disrupt central autonomic control of the heart, precipitating cardiac arrhythmias, ECG abnormalities, myocardial injury and sometimes sudden death. Identification of high-risk patients after acute stroke is important to arrange appropriate cardiac monitoring and effective management of arrhythmias, and to prevent cardiac morbidity and mortality.

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic: A Screening Tool for Mild Cognitive Impairment in Illiterate and Low-Educated Elderly Adults.

Objectives: To assess the validity of a newly developed cognitive screening tool, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic (MoCA-B), in screening for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in elderly adults with low education and varying literacy.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Community hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

Montreal Cognitive Assessment Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) as a predictor of conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease.

Objectives: To assess the usefulness of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) total score (MoCA-TS) and Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) in predicting conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD) in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Community-based memory clinic.