Widespread white matter and conduction defects in PSEN1-related spastic paraparesis.

The mechanisms underlying presenilin 1 (PSEN1) mutation-associated spastic paraparesis (SP) are not clear. We compared diffusion and volumetric magnetic resonance measures between 3 persons with SP associated with the A431E mutation and 7 symptomatic persons with PSEN1 mutations without SP matched for symptom duration. We performed amyloid imaging and central motor and somatosensory conduction studies in 1 subject with SP.

The "Cuban Epidemic Neuropathy" of the 1990s: A glimpse from inside a totalitarian disease.

During the 1990s, Cuba was struck by a rare epidemic disease. Up to 50,000 people were affected by a pathology compromising primarily the optic nerve but also peripheral nerves and even spinal cord. This is a testimony from a direct witness and participant in the initial study of the epidemics showing that in spite of claims of a "multifactorial" etiology, still in the literature, the root cause of this disease is just result of the deliberate deprivation of the most elementary economic rights by extreme Government control over a population left unable to tend to its elementary survival by itself, in spite of a thorough Government-sponsored, universally celebrated Universal Healthcare System.

Suboccipital craniotomy for Chiari I results in evoked potential conduction changes.

Background: Management of Chiari I is controversial, in part because there is no widely used quantitative measurement of decompression. It has been demonstrated that brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAER) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) have decreased conduction latencies after wide craniectomy. We analyzed these parameters in a suboccipital craniectomy/craniotomy procedure.

Quantification and localization of EEG interictal spike activity in patients with surgically removed epileptogenic foci.

Objective: To demonstrate if interictal spike activity was localized within the resected area in surgically treated epilepsy patients; and if there is correspondence between the degree of localization and improvement after surgery.

Methods: We analyzed long-term EEGs from 34 patients. Interictal spikes were grouped in clusters and averaged according to morphology and topography.

Intracranial current density (LORETA) differences in QEEG frequency bands between depressed and non-depressed alcoholic patients.

Objective: To assess possible differences in intracranial source distribution of surface QEEG power between depressed and non-depressed alcoholic patients in order to find any symptom-related topographic features of physiopathologic relevance.

Methods: Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA) for the delta, theta, alpha and beta bands of EEG spectra was estimated from 38 alcoholic patients, 20 with and 18 without clinical depression, in which QEEG showed decreased slow and increased beta activity diffusely. Statistical non-parametric mapping was used to compare depressed and non-depressed groups.

Clinical correlates of quantitative EEG alterations in alcoholic patients.

Objective: To evaluate the incidence and clinical correlations of abnormal QEEG features in alcoholic patients.

Methods: Quantitative EEG (frequency analysis, absolute and relative powers of the four classical bands) was assessed in 191 male alcoholic patients admitted in our facility for detoxification process. All underwent psychiatric, medical and neurological examination prior to the EEG recording, in search for specific clinical or paraclinical findings.