A population-based study of brain arteriovenous malformation: long-term treatment outcomes.

Background And Purpose: By undertaking long-term follow-up of a functionally isolated population study group, we sought to achieve a true picture of intrinsic brain arteriovenous malformation (BAVM). We sought to assess the validity of earlier population-based series and to determine the effects of newer treatment methods on the overall morbidity and mortality of BAVM.

Methods: We excluded other intracranial vascular pathologies by defining criteria.

Adjunctive therapy with bromocriptine in Parkinson's disease.

Patients with moderately severe Parkinson's disease complicated by the adverse effects of chronic levodopa use benefited from the addition of bromocriptine (Parlodel; Sandoz) in doses up to 26 mg daily, which allowed an approximate 30% reduction of levodopa dose. This resulted in a significant decrease in the amount of levodopa side-effects while maintaining or improving the original parkinsonian clinical stage. Increased effectiveness in these patients was not associated with increased dosage beyond 25-30 mg daily.

The value of magnetic resonance imaging in multiple sclerosis in South African-born patients.

The results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in supporting the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 24 South African-born white patients were studied. MRI confirmed the diagnosis in 87.5% of cases.

Lateral dominance and visual evoked potentials in albinos.

Lateral preferences for the use of eye, hand, and foot were assessed in 17 male and female albino subjects, aged 15 to 52 yr. Visual evoked potential (VEP) recordings suggested that optic fibres were abnormally decussated in these subjects, as others have shown. Fewer albino subjects showed the lateral preference for the use of hand/eye and foot/eye similar to that of normals.

Life-threatening hypotension associated with azathioprine therapy. A case report.

We report a case of azathioprine sensitivity manifesting with severe hypotension and diarrhoea. This sequence of events occurred on two separate occasions after administration of the drug.

Treatment of acute post-infective polyneuropathy by means of plasma exchange.

15 patients with acute post-infective polyneuropathy of the Guillain-Barré type have been treated by means of plasma exchange. The clinical course and outcome of these patients is compared to that in a retrospectively matched control series who were treated with supportive therapy only. All patients had severe rapidly evolving muscle weakness and approximately half the patients in each group required ventilatory assistance.

Experience with neuromuscular respiratory failure in an intensive care unit.

Between 1976 and 1980, 32 patients with respiratory failure primarily due to neuromuscular disease were admitted on 34 occasions to the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit of the Johannesburg Hospital. Ninety-four per cent of patients admitted survived and were discharged from hospital. Ninety per cent of the survivors are fully rehabilitated and another 6.