Secondary generalized dystonia without basal ganglia damage.

We report the case of a woman who developed generalized dystonia, severe cognitive deficits and dysphagia following an overdose of the hypoglycaemic drug, sulphonylurea. The MRI reveals frontal and temporal lobe atrophy, but no evidence of damage to the basal ganglia. This case adds to the small number of previously reported cases with secondary dystonia seemingly due to cortical rather than subcortical damage.

Corticobasal degeneration.

Corticobasal degeneration is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that typically presents with asymmetrical parkinsonism and cognitive dysfunction. Recent molecular advances have given some clues to the pathogenesis of the disease. Clinical diagnosis is complicated by both the variability of presentation of true corticobasal degeneration, for example as a dementing illness, and the syndromes that look like it but are caused by other neurodegenerative diseases.

Long-term survival and quality of life in cardiac surgical patients with prolonged intensive care unit length of stay.

Background: Patients with prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stays after cardiac operations are labor intensive and expensive. We sought to determine whether exhaustive ICU efforts result in survival or quality-of-life benefits and whether outcome could be predicted.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed all adult cardiac surgical patients in 1998 for ICU stays more than 14 days.