Trail Making Test: normative data for Turkish elderly population by age, sex and education.

Objective: Trail Making Test (TMT) is a neuropsychological test, which has parts A and B that can precisely measure executive functions, like complex visual-motor conceptual screening, planning, organization, abstract thinking and response inhibition. The main purpose of this study is to standardize TMT for Turkish adults and/or elderly population. This study primarily consists of two main parts; norm determination study and reliability/validity studies, respectively.

[A comparison of implicit memory performance in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer type dementia patients].

Objective: Implicit memory, defined as the recollection of knowledge unconsciously, automatically, and without being aware of it, is different than explicit memory, in which knowledge is recollected consciously, while being aware of it. In the present study, the implicit memory performance of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's type dementia (ATD) (different stages) were compared to healthy controls.

Method: The study included 19 MCI patients and 23 ATD patients (11 mild-moderate and 12 severe stage ATD).

Granulomatous hypophysitis and bilateral optic neuropathy.

A 53-year-old woman with symptoms of hypopituitarism and ophthalmoplegia was diagnosed as having idiopathic granulomatous hypophysitis and later developed bilateral optic neuritis. She responded well to steroid treatment. Granulomatous hypophysitis is a rare entity, and this is the first reported case associated with optic neuritis.

Circling seizures.

Twelve cases with circling seizures are presented with their clinical, electroencephalographic and radiological findings. Four patients had symptomatic partial epilepsy, five had cryptogenic partial epilepsy, and the remaining three had idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Three of the patients with symptomatic partial epilepsy had frontal lesion, and one had parito-occipital lesion.

Balo's concentric sclerosis. Report of two patients with magnetic resonance imaging follow-up.

Balo's concentric sclerosis was diagnosed antemortem in 2 patients, by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging showing striking concentric alternating rings in 1 patient and by characteristic histopathological features in the other. The course of the lesions and the concentric pattern were followed by MR imaging for 3 years and 18 months, respectively. One patient demonstrated spontaneous remission that has not been reported in Balo's disease.

Seizures with negative phenomena.

Somatic inhibitory seizures and amnesic seizures are thought to occur rarely. We describe a patient with both types of seizures who initially presented with a clinical picture of transient ischemic attack. Neuroradiological investigations revealed a lesion probably a cavernoma located above the parietooccipital sulcus in the isthmus of cingulate gyrus.

Bilateral middle cranial fossa arachnoid cysts. A case report.

The temporal lobe agenesis syndrome is a rare congenital abnormality. This syndrome frequently has been described in association with arachnoid cysts or abnormal collections of cerebrospinal fluid. Arachnoid cysts develop most frequently in the middle cranial fossa and almost all these cysts are unilateral.

[A case of hemiballismus during cryptococcal meningitis].

We present a case of hemiballismus related to cryptococcal meningitis. A 23 year-old man was hospitalized because of involuntary movements of his left side, confusion, hyperpyrexia, neck stiffness, bilateral papilledema, right hemiparesis and bilateral pyramidal signs. Diagnosis was made by CSF examination demonstrating cryptococci by india ink.

Leukoaraiosis and intracerebral hematoma.

We studied 33 consecutive patients with computed tomographic findings of decreased density in the periventricular white matter (leukoaraiosis). Computed tomograms in five (aged 56-75 years) of the 33 demonstrated intracerebral hematoma. The hemorrhages were situated in the thalamic area in four and in the parietotemporal area in one patient.

Calcification of the basal ganglia on computed tomography.

A review of computed tomograms (CT) of 7,120 patients demonstrated bilateral basal ganglia calcifications in 17. Skull roentgenograms were normal in all patients. Seven patients (41%) were older than 50 years of age with no basal ganglia dysfunction and metabolic abnormalities.

Computed tomography in Wilson's disease.

In a case of Wilson's disease with flapping tremor, computed tomography demonstrated bilateral low-density areas in the thalamocapsular regions. Computed tomographic findings in Wilson's disease are discussed.