Prevention of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo with vitamin D supplementation: A randomized trial.

Objective: To assess the effect of vitamin D and calcium supplementation in preventing recurrences of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).

Methods: We performed an investigator-initiated, blinded-outcome assessor, parallel, multicenter, randomized controlled trial in 8 hospitals between December 2013 and May 2017. Patients with confirmed BPPV were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 518) or the observation (n = 532) group after successful treatment with canalith repositioning maneuvers.

Acquired Ocular Motor Nerve Palsy in Neurology Clinics: A Prospective Multicenter Study.

Background And Purpose: This study aimed to determine the patterns and etiologies of acquired ocular motor nerve palsy (OMNP) diagnosed in neurology clinics. We also investigated the clinical features that may predict the causes other than microvascular ischemia in isolated OMNP.

Methods: We performed a prospective multicenter study that had recruited 298 patients with acquired OMNP from the neurology clinics of referral-based 9 university hospitals in Korea.

Development of the clinical assessment scale in autoimmune encephalitis.

Objective: There is no scale for rating the severity of autoimmune encephalitis (AE). In this study, we aimed to develop a novel scale for rating severity in patients with diverse AE syndromes and to verify the reliability and validity of the developed scale.

Methods: The key items were generated by a panel of experts and selected according to content validity ratios.

Switch to Semont maneuver is no better than repetition of Epley maneuver in treating refractory BPPV.

Unlabelled: The objectives of this study is to compare the efficacy between repetition of Epley maneuver and switch to alternate Semont maneuver in treating posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (PC-BPPV) that does not respond to the initial Epley maneuver. In the nationwide, seven dizziness clinics of Korea, 506 consecutive patients (303 women, age range 22-87, mean age ± SD = 64 ± 12, median = 61) with idiopathic PC-BPPV were initially treated with a single Epley maneuver. Of those, 144 (28.

Intermittent Theta Slowings in Contralateral Side of Weakness after Sleep Deprivation on Spot EEG in Sporadic Hemiplegic Migraine.

Hemiplegic migraine (HM) is an uncommon type of migraine which is classified into sporadic and familial subtype. The noticed electroencephalogram (EEG) findings during HM attack are diffuse slowing contralateral to the weakened limb, but are usually normal in asymptomatic states. A 52-year-old woman who suffered from headache accompanying right arm weakness and aphasic symptoms admitted to our hospital.

Persistent otolith dysfunction even after successful repositioning in benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

To evaluate utricular and saccular function during the acute and resolved phases of BPPV, ocular and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) were studied in 112 patients with BPPV and 50 normal controls in a referral-based University Hospital. Ocular (oVEMPs) and cervical VEMPs (cVEMPs) were induced using air-conducted sound (1000Hz tone burst, 100dB normal hearing level) at the time of initial diagnosis and 2 months after successful repositioning in patients with BPPV, and the results were compared with those of the controls. Abnormalities of cVEMPs and oVEMPs in patients with BPPV were prevalent and significantly higher compare to the healthy control group (p<0.

Homonymous Visual Field Loss without Structural Lesion on Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Documented with Positron Emission Tomography and Diffusion Tensor Imaging.

The authors describe a 35-year-old man suffering from homonymous hemianopia after head trauma 4 years before but with negative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. Brain fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) showed hypometabolism at the unilateral occipital lobe and crossed cerebellar hemisphere, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) revealed that the ipsilateral optic radiations were completely interrupted. The crossed cerebellar diaschisis (CCD) observed in the chronic stage of brain damage was caused by cerebellar suppression of the cerebral blood flow due to an involvement of the corticopontocerebellar tract.

Clinical classification and neuro-vestibular evaluation in chronic dizziness.

Objective: This study attempts to clarify the clinical characteristics of chronic dizziness and its relationships with specific vestibular, oculomotor, autonomic and psychiatric dysfunctions.

Methods: 73 Patients with idiopathic chronic dizziness were recruited and classified based on history taking and clinical examination into the following four clinical subgroups; vestibular migraine (VM), dysautonomia, psychogenic, and unspecified groups. They were also evaluated using oculomotor, otolithic and autonomic function tests, and psychologic investigation.

Topology of brainstem lesions associated with subjective visual vertical tilt.

Objective: We aimed to determine the topology of anatomical pathways for verticality perception in the brainstem.

Methods: We measured the subjective visual vertical (SVV) in 82 patients with acute unilateral infarction of the brainstem alone. The topology of the brainstem lesions responsible for pathologic SVV tilt were determined using MRI-based voxel-wise lesion-behavior mapping, from which probabilistic lesion maps were constructed.

Geotropic central paroxysmal positional nystagmus in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus encephalopathy.

Central vestibular lesions may cause paroxysmal positional nystagmus (PPN) or paroxysmal positional vertigo as a result of lesions involving the brainstem dorsolateral to the fourth ventricle or the cerebellar nodulus/uvular region. PPN usually presents as persistent downbeating nystagmus during head hanging or as apogeotropic horizontal nystagmus during head turning in the supine position. Geotropic PPN during head turning in the supine position has not been previously reported.

Cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials in vestibular neuritis: comparison between air- and bone-conducted stimulation.

To clarify the changes of cervical (cVEMP) and ocular (oVEMP) vestibular evoked myogenic potentials induced by air-conducted sound (ACS) and bone-conducted vibration (BCV) in patients with vestibular neuritis (VN), patients with VN (n = 30) and normal controls (n = 45) underwent recording of cVEMP and oVEMP in response to ACS (1,000 Hz, 5 ms, tone bursts) and BCV (500 Hz, short tone burst). Patients with VN showed a high proportion of oVEMP abnormalities in response to both ACS (80.0 %) and BCV at the forehead (Fz, 73.

The MpkB MAP kinase plays a role in post-karyogamy processes as well as in hyphal anastomosis during sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans.

Two genes encoding MAP kinase homologs, designated as mpkB and mpkC, were isolated from Aspergillus nidulans by PCR with degenerate primers. Deletion and over-expression mutants of mpkC showed no detectable phenotypes under any external stress tested. Deletion of mpkB caused pleiotropic phenotypes including a failure in forming cleistothecia under any induction conditions for sexual development, increased Hülle cell production, slow hyphal growth and aberrant conidiophore morphology.

Identification of maturation and protein synthesis related proteins from porcine oocytes during in vitro maturation.

Background: In vitro maturation (IVM) of mammalian oocytes is divided into the GV (germinal vesicle stage), MI (metaphase I stage) and MII (metaphase II stage) stages, and only fully mature oocytes have acquired the ability to be fertilized and initiate zygotic development. These observations have been mostly based on morphological evaluations, but the molecular events governing these processes are not fully understood.The aim of the present study was to better understand the processes involved in the molecular regulation of IVM using 2-DE analysis followed by mass spectrometry to identify proteins that are differentially expressed during oocyte IVM.

Role of plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2) in keratinocyte differentiation.

Background: Plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2) is an enzyme inhibitor which is involved in various biological processes including cell differentiation, tissue regrowth and regeneration. Although PAI-2 has been originally isolated as an extracellular inhibitor of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), recent studies indicate that PAI-2 has other intracellular effects in keratinocyte, such as the component of cornified envelope.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the expression and functional role of PAI-2 during the keratinocyte differentiation.

Recurrent Streptococcus Pneumoniae Meningoencephalitis in a Patient With a Transethmoidal eningoencephalocele.

We report a case of recurrent Streptococcus Pneumoniae meningoencephalitis with a transethmoidal meningoencephalocele (TEME) but without cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage.A 35-year-old man was admitted with S. pneumoniae meningitis.