Neurocysticercosis with a single brain lesion in Germany: a case report.

Neurocysticercosis is rare in Western Europe and a high degree of physician awareness is necessary for diagnosis. We describe a case of Neurocysticercosis with a single brain lesion acquired in Germany in which only surgical removal and subsequent histological examination allowed diagnosis whereas diagnostic investigation yielded no pathological findings.

Anatomical correlate of positive spontaneous visual phenomena: a voxelwise lesion study.

Objectives: Visual phenomena such as phosphenes, photopsias, or complex visual hallucinations occur in patients with lesions affecting the occipital, parietal, or temporal lobe. Whether these phenomena are provoked by lesions in specific anatomical regions is still uncertain. To determine which brain regions might be involved in such visual phenomena, we used new brain imaging and lesion analysis tools that allow a direct comparison with control patients.

Brainstem reflex circuits revisited.

Our current understanding of brainstem reflex physiology comes chiefly from the classic anatomical-functional correlation studies that traced the central circuits underlying brainstem reflexes and establishing reflex abnormalities as markers for specific areas of lesion. These studies nevertheless had the disadvantage of deriving from post-mortem findings in only a few patients. We developed a voxel-based model of the human brainstem designed to import and normalize MRIs, select groups of patients with or without a given dysfunction, compare their MRIs statistically, and construct three-plane maps showing the statistical probability of lesion.

[Diffusion-weighted MRT in vertebrobasilar ischemia. Application, sensitivity, and prognostic value].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability, sensitivity, and predictive power of diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) in the diagnosis of vertebrobasilar infarction. From 1997 to 2002, we prospectively recruited 268 patients with acute signs and symptoms suspective of vertebrobasilar ischemia. The patients underwent biplanar EPI-T2 and EPI DWI within 24 h after onset of symptoms and high-resolution MRI as a control within 7 days.

Topodiagnostic investigations on the sympathoexcitatory brain stem pathway using a new method of three dimensional brain stem mapping.

Objectives: To study the incompletely understood sympathoexcitatory pathway through the human brain stem, using a new method of three dimensional brain stem mapping on the basis of digitally postprocessed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: 258 consecutive patients presenting with acute signs of brain stem ischaemia underwent biplane T2 and EPI diffusion weighted MRI, with slice orientation parallel and perpendicular to a transversal slice selection of the stereotactic anatomical atlas of Schaltenbrand and Wahren, 1977. The individual slices were digitally normalised and projected onto the appropriate slices of the anatomical atlas.

Electrophysiological brainstem testing in the diagnosis of reversible brainstem ischemia.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of multimodal electrophysiological brainstem testing in the diagnosis of clinically suspected reversible ischemic deficits of the brainstem compared with diffusion weighted MR imaging. We investigated 158 consecutive patients presenting with signs of acute brainstem dysfunction. Serial electrophysiological brainstem tests including masseter reflex, blink reflex, masseter inhibitory reflex, AEP, MEP, EOG and the oculoauricular phenomenon were applied.

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of reversible ischaemic deficits of the brainstem.

Objectives: To evaluate the sensitivity of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of clinically suspected reversible ischaemic deficits of the brainstem.

Methods: A total of 158 consecutive patients presenting with acute signs of brainstem dysfunction were investigated using EPI diffusion weighted MRI within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms. High resolution T1 and T2 weighted imaging was performed as a follow up after a median of six days.

Topodiagnostic value of blink reflex R1 changes: a digital postprocessing MRI correlation study.

The aim of the study was to investigate the relation of the blink reflex R1 arc to known anatomical brainstem structures. Acute vascular brainstem lesions as identified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with isolated R1 pathology were superimposed into a stereotactic anatomical atlas using a new method of digital postprocessing. Isolated acute brainstem lesions were documented by diffusion-weighted MRI in 12 of 24 patients with unilateral R1 pathology.

A new method to investigate brain stem structural-functional correlations using digital post-processing MRI--reliability in ischemic internuclear ophthalmoplegia.

We investigated the reliability of a new digital post-processing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique in ischemic brain stem lesions to identify relations of the lesion to anatomical brain stem structures. The target was a medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF) lesion, which was evident from ipsilateral internuclear ophthalmoplegia (INO). Sixteen patients with acute unilateral INO and an isolated acute brain stem lesion in T2- and EPI-diffusion weighted MRI within 2 days after the onset of symptoms were studied.

Altered precursor availability and metabolism of monoamines in the brain caused by the injection of physiologic saline to suckling rats: On the reliability of saline "controls" in neurochemical studies.

The effect of subcutaneous injections of saline (0.9% NaCl, 10-40 ?l/g b. wt) to 5- and 20-day old rats on the concentrations of tyrosine (Tyr) and tryptophan (Trp) in the serum and the brain and on the levels of biogenic amines and their metabolites in the developing brain at 6 h p.

Breeding rats on amino acid imbalanced diets for three consecutive generations affects the concentrations of putative amino acid transmitters in the developing brain.

Rats were bred for three consecutive generations (F1, F2, F3) on different amino acid enriched diets (tryptophan-enriched, phenylalanine-enriched, tyrosine-enriched, valine-isoleucineleucine-enriched). The concentrations of the putative amino acid transmitters glycine, glutamate, aspartate, γ-aminobutyric acid, and taurine were measured in the brain stem of the developing offsprings by thin layer micro-chromatography of the dansylated amino acids. The concentrations of the investigated amino acid transmitters in the brain stem of the developing offspring of the amino acid imbalanced rats differed significantly from the values found in normal rats.

Regulation of the amino acid availability in the developing brain. No physiological significance of amino acid competition in experimental hyperphenylalaninemia.

Chronic experimental hyperphenylalaninemia in suckling rats causes a depletion of amino acids in the blood and in the brain, and an accumulation of amino acids in the peripheral tissues. The amino acid depletion in the blood is greater than that in the brain. The amino acid accumulating potency of all body tissues is increased by the excess of phenylalanine, most pronounced in the gut, least pronounced in the brain.