A rare and life threatening complication of prosthetic valve endocarditis.

Up to 70% of cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) follow a preceding infection and a number of infectious agents have been described. We present a previously unreported association of Streptococcus viridans infective endocarditis affecting a prosthetic aortic valve and Guillain-Barré syndrome. This case highlights that this potentially life-threatening diagnosis should be considered in any patient presenting with symptoms of peripheral nervous system dysfunction following an infective illness.

A novel mitochondrial tRNA isoleucine gene mutation causing chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia.

We report a sporadic case of chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia that developed during childhood and was associated with ragged-red and cytochrome c oxidase (COX)-negative fibers in skeletal muscle. Sequencing of all the mitochondrial transfer RNA (tRNA) genes identified a single potentially pathogenic mutation--a T to C transition at position 4274 in the tRNA(Ile) gene. This mutation was not present in skeletal muscle from 79 controls, and the level of the mutation in COX-negative fibers was significantly greater than the level in COX-positive fibers.

New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: neurological features and diagnostic tests.

Background: In April, 1996, ten cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) with an apparently new clinicopathological phenotype were published and it was suggested that these new variant cases (nvCJD) might be causally linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). There have now been 21 cases of nvCJD in the UK and one case in France. We report clinical features and diagnostic test results of the first 14 cases of nvCJD in the UK.

Deficits in delayed memory following cerebral malaria: a case study.

Cerebral malaria is a common disease, but there have not been any reports or investigations of long-term neurological or neuropsychological outcome. We present a case in which severe deficits in delayed memory and naming ability are observed 10 years after the patient contracted cerebral malaria. Neuropsychological testing and medical imaging are both consistent with temporal lobe/hippocampal dysfunction, which corroborates earlier animal research that cerebral malaria is particularly likely to lead to interrupted blood circulation in this area.