Painful camptocormia: the relevance of shaking your patient's hand.

Camptocormia is an abnormal posture with marked flexion of thoracolumbar spine that abates in the recumbent position. Camptocormia has been described in various neurological (Parkinsonism), muscular (myopathy), psychogenic or orthopedic disorders. There are several hypotheses that can explain this impaired posture but they are usually related to the concomitant pathologies.

Frequency of retinal cavernomas in 60 patients with familial cerebral cavernomas: a clinical and genetic study.

Objectives: To define the frequency of retinal lesions in a large panel of patients with familial cerebral cavernomas and to screen the cerebral cavernous malformation genes in patients with cerebral and retinal lesions.

Methods: Fundus examination was proposed to each of the index patients of 70 families with cerebral cavernous malformation who have been included in a prospective clinical and neuroradiological follow-up. All of the coding exons of the KRIT1, MGC4607, and PDCD10 genes were screened as previously described.

[Life style and prevention of cerebrovascular accidents].

Cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) claim 1.5 million lives each year in industrialized countries; in developing countries, estimates suggest the same distressing trends. CVD rank as the third leading cause of death after ischaemic heart disease and cancer.