Patients with relapsing neuromyelitis optica (NMO) showing contiguous long spinal cord lesions extending over three vertebral segments on the MRI and with positive anti-aquaporin 4 antibodies in sera are usually treated with glucocorticoids or azathioprine. However, some NMO patients even after adequate treatments show relapses. Rituximab (anti-CD 20) therapy has recently been reported to inhibit relapses. We used rituximab to treat three NMO patients defined by the revised NMO criteria of Wingerchuk et al, with rituximab for 2 years and 3 months (mean) at an intervals of about nine months.
The annualized relapse rate for the 3 patients during the year before rituximab therapy was 4, 5, and 6, respectively, and this decreased to 3, 1, and 0 in the year after therapy. Case 1 showed three relapses after therapy: however, the symptoms and signs of each of the relapses were milder and the patient showed good responses to steroid pulse therapy. One year after therapy, relapses had disappeared in all cases (observation periods; 18, 18, and 9 months, respectively).
After rituximab therapy, these NMO patients showed a decreased mean annualized relapse rate (from 5.0 to 0.6) and EDSS score (from 8.7 to 8.0) after rituximab therapy. No adverse effects were seen. We recommend rituximab therapy for NMO patients resistant to other immunosuppressive therapies such as oral glucocorticoid administration introduced after a severe relapse. However, during long term rituximab treatment, attention needs to be given to infections such as progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy.

View full abstract

We investigated epidemiologic data from 61 cases of autopsy-confirmed sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Dura mater-associated CJD cases and familial CJD cases were excluded. There were 34 male and 27 female cases, with an average age at onset of 66.0±10.5 years (range 27 to 89). At onset of CJD, 1 case was aged in the 20's and 1 in 30's, but there were no cases aged in the 40's. In 6 cases, age at onset was in the 80's. There was no significant difference in relation to the age at onset between males and females, averaging 66.2±12.4 years (range 27 to 89), and 65.9±7.5 years (range 53 to 82), respectively. Two cases had been employed as medical workers (a medical technologist and a nurses' aide) but neither had an apparent history of contact with CJD patients. No cases in the study had either family history of CJD or apparent contact with CJD patients. Ten cases had a history of hypertension, 5 cases had a history of diabetes mellitus, 2 cases had a history of malaria and 1 case had suffered from atomic bomb exposure. Twenty-one cases had operation history, including 2 cases of an operation involving the central nervous system. One case had a skull-base fracture operation 19 years before the onset of CJD and the other case had an atlantoaxial subluxation operation 11 years before the onset of CJD; there was no transplantation of dura mater graft in either operation. There was one case with a history of conservative treatment for cerebral hemorrhage; this case had symptomatic secondary epilepsy as a coexisting disease at the onset of CJD. Two cases had Parkinson's disease as a coexisting disease at the onset of CJD. The source hospitals enforcing medical treatment were located in the Aichi (n=42), Gifu (n=12) and Mie (n=7) prefectures of the Tokai region of Japan. Regarding patients' place of residence, 22 cases resided in Nagoya-city. Nagoya University Hospital performed the autopsy in 12 cases, but 10 cases of those were transported after death from the source hospital. Departments of neurology provided clinical treatment in 54 cases. Other departments that provided treatment were Internal Medicine (n=3), Psychiatry (n=2), Geriatrics (n=1), and Neurosurgery (n=1). In 39 cases, prion protein gene analyses using peripheral blood leukocyte or cryopreserved brain tissue were performed. As for polymorphic codon 129, 36 cases (92%) showed Met/Met, 3 cases showed Met/Val (8%) and no case showed Val/Val polymorphism. Polymorphic codon 219 showed Glu/Glu homozygosity in all of the examined cases. Active autopsy performance of CJD in the Tokai region was suggested from the present study. We estimated that the CJD autopsy rate of the district was more than 50% over the past 7 years.

View full abstract

We report 2 patients showing invasion of aspergillosis into the central nerve system (CNS). Patient 1, an 81-year-old woman, underwent surgery for sphenoidal sinusitis. She developed cerebral infarction with unconsciousness on 12th postoperative day. CSF examination demonstrated pleocytosis with increased protein and aspergillus antigen. She was diagnosed as having invasion of aspergillosis into the CNS, and was treated with voriconazole. Her clinical manifestations and CSF findings markedly improved. However, the effects of voriconazole gradually attenuated and she demonstrated recurrence of the cerebral infarction. After 2 months, she died of systemic aspergillosis and sepsis. Autopsy studies. Severe atherosclerotic changes with calcification were demonstrated in the bilateral carotid and basilar arteries, and many aspergillus were clustered in the vessel walls. Granulomatous inflammatory lesions with aspergillus were also demonstrated in the area surrounding the chiasm. There were no massive infarcts or bleeding in the brain, but multiple small infarcts were present. Patinet 2, a 64-year-old man, showing bilateral visual loss, was receiving treatment with corticosteroids under a diagnosis of optic neuritis. Two weeks later, he developed cerebral infarction. CSF examination showed pleocytosis with increased protein and aspergillus antigen. He was diagnosed as having invasive aspergillosis from the sphenoidal sinusitis into the CNS. He was treated with voriconazole, and unconsciousness and CSF findings improved transiently. However, he developed a recurrence of the brain infarction and pneumonia and finally died 6 months later. Treatment by voriconazole was definitely effective in both patients, but both patients died of recurrent cerebral infarction, possibly due to resistance for voriconazole, or developing multicellular filamentous biofilms. Voriconazole is recommended as the first choice of antifungal agents for aspergillosis. Aspergillus infection is strongly invasive into arterial vessels. It is important to consider the possible occurrence of cerebrovascular disease when treating invasion of aspergillosis into the CNS.

View full abstract

A 47-year-old man with a 15-year history of bipolar disorder treated with anti-depressants, lithium carbonate or neuroleptics was admitted because of marked difficulty in gait and speech. At the age 45, he was unable to walk without bilateral assists and became a wheel-chair state. There was no family history and his mother, father and younger sister were neurologically free.
General physical examinations revealed no abnormalities. Neurologically, he was moderately demented (mini mental state examination: 18/30) and showed bilateral horizontal gaze nystagmus, parkinsonism, cerebellar ataxia, dysarthria and moderate spastic paraparesis. No involuntary movements were noted. Wet blood smear showed acanthocytes, while blood chemistries revealed no abnormalities including levels of serum creatine kinase, hepatic enzymes and blood beta-lipoprotein. Kell antigen expressions of the red blood cells were within normal limit. Western blot analysis with anti-chorein antibody detected normal chorein expression levels of the red blood cells. Cranial MRI showed severe symmetric atrophy of the frontotemporal lobes, caudate nuclei, putamen, and brainstem. Also, MRI-gradient echo showed symmetric iron accumulation in the medial portion of the globus pallidus without surrounding high intensity areas, so called "eye-of-the-tiger sign". Genetic analyses revealed no mutations in the PANK2 and PLA2G6 genes. Therefore, he was diagnosed as idiopathic neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA). These findings suggest that NBIA is heterogeneous and other additional genes remain to be found.

View full abstract

The patient was a 53-year-old woman with an 18-year history of recurrent oral aphtae, genital ulcers and folliculitis-like erupsions without mucocutaneus symptoms. She was admitted to our hospital for headache, and presented with meningeal irritation, dysarthria and right pyramidal signs. Brain MRI showed abnormal intensities extending from the right midbrain to the bilateral corona radiata, accompanied by contrast enhancement. She was diagnosed as having an incomplete form of neuro-Behçet disease (NBD) based on the diagnostic criteria for NBD. However, the HLA-type was defined as B54 and Cw1, which is common and specific in neuro-Sweet disease (NSD). Oral administration of prednisolone was markedly effective for the neurological symptoms and improved radiological findings, suggesting NSD rather than NBD as the clinical diagnosis for this patient. Since she presented with clinical features that appeared in both diseases, the definitive diagnosis was clinically difficult. While tapering the dosage of prednisolone, we carefully observed the appearance of skin lesions and erythema nodosum appearing on her right lower leg. Skin biopsy demonstrated the features of erythema nodosum: lobular panniculitis with the accumulation of neutrophils and lymphocytes with necrotic fatty cells in the subcutaneous area, which was compatible with skin lesions in NBD. In our case, pathological findings of the skin lesion were required to differentiate between NBD and NSD, indicating the need for careful follow-up of dermatologic signs appearing in such a case.

View full abstract

We report a case of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease associated with non-herpetic acute limbic encephalitis with autoantibodies against glutamate receptor ε2 in the cerebrospinal fluid. A 42-year-old woman developed a complaint of visual distortion, visual disturbance, headache and mild psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety and depression. She was diagnosed as VKH through the fidings of fluorescein fundus angiography, which revealed patchy hypofluorescence associated with delayed choroidal filling at early fluorescein angiographic phase, and spotted choroidal hyperfluorescence and pooling of dye at late phase. Analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed slight increase of leukocyte count (49/μl, mononuclear cells) and immunoglobulin (Ig) G index. An anti-GluRε2 IgM antibody was positive in CSF. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a monofocal hyperintensity lesion in the left parahippocampal gyrus on T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images. We diagnosed her VKH disease associated with non-herpetic acute limbic encephalitis. She was treated with oral prednisone, 70mg day and her symptoms have gradually improved. To our knowledge, meningoencephalitis in VKH disease is extremely rare and the analysis of anti-GluRε2 IgM antibody in CSF has not been reported. We speculate that a certain immunologic mechanism, including the anti-GluRε2 IgM antibody, contributes to the pathogenesis of the VKH disease with non-herpetic acute limbic encephalitis.

View full abstract

A 38-year-old man presented with distal-dominant limb weakness two weeks after an upper respiratory infection. He had no sensory and autonomic signs and no cranial nerve involvement during the course of the disease. Tendon reflexes were preserved except for an absent Achilles' tendon reflex. His disability at nadir was grade 2 on the Hughes functional scale. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis showed albuminocytologic dissociation and he was diagnosed with pure motor Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Thin-layer chromatography immunostaining and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed an immunoglobulin G antibody to the ganglioside complex GM1/GalNAc-GD1a in his acute phase serum. A serial nerve conduction study revealed conduction block in the median and ulnar nerve trunks and temporal dispersion in the tibial nerve, without an evident remyelination pattern during the course of the disease. A sensory nerve conduction study was normal. According to Hadden's criteria, the electrodiagnostic findings were judged as a primary demyelinating pattern. Weakness and abnormal motor nerve conduction recovered rapidly after intravenous immunoglobulin therapy. In view of the localization of GM1 and GalNAc-GD1a on the axolemma of the motor nerves, the clinical course and electrophysiological features may have resulted from functional conduction failure at the nodes of Ranvier of the motor nerves, rather than primary demyelination or axonal degeneration. The illness resembled acute motor conduction block neuropathy characterized by preserved sensory function, an early conduction block at intermediate nerve segments, and good recovery. GM1 and GalNAc-GD1a may form a complex in the axolemma at the nodes of Ranvier or paranodes of the motor nerves, and may be a target antigen in pure motor GBS; especially in the form with acute motor conduction block neuropathy. The present case is the first description of a GBS patient with an IgG anti-GM1/GalNAc-GD1a antibody.

View full abstract

An 82 year-old woman with Parkinson's disease complained of a tendency to fall. She has had an extensive kyphosis since she was 66 years old. Over the last 6 months, she has repeatedly fallen. Even though she took antiparkisonian drugs, she had also developed camptocormia. Her plasma levodopa concentration was analyzed for 4hrs after administrating an oral dose of levodopa (200mg) plus carbidopa (20mg) at the time of fasting. The change in the plasma levodopa concentration showed bimodal peaks. The physical symptoms depended on the plasma concentration and improved twice. Esophageal tortuosity and esophageal hiatal hernia were detected by esophagography and upper gastric endoscopy. Such physical symptoms were speculated to have been caused by the transit disturbance of the drug in the gastrointestinal duct. During a second analysis of the plasma levodopa concentration, the patient was instructed to keep extending her back after consuming the same dose of drugs but with a greater amount of water than in the first analysis. A single and a higher peak were observed for the plasma levodopa concentration, and the physical symptoms, including camptocormia and parkinsonism, were improved. Hunched posture could influence the absorption of antiparkinsonian drugs.

View full abstract

We report a 59-year-old man who developed dysesthesia in all extremities with severe loss of deep sensation over three months. A radiating radicular pain was also noted in the extremities. The nerve conduction study barely elicited sensory nerve action potentials both in the median and in the sural nerve. An extensive search for anti-neuronal antibodies including anti-Hu and anti-CV2 antibody was negetive. The biopsy specimen of an enlarged tracheobronchial lymph node revealed squamous cell carcinoma. The subsequent chemotherapy and radiation therapy for the neoplasm improved the radicular pain and the deep sensation to a moderate extent, leading to the diagnosis of paraneoplastic subacute sensory neuropathy (SSN). In general, cases with paraneoplastic SSN are associated mostly with small cell lung cancer, and quite rarely with squamous cell lung cancer. The early detection and the treatment of the primary tumor are crucial in a patient with subacute progression of sensory-dominant neuropathy.

View full abstract