Many elderly people complain dizziness which may continue occasionally for months or years. According to epidemiological studies, 25-29% of subjects with more than 60 years of age have the experience of dizziness. Dizziness occurs most commonly during head positional changes or walking. Clinical studies have indicated that causes of dizziness are nonspecific and multi-factorial; cerebrovascular diseases, cervical spondylosis, depressive state, poor vision, orthostatic hypotension, whiplash injury, or low cerebrospinal fluid syndrome may play a role in the development of dizziness. Patients with dizziness commonly have neck/shoulder pain, insomnia, left-right imbalance of visual acuity, scoliosis, white matter lesions on head MRI. Little, however, has yet been known as to how these symptoms and radiological findings are related to mechanisms of dizziness. During the last several years, we performed cerebral functional studies using auditory-evoked magneto-encephalography (MEG) in elderly people with chronic dizziness. Two types of functional abnormalities were found in dizziness patients. One is a rotational abnormality of MEG signals at the temporal cortex (Type A) which can be detected by current arrow mapping analysis. This abnormality is similar to that detected by non-evoked MEG in temporal lobe epilepsy patients. In patients with Type A abnormality, administration of anticonvulsants brought about dramatic improvement of dizziness in association with disappearance of rotational abnormalities. The other is abnormal prolongation of interhemispheric neural conduction time (INCT) between the left and right temporal cortices (Type B) which can be estimated from the difference of left and right N100m peak latencies. The INCT was found to be prolonged correlating with the grade of white matter lesions on MRI. The INCT also seems to be prolonged by lack of sleep. Patients with Type B abnormality commonly have the asymmetry of body, such as left-right imbalance of visual acuity, left-right neck pain, or remarkable scoliosis, in association with insomnia and/or depressive state. According to the study of Penfield, dizziness or vertigo is manifested by stimulation of upper temporal cortex and lower parietal cortex. Mechanisms of dizziness can be hypothecated on the basis of MEG findings as follows: Presumably, there are head-position recognizing (HPR) centers in the left and right cerebral hemispheres. The HPR centers may correspond to the vestibular cortex or the combined system of vestibular, visual and somatosensory cortices. The HPR centers in two hemispheres are receiving head-position signals from vestibular, visual and somatosensory corices and are readjusting the dissociation of information which may exist between each other through rapid interhemispheric neural conduction. In patients with Type A abnormality, dizziness may be caused by abnormal neuronal excitements in left or right HPR center. In patients with Type B abnormalities, dizziness may be caused by the combined factors, one the abnormal prolongation of INCT between left and right HPR centers and the other the large dissociation of head position signals between the left and right HPR centers due to the body asymmetry, such as scoliosis or left-right neck pain imbalance.

View full abstract

We report a 62-year-old woman presenting with nocardia brain abscess that mimics metastatic brain tumor. Six months before admission to our hospital, she presented with persistent hemoptysis, and a friable endobronchial mass was detected at another hospital. However, a definite diagnosis had not been made, and then she presented with hemianopia. Her laboratory analysis results showed that she had no immunological abnormalities. T1-weighted magnetic resonance images of the brain with Gd-DTPA revealed hyperintensive multiple masses with surrounding edema. We suspected this case as metastatic brain tumor of unknown origin, and the patient underwent biopsy of the supraclavicular lymph node. Histopathology results indicated abscess, and gram staining of material obtained from the abscess showed Gram-variable rods, which were determined upon culture as acid-fast Gram-positive branching rods and identified as Nocardia asteroides. Accordingly, we diagnosed the patient as having nocardia brain abscess, and she was treated with an oral antibiotic (TMP-SMX). Four months later, the abscesses disappeared. The patient recovered after prolonged TMP-SMX therapy with no recurrence in over 9 months.

View full abstract

We report herein a 61-year-old man with diffuse leukoencephalopathy, subcortical infarcts and cervical and lumbar spondylosis. Medical history included baldness and lumbar spondylosis at young-adult onset. His parents were consanguineous (cousin). He had been experiencing severe lumbago since 20 years old, with hair loss starting around the same time. He noticed dysarthria and gait disturbance at 59 years old. He was admitted to our hospital at 61 years old with aggravation of gait disturbance. On admission, no abnormalities were evident on physical examination except for diffuse baldness. Neurological findings included mild dementia, bilateral hyperreflexia, paraparesis, right Babinski's sign, and pseudobulbar palsy. Blood pressure was normal. T2-weighted imaging of the brain revealed diffuse high-intensity in the periventricular white matter and subcortical infarcts in the brainstem and bilateral basal ganglia. Marked lumbar deformations were observed on spinal MRI.
Clinical features in this case met the criteria for cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarctions and leukoencephalopathy (CARASIL), apart from late onset of cerebral infarction.

View full abstract

We report a case of antiamphiphysin antiboddy-positive stiff-person syndrome associated with breast cancer, which was detected only by FDG-PET. A 46-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of painful muscle cramp and stiffness of both legs. Laboratory results were negative for anti-GAD antibody, but highly positive for antiamphiphysin antibody (1: 61,440). She had been diagnosed as having paraneoplastic stiff-person syndrome. However, mammogram, thoracic CT, breast MRI and ultrasonic echography showed no abnormal findings. A whole-body fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET was performed, showing an increased uptake in the left axillary lymph nodes. Then, the left axillary lymph nodes were resected and immunohistochemically diagnosed as breast adenocarcinoma. Treatment of stiff-person syndrome was initiated with corticosteroids followed by chemotherapy against breast cancer, which led to a remarkable improvement of her neurological symptoms. If there is possibility of paraneoplastic syndromes like stiff-person syndrome, FDG-PET is very useful for detecting the occult carcinoma.

View full abstract

A 73-year-old woman was admitted to the surgical department of our hospital for endoscopic resection of a colonic polyp. The day after endoscopic resection, she became drowsy and dysphasic. Two days later, left hemiparesis and gait difficulty developed. The next day, hemiparesis progressed bilaterally and dyspnea developed due to upper airway stenosis. The most prominent signs were those of bulbar palsy. Blood analysis revealed mild inflammatory responses and hyponatremia. T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed high-intensity lesions in the swollen medulla and cervical spinal cord. Those areas and the meninges of the posterior fossa were enhanced by gadolinium. Steroid pulse therapy was administered, resulting in rapid recovery of bulbar and paretic symptoms with decreased enhanced area. At this point, concentration of cerebrospinal fluid interleukin (IL)-10 was markedly elevated at 146pg/ml (normal, <5pg/ml), suggesting malignant lymphoma. Cytology of the cerebrospinal fluid was repeatedly examined, eventually revealing atypical lymphocytes with hyperlobulated nuclei and clear nucleoli. Lymphocytes stained with anti-CD20 antibody. These findings strongly suggested a diagnosis of primary intraocular and central nervous system lymphoma. In the present case, repeated cytology of cerebrospinal fluid was highly important for diagnosis in this case of high IL-10 level in cerebrospinal fluid.

View full abstract

We report herein a 54-year-old man who first noticed muscle weakness of the hands and legs and hypesthesia of the legs at 20 years old. Symptoms gradually worsened. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT 1A) was diagnosed on the basis of a nerve conduction study and PMP22 gene duplication. Increased levels of cerebrospinal fluid proteins were identified and cervical and lumbosacral nerve root hypertrophy was evident on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). CMT 1A with increased CSF proteins and nerve root hypertrophy was carefully evaluated clinically and electrophysiologically to rule out other motor sensory neuropathies such as CIDP. Increased levels of CSF proteins in this case might have resulted from circulatory disturbance of CSF in hypertrophic nerve roots.

View full abstract

The patient had suffered from left hemiparesis at the age of thirteen months, and acute ischemic stroke of unknown etiology had been diagnosed at that time. His hemiparesis gradually disappeared and he was discharged two weeks after the onset without disability. At the age of 17 years, MRI following minor head trauma revealed cerebral infarctions located at the right corona radiata and basal ganglia. Laboratory findings showed hyperhomocysteinemia. Genetic study disclosed methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase deficiency (MTHFRD) (valine/valine type). MTHFRD is not detected by the routine infantile mass screening test for congenital amino acid metabolic disease, and should be considered in any patient with ischemic stroke at under two years of age.

View full abstract

A 54-year-old woman, who was treated with chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, developed dysesthesia in her hands and feet at the age of 50 in 2003. The following year she underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In 2005, she was diagnosed with chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD). In December 2006, she developed dysesthesia in her face and tongue (onset). 50 days after the onset, she had a respiratory infection. 10 days later, she was hospitalized for muscle weakness of four extremities and progression of dysesthesia. Nerve conduction studies and superficial peroneal nerve biopsy revealed demyelination. After high-dose immunoglobulin therapy, her muscle strength recovered. Hyponatremia was resolved by restriction of fluid intake and administration of NaCl. We suggest immunological mechanisms such as cGVHD may cause chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy and hyponatremia.

View full abstract

A 47-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with an optic disc edema detected during a routine health check. On admission, she exhibited bilateral optic disc edema without headache and no visual disturbance. Her cerebrospinal pressure was 440mmH₂O, but we detected no abnormalities in the CSF, blood tests, brain MRI or MRV. Therefore, she was diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). Treatment with acetazolamide reduced the cerebrospinal pressure. We suggest that examination of the optic fundi is sufficient to diagnose both IIH without headache and IIH with atypical symptoms.

View full abstract