Dystonia is defined as a movement disorder characterized by sustained or intermittent muscles contraction causing abnormal, often repetitive, movements, postures, or both. Dystonic movements are typically patterned and twisting, and may be tremulous. The precis diagnosis of dystonia is difficult for physicians because neurological brain imaging does not provide enough practical information. The diagnosis is depend on clinical experience of physicians. Botulinum toxin treatment is the accepted standard of care for patients with focal dystonia. Botulinum toxin treatment results in significant improvement of decreasing the symptom of dystonia. The success of treatment is dependent on muscle selection for treating involved muscles. Usually performance of botulinum toxin treatment is injected according to clinical experience of surface anatomy or clinical location method. However, the benefit of guidance of botulinum toxin treatment is improve outcome in dystonia. Injection techniques with ultra sound echogram or EMG guidance to identify dystonic muscles can be more benefit for patients.

A 74-year-old woman, who developed advanced colon cancer with focal recurrence, received two courses of a low dose of nivolumab. Five days after the second course she noticed bilateral ptosis. Her symptoms rapidly progressed to generalized manifestations including limb and neck weakness, dyspnea, and myalgia within the following two weeks. Neurological and laboratory findings supported the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis and myositis induced by nivolumab. The combination immunotherapy including oral prednisolone, intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange with noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation successfully avoid tracheal intubation. Nivolumab, one of the immune checkpoint inhibitors, is the anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) protein monoclonal antibody, which is effective for various cancers. Since the immune checkpoint inhibitors are going to be used widely, it is important to recognize the specific subtype of myasthenia gravis for neurologists.

Chronic lymphocytic inflammation with pontine perivascular enhancement responsive to steroids (CLIPPERS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system with a predilection for the hindbrain. Generally, lesions decrease in size with increasing distance from the hindbrain. We herein describe a case of CLIPPERS in a patient showing the largest lesions in the temporal lobe. A 49-year-old man consulted to our hospital with a 22-day history of a high fever and an abnormal visual field involving the left eye. Brain MRI showed a FLAIR hyperintense lesion in the right temporal lobe with punctate gadolinium enhancement. Several days later, lesions showing similar enhancement extended to the pons, medulla oblongata, and cerebellar hemispheres. Biopsy of the right temporal lobe lesion revealed perivascular lymphocytic infiltrates without any findings of demyelination, lymphoma, or glioma. He was diagnosed with CLIPPERS based on clinical, radiological, and histopathological findings. Clinical and radiological findings improved quickly after steroid therapy. CLIPPERS could represent larger lesions distant from the hindbrain showing punctate enhancement.

A 17-year-old man with no familial history developed motor and sensory disturbance of the left upper limb a few days after starting push-up exercise. Neurological examination revealed broad weakness and radial sensory disturbance of the left upper limb and magnetic resonance neurography showed laterality of brachial plexus intensity signals. Therefore, we suspected left brachial plexopathy. However, a nerve conduction study showed a broad disturbance that could not be explained by only brachial plexopathy. Genetic tests revealed a diagnosis of hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP). HNPP should be included in the differential diagnosis for neuropathy due to slight exercise or nerve compression even when familial history is negative.

A 73-year-old woman presented with sudden onset of right hemiparesis and was diagnosed as having cerebral infarction on the basis of diffusion-weighted brain MRI, which demonstrated lesions in the left parietal cortex. On the 3rd day, the patient developed right upper limb myoclonus, aphasia, and disturbance of consciousness with high fever. On the 6th day, she was transferred to our hospital with suspected viral encephalitis, and treatment with acyclovir was started. By the 6th day, the lesions detected by MRI had expanded to the gyrus cinguli, insula and thalamus, but not to the temporal lobe. At that time, the CSF cell count was 8/μl, and this later increased to 17/μl by the 13th day. Although herpes simplex virus DNA was detected in the CSF on the 6th day, there was no evidence of CSF pleocytosis or temporal lobe abnormalities demonstrable by brain MRI throughout the whole follow-up period. This was very atypical case of herpes simplex encephalitis characterized by a stroke-like episode, atypical MRI findings, and absence of cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis. It is important to be mindful that herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) can have an atypical presentation, and that sufficient acyclovir treatment should be initiated until HSE can be ruled out.

An 80-year-old woman had an aortic valve replacement 1 month before admission and took warfarin for transient atrial fibrillation. She developed a disturbance of consciousness and left hemiplegia. On admission, the right radial artery was slightly palpable. Head MRI images showed a hyper-intense area in the right middle cerebral artery territory. MRA images showed an occlusion of the right M1 distal site and decreased signal at the right internal carotid artery. Contrast CT images of the ascending aorta showed an embolus in the innominate artery. She was diagnosed with an innominate artery saddle embolus and occlusion of the right cerebral artery due to cardiac embolism. She was treated with a heparin infusion and warfarin. She recovered consciousness and from hemiplegia gradually. Recanalization of the innominate artery and right cerebral artery was confirmed. In cases where the radial artery is slightly palpable, it is necessary to consider an innominate artery saddle embolus in addition to aortic dissection.

A 33-year-old woman was admitted due to disturbance of consciousness, dysarthria, dysphagia, sensory disturbances and weakness of the left upper limb after mycoplasma infection. She was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin and intravenous high-dose methylprednisolone as Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis (BBE). On the 15th hospital day, reflex myoclonus appeared on her face, neck, body and limbs induced by techniques of jaw jerk reflex and patellar tendon reflex. The myoclonus was disappeared after two weeks in accordance with improvement of BBE. The transient reflex myoclonus may be originated from brainstem lesion which was affected by BBE. Reflex myoclonus is thought to be rare symptom in patient with BBE.

Documentation of the current status of specialty training to become a neurologist in Japan would represent an important basis for constructing better neurology training program in the planned reform of the specialty training system in Japan. The committee for future neurology specialty system of Japanese Society of Neurology (JSN) conducted a questionnaire survey on the process of specialty training of each trainee for neurology in board-certified educational facilities and semi-educational facilities throughout Japan. The response rate was 46.2% in all facilities and 87.5% in medical universities. The training process of 905 trainees over 5 grades was clarified, which was estimated to be about 80% of all the relevant subjects. Specialty training dedicated to neurology was started at the 3rd year of residency in 87.8% of subjects. During the 3 years following junior residency, 51.3% of subjects ran the rotation training between university and city hospital, whereas 36.5% was trained within the same institution throughout the 3 years of training period.