Neurologia medico-chirurgica
Online ISSN : 1349-8029
Print ISSN : 0470-8105
ISSN-L : 0470-8105
Volume 47, Issue 2
Displaying 1-11 of 11 articles from this issue
Original Articles
  • Kosuke MIYAHARA, Hidetoshi MURATA, Hiroyuki ABE
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 47-52
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    The factors associated with hematoma enlargement were analyzed in 24 patients, 16 males and eight females aged 46 to 77 years (mean 58 years), undergoing chronic hemodialysis who were admitted to our hospital with intracerebral hemorrhage between 1994 and 2003. Computed tomography demonstrated hematoma enlargement in eight patients after admission. Age, sex, duration of dialysis, time interval between onset and admission, site of hemorrhage, and blood pressure on admission were not significantly different between patients with and without hematoma enlargement. However, level of consciousness, size and shape of hematoma, prothrombin time, and fibrin degradation product level were significantly different between the two patient groups (p < 0.05). All patients with hematoma enlargement died during the course of treatment. Intracerebral hemorrhage is more difficult to treat in hemodialysis patients than in non-hemodialysis patients, and the outcome is especially poor in patients with large hematoma. The present study suggests that lower level of consciousness, large and irregular hematoma, prolonged prothrombin time, and high fibrin degradation product level are predictors of hematoma enlargement after admission.
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  • Ryutaro ISHIHARA, Yoichi KATAYAMA, Takao WATANABE, Atsuo YOSHINO, Taka ...
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 53-57
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    The fluorescence of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) induced endogenously by 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) administration has recently been used for the intraoperative visualization of glioma tissues. To increase the sensitivity of photodetection, the emission spectra of 5-ALA-induced PpIX fluorescence was quantitatively measured in tissues taken from six cases of en bloc resected diffusely infiltrating astrocytomas (2 diffuse astrocytomas, 2 anaplastic astrocytomas, and 2 glioblastomas), and the correlation assessed between the fluorescence intensity and histological features. A total of 65 slices were analyzed by ex vivo spectroscopy. The ratio of the peak emission intensity to reflected excitation intensity or fluorescence intensity ratio was less than 0.001 for all 36 non-tumor tissues. The tissues with glioblastoma morphology had a fluorescence intensity ratio in excess of 0.090. The spectroscopic fluorescence intensity was positively correlated with the MIB-1 labeling index as an indicator of proliferation activity, the CD31-microvessel density as a pan-endothelial marker, and the vascular endothelial growth factor expression as an angiogenetic factor. The MIB-1 proliferation index was the most powerful determinant, suggesting that higher cell proliferation may govern preferential PpIX accumulation in glioma cells. This preliminary study suggests that spectroscopic analysis may be useful for optimizing the removal of diffuse gliomas.
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  • Yoshikazu OGAWA, Teiji TOMINAGA, Hidetoshi IKEDA
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 58-64
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Rathke’s cleft cyst becomes symptomatic in a few cases. Increasing experience has identified previously unrecognized clinical effects including pituitary dysfunction. This study retrospectively investigated eight patients with Rathke’s cleft cyst manifesting as hyponatremia and treated surgically with histological confirmation to clarify the mechanism of hyponatremia. All patients suffered from physical symptoms caused by the hyponatremia. All patients underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and screening of pituitary hormones in addition to cortisol and thyroid hormones. All patients had cysts of more than 10 mm in diameter and MR imaging frequently showed irregularly thickened cyst wall. Histological examination disclosed various phases of inflammation and significant fibrosis. Endocrinological examination showed low concentrations of both serum cortisol in all eight patients and urinary cortisol in six of six patients examined. The major cause of hyponatremia was hypocortisolemia, induced by damage to the anterior pituitary gland.
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Case Reports
  • —Two Case Reports—
    Yasuhiko AKIYAMA, Kouzo MORITAKE, Takeshi MIYAZAKI, Hidemasa NAGAI
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 65-69
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Two patients presented with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) associated with both intracranial dissecting and saccular aneurysms. Case 1, a 48-year-old woman, had a saccular aneurysm of the right internal carotid artery and dissecting aneurysms of the bilateral vertebral arteries. Case 2, a 52-year-old man, had three saccular aneurysms in the anterior circulation and a dissecting aneurysm of the unilateral vertebral artery. A saccular aneurysm was responsible for the SAH in both patients. Ruptured saccular aneurysms were treated with surgical clipping and unruptured dissecting aneurysms remained untreated. SAH recurred due to bleeding from an untreated dissecting aneurysm 4 days after the initial SAH in Case 1. Triple-H therapy, which causes increased hemodynamic stress, was not administered for symptomatic cerebral vasospasm after SAH in Case 2, because of the risk of bleeding from the untreated dissecting aneurysm, and the patient suffered cerebral infarction. The risk factors for this rare association are unclear, but both patients were smokers and had hypocholesterolemia including low apolipoprotein E levels. The clinical management of patients with SAH and both dissection and saccular aneurysms is complicated. Asymptomatic dissecting aneurysm has a benign clinical course in general, but hemodynamic stress related to stroke may induce abrupt development of dissecting aneurysms. Prophylactic obliteration during the acute stage of SAH may provide better outcomes if the unruptured dissecting lesion appears as obvious aneurysmal dilatation or pearl-and-string sign and is safely treatable with endovascular trapping.
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  • —Case Report—
    Akihito HASHIGUCHI, Chikara MIMATA, Homare ICHIMURA, Motohiro MORIOKA, ...
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 70-73
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A 67-year-old man presented with devastating intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) from an anterior cranial fossa dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF). Four years earlier, digital subtraction angiography had disclosed a DAVF at the right anterior cranial fossa fed mainly by the ethmoidal branches of the bilateral sphenopalatine arteries and slightly by the ethmoidal arteries of the bilateral ophthalmic arteries, and drained primarily by the sphenoparietal and cavernous sinuses via two dilated cortical veins and slightly by the superior sagittal sinus via a frontal ascending vein. Three-dimensional computed tomography angiography revealed the development of a venous aneurysm on the main draining vein over a 4-year period, but no other changes. Venous aneurysm development may be part of the natural history of DAVF with cortical venous drainage and may contribute to the occurrence of ICH.
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  • —Case Report—
    Makoto OISHI, Osamu SASAKI, Shinji NAKAZATO, Kenji SUZUKI, Keiko KITAZ ...
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 74-78
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A 35-year-old man suffered secondary generalized tonic-clonic convulsions due to a large brain abscess. Neuroimaging incidentally revealed another tumor-like lesion. Cerebral angiography confirmed that the lesion was an unusual giant venous varix associated with a high-flow pial arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and showed one more small arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Pulmonary AVF, which can cause brain abscess, was also detected. Surgical ligation of the AVF and removal of the small AVM via individual craniotomies resulted in successful extirpation of the cerebrovascular malformations. Although the typical mucocutaneous symptoms were absent in this patient, the combination of arteriovenous anomalies was highly suggestive of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.
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  • —Case Report—
    Koichi HARAGUCHI, Kiyohiro HOUKIN, Tadashi NONAKA, Takeo BABA
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 79-82
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A 77-year-old woman presented with delayed thromboembolic infarction of a basilar artery trunk aneurysm that occurred 2 weeks after coil embolization of the unruptured aneurysm. The postoperative course was uneventful until the patient suffered sudden onset of consciousness disturbance 13 days after the treatment. Computed tomography showed no abnormality, but digital subtraction angiography revealed a thrombus extending from the aneurysm neck to a point distal to the basilar artery. Thrombolysis was achieved by the infusion of urokinase. Reconfiguration of the coil at the aneurysm neck was revealed compared with the initial configuration of the coil immediately after embolization. Magnetic resonance imaging obtained after the thrombolysis showed hyperintense areas in the bilateral occipital lobes and thalami. Periprocedural thromboembolic complications associated with coil embolization of an aneurysm are well known. However, delayed thromboembolic complications may occur in some patients after successful coil packing of an aneurysm.
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  • —Case Report—
    Hiroshi KASHIMURA, Hiroshi ARAI, Kuniaki OGASAWARA, Akira OGAWA
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 83-84
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A 72-year-old woman presented with meningothelial meningioma causing obstruction of the superior sagittal sinus (SSS). Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated the lesion in the left occipital parasagittal region and a linear vascular structure in the posterior falx extending from the vein of Galen to the SSS. Cerebral angiography demonstrated obstruction of the posterior portion of the SSS and venous flow from the bilateral occipital lobes draining into the falcine sinus and then into the vein of Galen. The tumor was subtotally removed with preservation of the falcine sinus and bridging veins draining into the sinus. The falcine sinus is usually obliterated after birth, but may persist into adulthood and be involved in unusual draining patterns.
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  • —Case Report—
    Daisuke KITA, Osamu TACHIBANA, Yukihiro NAGAI, Hiroki SANO, Junkoh YAM ...
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 85-88
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A 50-year-old female presented with right painful abducens nerve palsy persisting for 4 months and mild panhypopituitarism with diabetes insipidus for 6 months. T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the sellar region showed a homogeneously enhanced mass lesion in the right cavernous sinus which seemed to extend from the swollen pituitary gland. T2-weighted MR imaging clearly showed the mass in the right cavernous sinus and the thickened dura mater of the sellar floor as hypointense, and the enlarged pituitary gland as isointense. Biopsy of the thickened dura mater and swollen pituitary gland was performed via the transsphenoidal approach. Histological examination revealed inflammation and collagen fiber formation in these regions. The diagnosis was secondary panhypophysitis resulting from granulomatous pachymeningitis involving the cavernous sinus (Tolosa-Hunt syndrome). Corticosteroid therapy was begun after the biopsy. Her periorbital pain and diplopia were relieved, but diabetes insipidus persisted. Follow-up MR imaging showed a decrease in the volumes of the pituitary gland and the mass in the cavernous sinus.
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  • —Case Report—
    Shinya NABIKA, Katsuzo KIYA, Hideki SATOH, Tatsuya MIZOUE, Hayato ARAK ...
    2007 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 89-92
    Published: 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 23, 2007
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A 21-year-old man presented with aspergilloma in the prepontine cistern that developed after treatment for cerebellar hematoma following rupture of an arteriovenous malformation. He became bedridden with neurological signs of tetraparesis, disturbed ocular movement, and bulbar palsy, despite alert consciousness. Repeat magnetic resonance imaging 1 year later revealed a space-occupying lesion in the prepontine cistern along the clivus. This multilobular enhanced mass lesion gradually enlarged towards the brainstem over the following 4 years, resulting in loss of spontaneous breathing and dependence on a mechanical respirator. Surgical treatment via a lateral suboccipital approach was selected to reduce the size of the mass lesion and confirm the diagnosis. Histological examination revealed the presence of Aspergillus fumigatus. Treatment with amphotericin B (1 mg/kg/day) and fluconazole (100 mg/kg/day) injected into the peripheral veins was initiated, but was stopped due to the appearance of renal dysfunction. An Ommaya tube was then inserted into the prepontine cistern via a transsylvian approach to provide high concentrations of amphotericin B around the granulomatous lesion. He gradually improved, corresponding to the decreased size of the aspergilloma just after surgery. Surgical reduction of granuloma combined with local administration of antifungal agent is a good treatment option in patients with aspergilloma refractory to systemic administration.
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