OBJECTIVE To minimize complement-mediated damage in acute relapses of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) by adding treatment with a complement inhibitor, purified C1-esterase inhibitor, to the current standard of care (high-dose glucocorticoids). METHOD We conducted an open-label phase 1b safety and proof-of-concept trial in 10 patients with NMO-immunoglobulin G seropositive NMO or NMO spectrum disea...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders are inflammatory demyelinating disorders with optic neuritis and/or longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis episodes. We now know that neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders are associated with antibodies to aquaporin-4, which are highly concentrated on astrocytic end-feet at the blood-brain barrier. Immune-mediated disruption...

Central Nervous System (CNS) involvement is a common extrapulmonary complication of infections due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, occurring in 2-5% of cases, frequently in children, from 1-21 days after the onset of illness. The neurological manifestations of this infection include meningitis, meningoencephalitis, hemiplegia, polyradiculitis, Gullian-Barrè Syndrome, cerebellar ataxia, cerebral infar...

IMPORTANCE Classically, transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis are considered central nervous system demyelinating conditions. In both conditions, the spinal cord is involved to varying degrees, and there is a variety of presentations, usually involving some degree of progressive paralysis of the upper and/or lower extremities. Treatment usually consists of high-dose intra...

BACKGROUND Extrapulmonary complications of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) infection include encephalitis, optic neuritis, acute psychosis, stroke, cranial nerve palsies, aseptic meningitis and also it may be implicated in immune mediated neurological diseases such as acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome and transverse myelitis. CASE PRESENTATION We present fiv...

  Abstract   The usage of heroin is associated with a variety of neurologic disorders, including   acute transverse myelitis. In this study we present a 19 year old man who was suffered   from insufflated heroin after several months of abstinence, and admitted to hospital   emergency department, unconscious. He responded to fluid therapy and Naloxone,   but could not move his legs on examinatio...

BACKGROUND In 2002, the Transverse Myelitis Consortium Working Group (TMCWG) proposed the diagnostic criteria for idiopathic acute transverse myelitis (IATM) to delimit and unify this group of patients. This study aimed to describe the conversion rate to multiple sclerosis (MS) and variables associated with conversion, and to analyze functional outcome and prognostic factors associated with fun...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Acute myelitis patients exhibiting only sensory deficits upon initial presentation are not commonly encountered in clinical practice, but they definitely exist. Since acute sensory myelitis has not been investigated previously, this study evaluated the etiological spectrum of the condition with the aim of describing the clinical characteristics thereof. METHODS Patients...

INTRODUCTION Transverse myelitis is a very rare neurologic syndrome with an incidence per year of 1-5 per million population. We are presenting an interesting case of subacute transverse myelitis with its MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) findings. CASE A 46-year-old African-American woman presented with decreased sensation in the lower extremities which started t...

Myelopathy is a well recognised but infrequent neurological manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The case of a 27 year old woman with SLE of seven years' duration who developed a spastic paraparesis during her second pregnancy is reported. Magnetic resonance imaging did not show any intrinsic abnormality of the spinal cord. Anticardiolipin antibody was weakly positive and C4 was...