The literature on lesions of the subthalamic body or corpus Luysi has largely concerned itself with unilateral involvement of this nucleus as manifested clinically by the syndrome of hemiballismus. In an exhaustive review of the literature, Whittier (1) found 30 cases of hemiballismus associated with isolated lesions in the subthalamic body. In the majority these were of a vascular nature. Bila...

Case presentation: A 11-month-old female patient with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) who developed infantile spasms at 6-months-old. She was diagnosed West Syndrome and first treated Vigabatrin (VGB). positive response observed, control of the spams regression hypsarrhythmia electroencephalogram register. well controlled until 10-months-old, when returned developmental regression. treatment synthet...

When one examines stained sections of the thalamic area of the brain and sees the mass of fibres and cells in this area interconnecting almost every structure in the vicinity and receiving and sending millions of fibres to remote parts of the brain and spinal cord one marvels at the temerity of the early stereotactic surgeons who dared to place electrodes in this area and make massive destructi...

Twenty patients with movement disorders associated with astrocytomas (grade I-IV according to the WHO tumour classification) of the basal ganglia and the thalamus were evaluated for the effects of treatment. Five patients had more than one movement disorder when the histological diagnosis was verified by stereotactic biopsy. Twelve had tremors, eight hemidystonia, three hemichorea, and one hemi...

BACKGROUND The paraneoplastic syndromes can involve multiple areas of the central nervous system and result in a variety of neurological symptoms. To our knowledge, severe, rapidly progressive, and drug-resistant ballistic-choreic movements have not been previously described as the presenting feature of renal cell carcinoma. PATIENT AND METHODS A previously healthy 55-year-old man developed l...

BACKGROUND Thalamic lesions give rise to a variety of clinical syndromes such as pure sensory stroke, ataxic hemiparesis, and rarely involuntary movements including chorea. Generally and classically, lacunar infarction in the subthalamic nucleus has been regarded as the lesion mainly responsible for hemi-chorea and hemi-ballismus, on the basis of previous anatomical studies. CASE PRESENTATION...

Introduction Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, in 1964, while trying to define “obscenity,” articulated the now well-known “I shall not today attempt to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . . .” In some respects, a similar comment can be made about movement disorders. A movement disorder typically is defined as dysfunction in the i...

Deficiency of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) activity is an inborn error of purine metabolism associated with uric acid overproduction and a continuum spectrum of neurological manifestations depending on the degree of the enzymatic deficiency. The prevalence is estimated at 1/380,000 live births in Canada, and 1/235,000 live births in Spain. Uric acid overproduction is pr...

SUMMARY: Smooth neuronal functioning requires an uninterrupted supply of energy that is provided by glucose under normal physiologic conditions. Significant variations in plasma glucose levels, be it hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, can present with myriad clinical manifestations and may mimic stroke. At times, the diagnosis is either not apparent or not clinically suspected. Imaging can suggest ...