Showing papers on "Myelitis published in 1984"

Chronic meningitis and Lyme disease in Sweden.

Abstract: We studied 35 patients with chronic meningitis. The neurological abnormalities included aseptic meningitis, cranial neuropathy (mostly facial palsy), motor and sensory peripheral radiculoneuropathy, and myelitis. Neurological symptoms were sometimes preceded by erythema chronicum migrans or an insect bite and were often accompanied by fever, malaise, profound fatigue, and weight loss. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) abnormalities consisted of a predominantly mononuclear pleocytosis, an elevated CSF protein (mean 2.3 g/l), intrathecal synthesis of oligoclonal immunoglobulin G, and, in half of the patients, a fall in the CSF/blood glucose ratio. High antibody titers to the Lyme spirochete and the Swedish Ixodes ricinus spirochete were demonstrated by immunofluorescence in 26 of the 35 patients. By imprint immunofixation of electrofocused samples of serum and CSF, intrathecal production of oligoclonal Lyme-spirochete-specific IgG was demonstrated in one patient with chronic meningitis. Four sequential paired samples of serum and CSF from this patient showed local synthesis of spirochete-specific antibodies in CSF. The 35 patients improved or recovered, sometimes dramatically, during a two-week course of intravenous penicillin G.

Transverse myelitis associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

Abstract: A case of acute transverse myelitis associated with respiratory infection by Mycoplasma pneumoniae is described. Circulating antibodies to myelin were detected suggesting that mycoplasma related neurological damage is mediated by producing an immunological myelopathy.

Neurological complications of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

Abstract: This study documents five patients with neurological disease associated with evidence of recent Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection. Four patients had encephalitis associated with coma. Two of these had hemiparesis (one with dysphasia), one had seizures, and one had cerebellar and brainstem involvement. Two also had evidence of a radiculopathy and peripheral neuropathy. One patient had aseptic meningitis with later transverse myelitis. Three patients had multiple sites of neurological involvement. Respiratory infections preceded the neurological syndromes in four cases. Antibiotic therapy did not appear to alter the course of the disease. All patients had a favourable outcome.

Effect of Whole Body Hyperthermia and BCNU on the Development of Radiation Myelitis in the Rat

Abstract: SummaryA radiant heat device was used to study the interaction of 41·8°C whole body hyperthermia (WBH), radiation (40 Gy) and the lipophilic anti-neoplastic agent BCNU in the development of myelitis in the rat spinal cord. The addition of WBH and BCNU neither precipitated myelitis acutely nor shortened the latency before the onset of neurological signs in irradiated animals.

Verminous (Strongylus vulgaris) myelitis in a donkey.

Abstract: A fifth stage Strongylus vulgaris migrated through the spinal cord of a 2-year-old, male donkey resulting in progressive paraparesis and then tetraplegia A profound neutrophilic pleocytosis was detected on analysis of cerebrospinal fluid The parasite appeared to have entered the mid-lumbar spinal cord, migrated to the cranial thoracic segments, exited, then re-entered the spinal cord a few segments craniad It then traveled further cranially and was found in the third cervical spinal cord segment Some parts of the lesion were remarkably free from tissue necrosis, hemorrhage and inflammation Severe granulomatous myelitis with hemorrhage and necrosis were seen at other sites The latter were quite similar to lesions seen in equine protozoal myeloencephalitis

[West Nile virus meningomyeloencephalitis--value of interferon assays in primary encephalitis].

Abstract: A 68 year-old woman contracted West Nile fever after a stay of one month in Israel. Mild encephalitis and severe myelitis, resembling the "polio syndrome", developed, with important sequelae. Specific antibodies against West Nile fever virus progressively increased in the patient's serum. Epidemiological and clinical data about neurologic aspects of this infection are reviewed. Meningoencephalitis is not unusual, but only one previous case of acute anterior myelitis has been described in humans although this pathology is well known in experimental and veterinary diseases. Very few studies concern interferon and arbovirus infections in humans. Interferon assays in our patient's serum and cerebrospinal fluid showed its presence and persistence: this is in relation with the replication of the virus in the central nervous system, as it has been demonstrated in other primary viral encephalitis.

[Delayed myelitis caused by radiation in patients treated for Hodgkin's disease].

Abstract: The Authors present a series of 7 cases of late myelitis consequent on radiotherapy in patients treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma. These 7 cases represent 1.4% of the 500 cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma subjected to radiotherapy at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan from 1970 to 1980, and all concern the dorsal tract of the spinal cord. They were found at an interval varying from 5 to 13 months after radiotherapy. The 7 cases were treated with equivalent doses varying from 951 to 1077 rets. The possibility is discussed to further reduce the incidence of these lesions from radiotherapy to less than 1%, administering equivalent doses lower than 1015 rets, without increasing the risk of recurrences of the disease.

[Radiotherapy treatment of esophageal carcinoma--analysis of 5-year survival].

Abstract: Between 1966-1977, 250 patients with esophageal carcinoma were treated by radiotherapy alone. The 5-year survival rate was 10.4% (12 of 115) in the curative cases. 52 of 5-year survivors, including 40 cases from the literature, were analyzed according to age, sex and the extent, location and type of tumor. 37 patients (71.1%) were between 50 and 69 years of age. There were more female than male survivors. Patients whose esophagograms showed spiral-type tumor had a worse prognosis than other tumor types. 16 of the 52 (30.8%) patients had received intracavitary treatment. We posit that an additional boost dose by intracavitary techniques improves the local control of the primary lesion. Radiation-induced myelitis and carditis were noted in some patients.

Benzene poisoning as a possible cause of transverse myelitis.

Abstract: A case of transverse myelitis in a 25-year-old patient was described. The transverse myelitis was caused by toxic cause, probably as a result of benzene poisoning. This diagnosis was based on: The differential diagnosis. The patient's occupation. The abnormal high urinary phenol levels. The coincidence of decreasing urinary phenol values with an amelioration of the clinical condition of patient. After consulting the literature, we think that this case of transverse myelitis based on a benzene poisoning is the first ever described.

Inflammatory myelopathy presenting as a cystic intramedullary spinal cord lesion

Abstract: A case of subacute progressive spinal tetraparesis had myelographic evidence of cervical spinal cord swelling and a delayed metrizamide computed tomographic myelogram (MCTM) suggested cavitation within the swollen spinal cord. Surgical exploration of the cervical cord revealed inflammatory changes only. No syrinx or intramedullary tumour was found. The accumulation of metrizamide within the spinal cord, as demonstrated by MCTM, did not represent a syrinx or a cystic tumour, but more likely an area of inflammation. Because inflammatory myelopathy may simulate an intramedullary tumor or syrinx, careful analysis of all clinical and radiological information is necessary to help make a correct diagnosis.

Post-infectious transverse myelitis and thoracic spina bifida: report of a case

Abstract: The patient, a 30 year-old man, dentist, started having an influenza-like infection which lasted five days, with malaise, muscle pain throughout the body and fever. One day before the hospital admission he presented urinary retention followed in the next day by ataxia and numbness sensation in both feet and lower third of his legs. The neurological examination disclosed a thoracic spinal cord impairment at T9-T10 level and the diagnosis of a post- infectious transverse myelitis was made. The plain Rx of the spine showed a spina bifida oculta in the T7 vertebra, which is roughly at the same level of the T9-T10 spinal cord segment. An iodinated myelography showed no abnormalities. The CSF examination showed small increase in the white cells (6.4 cells/cu.mm). The patient received dexamethasone (4. 5g /day) and two weeks later was entirely free of symptoms. The authors think that the congenital bone defect (spina bifida) might have played a role in the development of the myelitis, probably because of an ontogenetically determined "vulnerable point" ("locus minor resistentia ") at that level, either anatomical or immunological.