Obstructive sleep apnea and ischemic stroke: a risk assessment

Neurorehabilitation: bridging neurophysiology and clinical practice

Dramatic neurological debut in a case of Köhlmeier-Degos disease

The inter-rater reliability of the Italian version of Aphasia Rapid Test (ART) for acute ischemic stroke Abstract Background The Aphasia Rapid Test (ART) is a screening questionnaire used for examining language in acute stroke patients. The ART was initially developed and validated in French. The purpose of this study was to assess the inter-rater reliability of Italian ART. Methods The original version of the ART was translated into Italian. The inter-rater reliability was assessed by two independent neurologists who were blind to each other’s ratings in 52 acute post-stroke patients. Results The 52 patients (28 men, 24 women; mean age 73.73 ± 28.99 years) were included within 1 week of stroke onset (46 ischemic, 6 hemorrhagic), as assessed by clinical examination and confirmed by CT and/or MRI. The mean (± SD) ART value was 9.38 (± 9.26) for rater 1 and 9 (±9.31) for rater 2. The inter-rater agreement was very good, with a coefficient of concordance of 0.99 (95% CI 0.986–0.995; p < 0.0001) and a weighted kappa of 0.878 and a quadratic weighted kappa of 0.983. Conclusions This study showed that the cross-cultural adaptation of the French version of the ART was successful in an Italian-speaking population.

GNAO1 mutation presenting as dyskinetic cerebral palsy

Widening the spectrum of secondary headache: intracranial hypotension following a non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage Abstract Background Intracranial hypotension has been associated with a wide spectrum of neurological conditions including chronic non-aneurysmal and acute aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Case A 59-year-old man presented with a non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in a perimesencephalic pattern after a mild physical exertion. In the course of the disease, a magnetic resonance imaging of head and spine displayed intracranial hypotension that resolved spontaneously. Discussion Long-standing intracranial hypotension has been reported as the cause of chronic subarachnoid hemorrhage and a single case of intracranial hypotension as the consequence of intracranial pressure fluctuations after acute aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage has been described. This is the first description of intracranial hypotension caused by acute non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. We hypothesize that blood in the subarachnoid space could have determined a spine cerebrospinal fluid leak through intracranial pressure fluctuations or mechanical action, causing arachnoiditis and possibly a dural tear.

Pseudo-orthostatic tremor: description of a not typical case

Delayed cerebral microbleeds in a patient with cerebral fat embolism

Posterior spinal artery infarction initially presenting as acute bilateral lower limb dystonia

Emotional valence may influence memory performance for visual artworks in Parkinson’s disease Abstract Background Non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) include reduced reactivity to emotional stimuli. Visual artworks can evoke emotional responses. Motor, sensorial and cognitive networks implicated in the aesthetic experience and in the emotional-reward domain show a significant overlap with the pathological nigrostriatal, mesocortical and mesolimbic circuitry that characterises PD. Methods Memory enhancement by emotional stimuli such as visual artwork-stimuli was explored in 12 right-sided and 12 left-sided non-demented-PD patients, 12 Alzheimer’s disease patients (AD) and 13 healthy controls (HC). Ten emotional and 10 non-emotional stimuli were previously identified based on the ratings of the emotional impact provided by 45 non-PD subjects on 82 pictures of paintings. Only figurative artworks were included. Patients and HC were requested to rate on a 7-point scale the emotional impact of 20 pictures; they were then requested to recognise the 20 pictures amongst 20 distractors (incidental memory task). Results and Conclusion Recognition of emotional stimuli was more accurate compared to non-emotional stimuli in AD, left-sided PD and HC; right-sided PD did not show sensitivity to the emotional valence of the stimuli suggesting the involvement of the nigrostriatal, mesocortical and mesolimbic circuitry of the left hemisphere in the emotional-reward system related to the aesthetic experience.