Unilateral hypoglossal nerve palsy: as the only presentation of tuberculosis

Tuberculous spondylitis is not an uncommon disease of the spine. Near one percent of all cases of spinal tuberculosis [TB] involves craniocervical junction. Hypoglossal nerve palsy is not an uncommon neurological finding, but isolated involvement of the hypoglossal nerve is rare and limited to case reports or small case series. Here, we report a case of craniocervical junction tuberculosis presenting with unilateral hypoglossal nerve palsy. Case is a 41-year-old woman with neck and suboccipital pain since one month and unilateral right hypoglossal nerve palsy since one week. All laboratory tests were unremarkable except raised ESR level. Involvement of C1-C2 and hypoglossal canal were demonstrated by CT scan of craniocervical junction. Tissue diagnosis of TB was established by open biopsy of the craniocervical junction

Interferon-gamma gene polymorphism in Iranian patients with multiple sclerosis

Interferon- gamma [IFN- gamma] is an important immune regulator and inflammatory cytokine which is implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis [MS]. A single nucleotide polymorphism, T to A, at position +874 in the first intron has previously been shown. This polymorphism is associated with IFN- gamma production level. To study the effect of this polymorphism on susceptibility to multiple sclerosis, we screened genomic DNA samples from clinically definite MS patients and their unaffected first-degree relatives as controls, using sequence-specific primers [PCR-SSP]. The results indicated that MS patients showed a lower TT [21.2% vs. 30.3%] and higher AA [21.2% vs. 12.1%] genotypes compared to controls, although there were statistically no differences in the IFN- gamma genotype distribution between these two groups. Thus, our data indicate that there is no association between IFN- gamma +874 polymorphism and MS susceptibility or severity of the disease