The Somatosensory Evoked Potentials and Nerve Conduction Studies in Patients with Diabetic Polyneuropathy

BACKGROUND: The nerve conduction study (NCS) is one of the most important diagnostic tools used to evaluate the function of large myelinated nerve fibers. However, the NCS in patients with diabetic polyneuropathy, who have senso-ry and motor abnormalities on neurological examination, are frequently found to be within normal limits. Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SEP), F-waves, and NCS were performed to determine their usefulness in detecting electrophysiologic abnormalities in the early stages of patients with diabetic polyneuropathy. METHODS: Posterior tibial SEP (PTSEP) studies were performed in thirty patients with clinically suspected diabetic polyneuropathy who had with-in normal values of NCS involving the upper and lower extremities. PTSEP, F-wave, and NCS were also performed in age and height matched eighteen normal participants. RESULTS: The mean latencies of spinal evoked potentials (T12) and cortical evoked potentials (P1) were significantly prolonged in the diabetic patients compared to the control group (p 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We found the SEP study to be a useful diagnostic test for detecting diabetic polyneuropathy.

Temporal Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia: A Case of Semantic Dementia

Semantic dementia is a rare, distinct form of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, characterized by a deficit in semantic memory with relative preservation of attention and executive functions. We report a case of semantic dementia that pre-sented with a 3-year history of progressive word-finding difficulty and prosopagnosia. Brain MRI showed prominent atrophic changes in the left temporal region and neuropsychological tests demonstrated semantic memory deficits.

Mean Platelet Component to Measure Platelet Activation in Ischemic Stroke: Preliminary Study

BACKGROUND: Abnormal platelet activation has been identified in several disorders characterizedby vascular patholo-gy including coronary artery disease, Alzheimer disease, myeloproliferative disorders, diabetes, preeclampsia, inflam-matory bowel disease and glomerular disease. Antiplatelet therapy has been valuable in the management of some of these conditions. The aim of this study is to verify usefulness of mean platelet component (MPC) concentration as a marker of thrombotic process in patients with cerebral infarction. Our hypothesis is that MPC as measured by the ADVIA(R) 120 hematology system is used to detect and monitor platelet activation associated with thrombotic process of ischemic stroke. METHODS: To study the existence of platelet activation at the onset of cerebral infarction, mean platelet concentration of platelets were measured daily during post-stroke 10 days. Thirty-four acute thrombotic cerebral infarction and seventeen age-matched healthy persons were selected for this study. To investigate the time course of the platelet MPC changes observed in stroke patients, the blood samplings for MPC measuring were done and analyzed on the ADVIA 120(R) system. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decrease in MPC concentration of the platelets at post-stroke 3rd to 7th day compared to the control group ( p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a reduction of MPC as measured by the ADVIA 120(R) hematology system may be used to detect and monitor thrombotic process associated with platelet activation in ischemic stroke.