ABSTRACT
A dynamic scoring system was developed to quantitatively resolve the ability of a subject to persistently execute a repeated motor act. Saccadic eye movements in response to pseudo-random and periodic stimuli were examined in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and in normal subjects. Results indicated significantly lower dynamic persistence scores for the former group (50.5 +/- 32.2% vs 94.1 +/- 4.4%). Analysis of the patients' data revealed a stronger association of low scores with right hemisphere damage than with left hemisphere damage (39.4 +/- 28.9% vs 76.6 +/- 15.6%). Results are interpreted in terms of high-level attention impairments, not in terms of specific deficits in eye movement ability.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/physiopathology , Brain Injuries/physiopathology , Saccades/physiology , Adolescent , Adult , Brain/physiopathology , Brain Damage, Chronic/rehabilitation , Brain Injuries/rehabilitation , Dominance, Cerebral/physiology , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Head Injuries, Closed/physiopathology , Head Injuries, Closed/rehabilitation , Humans , Male , Reference Values , Wounds, Penetrating/physiopathologyABSTRACT
The occurrence of central nervous system metastases in ovarian cancer patients ranges from 0.88 to 4.5%. Centra nervous system involvement in a fallopian tube carcinoma is extremely rare. A 77-year-old woman with an invasive tubal carcinoma was admitted because of ophthalmoplegia, sparing the lateral rectus muscle of the left eye, a decreased left corneal reflex and hypoesthesia along the distribution of the ophthalmic and maxillary branches of the left trigeminal nerve. CT scan showed a space occupying lesion in the left sphenoid sinus invading the left cavernous sinus and the submucosa of the left lateral wall of the nasopharynx, proven histologically to be a metastasis from her primary cancer. Attention should be paid to the possibility of distant and unusual metastases associated with tubal cancer in order to treat the patients promptly.
Subject(s)
Carcinoma, Papillary/secondary , Cavernous Sinus/pathology , Fallopian Tube Neoplasms/pathology , Paranasal Sinus Neoplasms/secondary , Soft Tissue Neoplasms/secondary , Aged , Female , Humans , Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/pathology , Necrosis , Neoplasm Invasiveness , Skull Neoplasms/pathology , Vascular Diseases/pathologyABSTRACT
A 13-year-old patient developed complete mutism and buccofacial apraxia following toxic vasculitis due to a yellow scorpion sting. Language functions were preserved. A CT scan disclosed mainly biopercular infarcts. It is suggested that the lost control of vocalization and speech is associated with biopercular lesions and that a preserved right opercular region can take over this function in the presence of damage to homologous left opercular region.
Subject(s)
Apraxias/etiology , Brain Damage, Chronic/etiology , Cerebral Infarction/etiology , Mutism/etiology , Scorpion Stings/complications , Adolescent , Animals , Apraxias/diagnostic imaging , Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnostic imaging , Cerebral Infarction/diagnostic imaging , Dominance, Cerebral/physiology , Frontal Lobe/diagnostic imaging , Humans , Israel , Male , Mutism/diagnostic imaging , Scorpions , Tomography, X-Ray ComputedABSTRACT
Mutism following brain trauma is quite common, is usually transient, and recovery of speech is essentially the rule. Lasting total absence of speech without aphasia is highly unusual. Three such patients, two of traumatic and one due to vascular origin showing buccofacial apraxia (BFA) and computerized tomography (CT) evidence of bilateral frontal lesions are reported. It is suggested that complete lasting mutism associated with BFA is a result of bihemispheric lesions affecting mainly the opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus and immediate adjacent regions.
