Acquired stuttering in a patient with encephalitis.

A 30-year-old woman developed a sudden onset of stuttering in the early stage of Japanese B encephalitis. Cranial CT scan, EEG and electrodiagnostic studies revealed no definite focal abnormality. Her stuttering persisted for 1 week and subsided spontaneously. Stuttering can be a rare early manifestation in Japanese B encephalitis.

Neurological problems in chronic alcoholics.

In recent years there are a considerable increase in alcohol consumption in Taiwan, which may have been accompanied by increased incidence of alcohol-related physical disease. This study was designed for an understanding of neurological problems in chronic alcoholic patients. One hundred and five cases of chronic alcoholics with neurological problems were collected. All had taken more than 100 g alcohol daily for more than 8 years. They were all males, with a mean age of 47.0 +/- 1.3 years, mean daily alcohol consumption of 185.1 +/- 9.0 g (mean +/- S.E.). These chronic alcoholic patients showed various neurological problems. Patients showing typical clinical features of alcoholic neurological disease are now rather rare. Most of the patients had manifestations of more than one problems: polyneuropathy (74.3%), alcoholic tremor (37.1%), hallucinosis (30.5%), myopathy (26.7%), head injury (24.8%), withdrawal seizures (18.1%), Wernicke encephalopathy (15.2%), paranoia (13.3%), and stroke (15.2%). Furthermore, we divided all the patients into 5 categories, they were: encephalopathy, 59 cases (56.2%); stroke, 16 cases (15.2%); cerebellar degeneration, 12 cases (11.4%); neuropathy, 78 case (74.3%); and myopathy, 28 cases (16.7%). The daily alcohol consumption and duration of daily drinking were different significantly (p less than 0.05) among five different syndrome categories.