Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome due to Hypomagnesemia: A Case Report and Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Hypomagnesemia can cause various unspecific neurological complications, which can lead to diagnostic confusion. One of these complications is the posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), which is extremely uncommon and has been reported only twice in the English-language literature. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 60-year-old man who presented with PRES involving only the cerebellar hemispheres and associated with hypomagnesemia. After excluding all the other possible etiologies of PRES, we started magnesium replacement therapy, which led to a remarkable but fluctuating clinical and chemical improvement. A full recovery with no need for further supplementation was achieved only after discontinuation of a proton pump inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS: This case highlights the role of magnesium in the pathophysiology of PRES; thereby, underlying hypomagnesemia should be considered in every PRES case with unclear etiology.

Stroke as an Unusual First Presentation of Lyme Disease.

Introduction. Lyme neuroborreliosis is a nervous system infection caused by spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi with diverse neurological complications. Stroke due to cerebral vasculitis is a rare consequence of neuroborreliosis and has been described in just a few case reports. Case Presentation. Here, we report the case of a 43-year-old patient who presented with discrete left-sided hemiparesis and amnestic cognitive impairment. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed a thalamic infarct, and serological and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests confirmed the diagnosis of active neuroborreliosis. The antibiotic treatment with intravenous ceftriaxone for three weeks led to an improvement of the symptoms and remarkable regression of radiological findings, but not to full recovery of the amnestic cognitive disorder. Conclusion. Lyme neuroborreliosis should be suspected in patients with cerebrovascular events without obvious risk factors, especially those living in endemic areas such as northern Europe or those who have been exposed to ticks and those with clinical or radiological findings suggesting Lyme neuroborreliosis, in order to establish the diagnosis and start a proper antibiotic therapy.

Morphological spectrum and clinical features of myopathies with tubular aggregates.

Tubular aggregates (TAs) are aggregates of densely packed tubules in human skeletal muscle fibers with particular histochemical and ultrastructural features that most probably arise from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Some studies have shown an additional mitochondrial origin of TAs. We studied the histopathological spectrum and clinical features in a large cohort of patients with TAs in their muscle biopsy (106 biopsies), derived from our muscle biopsy archive (15,412 biopsies in total). In particular, we examined light microscopic, enzyme histochemical, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural features in the muscle biopsies, as well as the patients' clinical data. We found TAs in 0.5% of all muscle biopsies. Based on the size of TAs, we identified two sub-groups: (1) myopathies with large TAs (29 biopsies) in type 2 fibers and sometimes also in type 1 fibers, absence of any other associated disorder, and a familial history in half of the cases, and (2) myopathies with small TAs (77 biopsies), exclusively in type 2 fibers, presence of another associated disease in the majority of patients and mostly no familial history. In the sub-group with large TAs, we observed a high variability of ultrastructural changes. The most frequent clinical symptom in both groups was limb muscle weakness. No significant differences in clinical presentation, age at onset or disease duration at the time of biopsy were found between the two groups. In conclusion, myopathies with TAs can be sub-divided into a group with large TAs, probably corresponding to the so-called primary TA myopathies, and into a group with small TAs as a feature of another underlying condition.