Executive functions in sarcoidosis: a neurocognitive assessment study.

Background: Sarcoidosis is a multisystem, inflammatory disease characterized by non-caseating granulomas in multiple organs. Neuropsychological impairment has been told to be present in about 10% of sarcoidosis patients with diagnosed central nervous system (CNS) involvement. Both anatomical lesions and changes in immunological parameters in sarcoidosis may cause cognitive impairment. Based on the information that soluble interleukin-2 receptors (sIL-2R) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-‱) which plays a role in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis accumulate in the basal ganglia and prefrontal structures, impairment in executive functioning is most likely to be expected in sarcoidosis. In this study we aimed to evaluate executive functions in sarcoidosis patients. Method: This study included 21 sarcoidosis patients (14 females, 7 males) and 21 healthy controls (12 females, 9 males). All participants were given Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, Stroop Test, Verbal Fluency Tests, Digitspan Forward Test, Digitspan Backwards Test and Trail Making Test Part-B. Test results of sarcoidosis patients were compared with healthy controls. Results: No significant difference was detected between sarcoidosis patients and healthy controls by means of neuropsychological assessment tests (p>0.05). Conclusion: Our study showed that sarcoidosis patients did not have impairment in executive functions. This result may be commented in two different outcomes. One of them, would be the probable necessity of additional electrophysiological or radiological tests including detailed paradigmas for evaluation of executive functions. Secondly the effect of therapeutics used in sarcoidosis (steroids and/or immunosuppressants) on cognition should be questioned regarding the controversial previous data which released cognitive decline in sarcoidosis. (Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis 2018; 35: 26-34).

Apraxia for differentiating Alzheimer's disease from subcortical vascular dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

Although ideomotor limb apraxia is considered to be a typical sign of cortical pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), it has been also reported in subcortical neurodegenerative diseases and vascular lesions. We aimed to investigate the difference between AD, subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients by means of ideomotor limb apraxia frequency and severity. Ninety-six AD, 72 SVaD, and 84 MCI patients were assessed with the mini-mental status examination (MMSe), clinical dementia rating (CDR) and the apraxia screening test of TULIA (AST). Apraxia was significantly more frequent in the AD patients (32.3%) than in both of the SVaD (16.7%) and MCI (4.8%) patients. The frequency of apraxia was also significantly higher in SVaD patients than in MCI patients. AD patients had significantly lower apraxia scores than both SVaD and MCI patients. In addition, a significant difference was found between SVaD and MCI patients in terms of apraxia scores. These results suggest that the widespread belief of the association between apraxia and cortical dementias is not exactly correct. The significant difference between both of the dementia groups and the MCI patients suggests that the absence of apraxia can be an indicator for MCI diagnosis.

Speech-induced primary lingual dystonia: a rare focal dystonia.

Lingual dystonia, a type of focal dystonia that may be primary or secondary, is related to brain damage, neuroleptic use, neurodegenerative, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental disorders, varicella infection, and so on. However, primary lingual dystonia induced by speaking is a rare type of focal dystonia that is usually idiopathic in origin and is characterized by increased tonus of the tongue, which causes protrusion only during speaking. This report describes a 55-year-old male patient with lingual dystonia during speech. One interesting clinical feature of this case was that the speech disturbance improved while the patient vocalized a praise-like hymn in a manner that resembled singing.

[Intraarterial thrombolysis in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke: Technical and clinical results]. / Akut iskemik inme tedavisinde lokal intraarteryel tromboliz: teknik ve klinik sonuçlar.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the safety and recanalization efficacy of local IA rt-PA delivery in patients with acute ischemic stroke. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen patients with acute ischemic stroke were treated; of these, 10 were carotid artery stroke, 5 were vertebrobasilar territory stroke cases. The neurological status of the patients were graded according to the Glascow Coma Scale and National Institutes of Heart Stroke Scale. All patients underwent a CT examination on admission. In addition, 4 patients had diffusion-weighted and one patient had a perfusion MR examination. Patients of carotid territory stroke were treated within 6 hours from the stroke onset. There was no time limitation for the basilar artery territory. The Rankin Scale (RS) was used as outcome measures. RESULTS: Two of the 10 patients with carotid artery stroke had carotid territory occlusions, 8 had middle cerebral artery main trunk occlusions. Four patients had symptomatic hemorrhage; of these, 3 died within 24 hours. At the third month 4 patients had a good outcome. Of 5 patients with basilar artery stroke, 4 had basilar artery occlusions. In one patient, the basilar artery was open but the flow of the contrast material was very slow. Two patients with unsuccessful recanalization due to underlying high grade atherosclerotic stenosis and one patient with successful recanalization died. At the third month, the other patient with succesful recanalization had a poor outcome (RS 4). The patient with slow basilar artery flow developed from RS 5 to RS 1 and was discharged without any neurological deficit. CONCLUSION: In acute ischemic stroke, local IA thrombolysis is a safe and feasible treatment when the right patient is selected. Hemorrhage does not exceed that which occurs in the natural history of the disease and with other treatment methods.