Early Guillain-Barré Syndrome associated with acute dengue fever.

Various forms of neurological manifestations are reported in dengue fever. We describe here three cases of concomitant Guillain-Barré syndrome and dengue virus (DENV) infection during the largest DENV-1 outbreak in New Caledonia. Research of viral RNA was positive in both blood and CSF samples. All patients were treated with intravenous polyvalent immunoglobulins and recovered without sequelae within one week.

[Management of brain metastases from non-small cell lung carcinoma]. / Les métastases cérébrales des cancers bronchiques non à petites cellules : vers une prise en charge homogène.

INTRODUCTION: In France, approximately 30,000 new patients per year develop brain metastases (BM), most of them resulting from a lung cancer. STATE OF THE ART: Surgery and radiosurgery of all the BM must be considered when possible. In other cases, whole brain radiotherapy remains the standard of care. PERSPECTIVES: The role of chemotherapy, poorly investigated so far, should be revisited. CONCLUSION: This review focused on BM secondary to a non-small cell lung carcinoma.

A novel DCC mutation and genetic heterogeneity in congenital mirror movements.

OBJECTIVE: DCC is the receptor for netrin, a protein that guides axon migration of developing neurons across the body's midline. Mutations in the DCC gene were recently identified in 2 families with congenital mirror movements (MM). The objective was to study clinical and genetic characteristics of 3 European families with MM and to test whether this disorder is genetically homogeneous. METHODS: We studied 3 MM families with a total of 13 affected subjects. Each patient had a standardized interview and neurologic examination, focusing on the phenomenology and course of the MM. The severity of MM was also assessed. Molecular analysis of DCC was performed in the index cases. In addition, linkage analysis of the DCC locus was performed in a large French family. RESULTS: The clinical expression and course of MM were very similar in all the affected subjects, regardless of DCC mutational status. However, slight intersubject variability in the severity of MM was noted within each family. Onset always occurred in infancy or early childhood, and MM did not deteriorate over time. Motor disability due to MM was mild and restricted to activities that require independent movements of the 2 hands. We found a novel mutation in the DCC gene in an Italian family with MM associated with abnormal ipsilateral corticospinal projection. The DCC locus was excluded in the French family. CONCLUSION: DCC has a crucial role in the development of corticospinal tracts in humans. Congenital MM is genetically heterogeneous, despite its clinical homogeneity.

[Cerebral infarction, a complication of paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria]. / Infarctus cérébral complication de l'hémoglobinurie paroxystique nocturne.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (Marchiafava-Micheli disease) is a rare acquired clonal disorder of the hematopoietic stem cell. Its most frequent clinical manifestations are hemolytic crisis and the most serious are venous thrombosis of the mesenteric, hepatic, portal or cerebral territories. Arterial cerebral infarctions are extremely rare. We report and comment on a case of multiple strokes occurring during an hemolytic crisis and despite effective long-term anticoagulation treatment.