A Case of Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis with a 16-Year Time Interval without Evidence of Cancer Recurrence.

The median time of brain metastasis from the diagnosis of breast cancer is approximately 3 years. In this case report, a 69-year-old woman demonstrated cerebellar ataxia. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed enhanced lesions in bilateral cerebellar hemispheres. She had undergone surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy for uterine and breast cancer 24 years prior and 16 years prior, respectively. Although she had not received any anticancer treatment for 10 years, no recurrences were identified using whole body scans. A partial tumor resection was performed and the histological diagnosis was an adenocarcinoma from breast cancer. As no extracranial lesions were found, gamma-knife irradiation was performed, without additional systemic chemotherapy. One month posttreatment, the tumors dramatically reduced in size and the patient completely recovered from cerebellar ataxia. Systemic chemotherapy is not always required for brain metastasis from breast cancer with a long interval period, as long as no evidence of extracranial recurrence is detected.

Vertebral Artery Dissection Leading to Fornix Infarction: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND: The subcallosal artery is a proximal branch of the anterior communicating artery and has been recognized as the vessel responsible for fornix infarction. Fornix infarction caused by vascular damage to the posterior circulation has not been reported previously. RESULTS: A 26-year-old woman suffered from fornix infarction due to artery-to-artery embolism after vertebral artery dissection. Cerebral infarctions were also found in the left thalamus, body of the left caudate nucleus, and the left occipital lobe other than the fornix. CONCLUSIONS: Occlusion of the subcallosal artery results in cerebral infarction of fornix, anterior cingulate cortex, and genu of the corpus callosum. However, in our case, lesions were restricted to the territory of posterior circulation. In addition to subcallosal artery, lateral posterior choroidal artery, a perforating branch of the posterior cerebral artery, has been described to send branches to the fornix, so we speculated that the left lateral posterior choroidal artery was actually responsible for fornix infarction.

Quantitative analysis of upper-limb ataxia in patients with spinocerebellar degeneration.

Spinocerebellar degeneration (SCD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder in which cerebellar ataxia causes motor disability. There are no widely applicable methods for objective evaluation of ataxia in SCD. An objective system to evaluate ataxia is necessary for use in clinical trials of newly developed medication and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to develop a simple method to quantify the degree of upper-limb ataxia. Forty-nine patients with SCD participated in this study. Patients were instructed to trace an Archimedean spiral template, and the gap between the template spiral and the drawn spiral (gap area; GA) was measured using Image J software. Ataxia was rated using the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) and cerebellar volume was evaluated in 37 patients using an axial cross-section of magnetic resonance images that were obtained within 6 months of clinical evaluation. Regression analysis was performed to assess the relation between GA and patient age, disease duration, SARA score, and cerebellar volume. GA was significantly related to total SARA score (r = 0.660, p < 0.001), the posture and gait (r = 0.551, p < 0.001), speech (r = 0.527, p < 0.001), hand movements (r = 0.553, p < 0.001), and heel-shin slide (r = 0.367, p = 0.036) SARA subscores, and cerebellar volume (r = 0.577, p < 0.001) but was not related to patient age (r = 0.176, p = 0.227) or disease duration (r = 0.236, p = 0.103). GA is a simple, useful method to objectively quantify the degree of cerebellar ataxia, especially upper-limb ataxia, and can be widely adopted in various settings, including clinical trials.

[A case of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 presenting with a clinical course similar to spastic paraparesis].

We report a 50-year-old woman with an unremarkable birth and developmental history, and with no family history of neurological disorders. The patient had a 6-year history of progressive cervical dystonia, oral dyskinesia, and hyperreflexia. She was initially considered to have spastic paraparesis of unknown cause. Because brain MRI showed mild atrophy of the cerebellar vermis, genetic analysis for spinocerebellar ataxia types 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 12, and 17, and dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy was performed. The results revealed an abnormal expansion of CAG repeats (38 repeats) in one allele of ATXN2, and the patient was diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2). She had no major clinical features of SCA2 such as cerebellar ataxia, slow saccade, or hyporeflexia. Recent reports have shown the CAG repeat expansion in ATXN2 to be detected in patients with familial L-dopa-responsive parkinsonism. The present case suggests that CAG repeat expansion in ATXN2 may be detected in some patients with spastic paraparesis, and that wide variations of clinical manifestations exist in SCA2.

Paraneoplastic neurological syndrome in a patient with gastric cancer.

Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNSs) are a heterogeneous group of neurological disorders caused by immune-mediated mechanisms. The incidence of PNS is much less than 1% for solid tumors, except for small-cell lung cancer and thymoma. We report a rare case of gastric cancer that presented with primary clinical findings of PNS. The patient was a 63-year-old woman who was admitted for worsening neuropathy. Laboratory and neurological tests excluded a nutritional deficit, diabetes mellitus, and connective tissue disease as causes of her neuropathy. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen, positron emission tomography (PET)-CT, and endoscopy of the stomach revealed gastric cancer with lymph node swelling. Distal gastrectomy was performed and pathological and immunohistochemical examinations indicated endocrine cell carcinoma. The gastrectomy stopped the exacerbation of her symptoms and recurrence was not observed, but the neurological disorders were irreversible. This case suggests that early diagnosis of the primary tumor is required to improve the outcome in patients with PNS.

Neurological manifestations of Behçet's disease in Japan: a study of 54 patients.

The type and frequency of neurological manifestations of Behçet's disease (BD) vary with ethnicity. We analyzed the neurological manifestations of BD in Japanese patients. All patients undergoing treatment at one of the two Yokohama City University hospitals from July 1991 to December 2007 and who fulfilled the Japanese criteria for BD revised in 1987 were studied retrospectively by chart review. Patients had been neurologically assessed by neurologists. We recorded neurological signs and symptoms, magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography findings, and results of cerebrospinal fluid examinations from the records of each patient. We studied 412 patients with BD, of whom 54 (13%) had neurological involvement (neuro-Behçet's disease: NB). NB patients included a significantly higher proportion of males (61%) than non-NB patients (42%, P = 0.009). The majority of patients (n = 38, 70%) had acute parenchymal NB, 15 (28%) had chronic progressive parenchymal NB, and 1 (2%) had the non-parenchymal type. Headache and fever were more frequently reported by patients with acute parenchymal NB. Personality changes, sphincter disturbances, involuntary movements, and ataxia occurred predominantly in patients with chronic progressive parenchymal NB. Lesions were distributed throughout the CNS, but mainly in the brainstem, white matter, and basal ganglia. Analysis of end-point clinical outcomes revealed a poor prognosis for patients with chronic progressive NB. In Japan, most NB patients have the parenchymal type, and male gender is a predisposing factor. Because of the unfavorable prognosis associated with chronic progressive NB, development of effective therapies are urgently needed.

P1 and P2 components of human visual evoked potentials are modulated by depth perception of 3-dimensional images.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the cerebral activity correlated with depth perception of 3-dimensional (3D) images, by recording of human visual evoked potentials (VEPs). METHODS: Two figures consisting of smaller and larger squares were presented alternately. VEPs were recorded in two conditions. In condition I, we used two figures which yielded flat 2-dimensional images. In condition II, we used two figures which yielded 3D images, which were concave and convex, respectively. RESULTS: P1, P2, and N1/P2 amplitude were significantly greater in condition II than in condition I. The P1/N1 amplitude tended to be greater in condition II than in condition I. P1 and N1 were predominantly distributed over the right temporo-parieto-occipital regions. P2 and N2 were distributed over bilateral parieto-occipital regions. CONCLUSIONS: The difference in P1 amplitude between two conditions can be explained by the difference between conditions, one of which yielded depth perception while the other did not, since previous studies showed that P1 and N1 are modulated by perception of images in depth. The role of P2 and the mechanism responsible for the increase in P2 amplitude during condition II remain unknown. SIGNIFICANCE: We recorded VEPs and identified electrophysiological correlates of depth perception with 3D images produced by concave/convex figures.

[Three cases of cervical epidural hematoma mimicking acute ischemic stroke].

We report 3 cases of spontaneous cervical epidural hematoma with sudden onset of neck pain followed by the development of unilateral limb weakness. All of the patients were initially suspected to have acute ischemic stroke. We considered using intravenous thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) to treat 2 of the 3 patients who had arrived at our hospital within 2 hours of the symptom onset. However, we did not administer rt-PA therapy to these patients because the symptoms were mild. We treated all 3 patients with other antithrombotic drugs until the diagnosis of cervical epidural hematoma was confirmed. Patients with spontaneous cervical epidural hematoma usually present with acute neck pain followed by the development of bilateral limb weakness and urine retention; unilateral limb weakness is rare. Patients with this uncommon presentation must be distinguished from stroke.

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and myasthenia gravis after fludarabine treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

We report a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who developed idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and myasthenia gravis (MG) after fludarabine therapy. ITP developed after 6 cycles of fludarabine treatment, and MG occurred 2 months after the onset of ITP. MG was successfully treated with immunosuppressive therapy and plasma exchange, while rituximab was effective for CLL and ITP. Fludarabine seemed to have an important role in the onset of ITP and MG in this case.