[Bickerstaff's encephalitis]. / Éntsefalit Bikerstaffa.

A clinical case of Bickerstaff encephalitis, an autoimmune neuropathy, which affects central and peripheral nerve systems, is presented. This article describes problems of the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Results of MRI, PET, electrophysiological and immunological studies are presented.

[Surgical resection in combination with stereotaxic cryodestruction in patients with supratentorial gliomas in functionally significant areas of the brain: possibilities of using combined surgical treatment and its results].

A combined method of surgical treatment of glial tumors of the brain is proposed for decreasing risk of complications. The method includes microsurgical ablation of the main volume of the neoplasm and stereotaxic cryodestruction of the residual part of the tumor. Combined surgical treatment was used in 12 patients. The results obtained show that the proposed method elevates the efficacy of surgical method, facilitates increased indices of survival rate and maintenance of quality of life of the patients at the tolerant level.

[Technique of stereotactic cryodestruction in management of patients with cerebral gliomas].

Aim of the study was to evaluate the safety and efficiency of stereotactic cryodestruction of supratentorial astrocytomas that were located deeply in the brain and/or within eloquent areas.We examined 74 patients aged 18-64 years with supratentorial gliomas of different grade located in deep or eloquent brain areas. All the patients underwent stereotactically guided cryodestruction of the tumor. The survival rate was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The chi-square method was used for comparative analysis of results of this study with available data from the literature. For the analysis of the prognostic importance of various factors the Cox proportional hazards model was applied. The average survival period was 12.4 months for glioblastoma (control group--6.4 months, p=0.04), and 46.9 months for anaplastic astrocytoma (control group--18 months, p=0.006). For patients with fibrillar-protoplastic astrocytoma the 5-year survival rate was 95.7%. The frequencies of complications did not exceed those of the routine surgical interventions in patients with brain tumors. We found that stereotactic cryodestruction as well the Karnofsky performance score were statistically reliable prognostic factors (p=0.0377 and p=0.0006, respectively), while the extent of cryodestruction and the residual tumor mass did not influence the survival rate. Stereotactic cryodestruction is a safe surgical procedure, which results in statistically significant improvement of survival in patients with supratentorial gliomas located within deep and/or eloquent areas of brain.

[The structural and functional neurovisualization in patients with epileptic seizures in cerebro-vascular diseases].

The results of the dynamic study of patients with epileptic seizures in chronic and acute cerebral vascular pathology are presented. Various methods of structural and functional neurovisualization--magnetic resonance tomography using perfusion- and diffusion-weighted imaging, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography were used. Based on the results obtained in the study, the authors discuss etiopathogenetic variants of the development of these seizures and new possible approaches to the complex treatment besides the administration of antiepileptic medications.