Cerebral blood flow in thalamic aphasia.

A 59-year-old man is reported, who became aphasic after left thalamic infarction, shown by CT. His speech was fluent, with reduced voice volume, impaired auditory and reading comprehension, verbal paraphasias but intact repetition skills. A single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan to measure regional cerebral flow (rCBF) showed a reduction of flow in the parietotemporal areas of the left hemisphere. It is suggested that thalamic aphasia could result from structural subcortical damage with a homolateral functional cortical deficit leading to the specific aphasic disturbance.

[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and dementia: a rare association. Case report]. / Sclerosi laterale amiotrofica e demenza: una rara associazione. Osservazione clinica di un caso.

It has been reported a case of a young man with a rare syndrome: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia. The case is discussed with reference to some pathogenetic ipothesis.

[The alexias]. / Le alessie.

The authors propose a review about Alexias according to the latest theories. Anatomoclinical and linguistic classification of alexia are reported. Some hypotheses about reading processes, according to linguistic classification, are discussed.

[Post-gastrectomy Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome: clinical study of 2 cases]. / Sindrome di Wernicke-Korsakoff post gastrectomia: studio clinico di due casi.

The Authors present two cases of Wernicke-Korsakoff Disease following gastric surgery. This clinical occurrence hasn't been previously described in Literature. The pathogenetical role of nutritional factors deficiency is discussed.

Memory performances after anterior communicating artery aneurysm surgery.

10 patients operated on for anterior communicating artery aneurysm (ACoA) underwent to neuropsychological examination one year after surgery, in order to detect eventual behavioural and/or amnestic disorders, already described by others in a wide percentage of such patients. Even if after accurate neurological examination the therapeutic results were defined as "good", 60% circa of our patients present amnestic and/or behavioural disturbances. Possible correlations between neuropsychological tests finding and intraoperative occurrences (early aneurysm rupture, gyrectomy etc.) are considered and discussed.

[Choreoathetosis. Uncommon manifestation during chronic liver disease with portocaval shunt]. / Coreoatetosi. Una manifestazione non comune in corso di epatopatie croniche con shunt porto-cavale.

"Acquired hepatocerebral degeneration" is a rare syndrome characterized by extrapiramidal symptomathology in patients affected by liver complaint with porta-cava shunt. Extrapiramidal symptomathology become chronical and progressive and its development is partially independent from the basic liver complaint. We report one case of "acquired hepatocerebral degeneration" whose clinical features lead us to advance a pathogenetic hypothesis on the role played by neurotransmitters in this syndrome.

Abnormal B.A.E.P. in a family with Moebius syndrome: evidence for supranuclear lesion.

A family with Moebius syndrome is presented. Neurological lesions in the affected members are various: complete VI and VII cranial nerves palsy associated with mental retardation in the proband; left convergent strabismus and mental retardation in a brother of the proband and only mental retardation in a sister of the proband. The brainstem auditory evoked potentials (B.A.E.P.), investigated in the proband and his affected sister, are abnormal. The presence of the anomaly after the 3rd wave is consistent with a disfunction of the auditory tract at a supranuclear level. The mental deficiency and the supranuclear site of the acoustic lesion are an indication for a more general involvement of C.N.S. than cranial nerve nuclei alone. Karyotype and dermatoglyphics of the three affected subjects were normal. The authors hypothesized the same disorganogenetic factor acting very early (4th-6th week of gestational age) on the metamerization process of limb buds mesoderm and brainstem gray matter.

Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type I and motor neuron disease. An unusual association.

A 34-year-old man experienced progressive muscle weakness and wasting in the shoulder girdle later spreading distally to the upper limbs. Neurological examination revealed signs of pyramidal and bulbar involvement as well as widespread fasciculations. Pes cavus and distal hypoesthesia were also observed. MCV and nerve biopsy findings were consistent with HMSN-I, while EMG pattern suggested a MND. The association of HMSN-I with MND has not been previously described in literature.