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Biomedical subjects

D Mancia

Publications and source records attributed to D Mancia.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

[The problem of spinal myoclonus (author's transl)].

A case of the so called "spinal myoclonus" in a 71 year-old-man affected by lung carcinoma is reported. Clinical manifestations and comparison with similar previously described in literature induce to believe in the existence of a myoclonic syndrome, whose pattern seems to give support to the attribute of "spinal", at least as conventional term. An involvement of intercalated neurons is advanced as pathogenic ground. Anyhow, possible suprasegmental implications are also considered.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The not choreic neurological complications of rheumatic disease (author's transl)].

The authors discuss the importance of neurological complications of rheumatic disease, which differ from those of Sydenham's chorea: encephalitis; acute cerebral circulatory insufficiency of cardiovascular basis; thrombosis and cerebral haemorrhage; cerebral emboli; and vasculitis. The case of a 13 year old boy who presented with an acute cerebral episode during an active phase of rheumatic fever is described. The E.E.G. showed a right hemisphere disturbance with a slight involvement of the controlateral hemisphere. The cardiac evidence was indicative of a rheumatic carditis. The clinical progress and EEG were rapidly favourable. The possible pathogenetic hypotheses of this case are taken into consideration, and the authors suggest that one must suspect a rheumatic etiology when an acute cerebral syndrome is established in a child or a young adult with current or previous rheumatic fever.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Partial seizures and migraine.

Epilepsy and migraine, despite some common features, have quite different pathophysiological mechanisms. Studies carried out on large population samples have shown that the relationships between migraine and epilepsy may be of the following type: associated attacks, with migraine and seizures occurring quite independently of one another; combined attacks, with the two types of attacks succeeding one another in time; basilar artery migraine with seizures and marked EEG abnormalities; benign epilepsies with occipital discharges, migraine and intercalated seizures. We report four cases of particular interest.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Flunarizine as add-on therapy in epilepsy. Crossover study vs placebo.

The anticonvulsive effect of flunarizine was studied in a multicenter trial, by means of a randomized, double-blind, single crossover design. The subjects who entered the study were 51 males and 39 females, aged 15 to 73 years. They were epileptic patients who suffered from at least two generalized seizures per month or more than 4 partial seizures per month. The patients were already being treated with major antiepileptic drugs. Flunarizine was administered in a single evening dose of 10 mg/die in patients who weighed less than 70 kg and of 15 mg/die in patients who weighed more 70 kg. Our results show that flunarizine, given as add-on therapy, produced a slight but significant decrease in the number of monthly seizures at the end of a 3-month period, while placebo did not significantly change the seizures frequency.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Evaluation of the EEG aspects of rheumatic chorea as related to the clinico-evolutive parameters of the disease].

E.E.G. features as presented by 20 patients of rheumatic chorea (15 females and 6 males, from 11 and up to 16 year old) are examined. Pathological patterns concerned 17 patients (85%); in three cases (15%) no characteristic E.E.G. enregistrations were found. Three types of pathological E.E.G. patterns are reckoned: A type (7 patients, i.e. 35%): increased amount of Posterior Slow Waves. B type (5 patients, i.e. 25%): conspicuous alterations of the alpha rhythm, and appearance of bursts of diffused, monomorphous, slow activities. C type (5 patients, i.e. 25%): inconstant outcoming by bursts, of 2--4 cycles sec. waves on posterior regions. No correlation can be established, on the ground both of E.E.G. features and clinical findings, neither between altered E.E.G. patterns and choreic movements severity, nor between localization of the former abnormalities over the scalp, and distribution of the latter. Yet, E.E.G. alterations, when present, are not to be ruled out, as they can be the demonstration of organical impairment and can give evidence about the course and recovering. To distinguish, in rheumatic chorea between clearly pathological, by the one hand, and "functional" by the other, E.E.G. features, is assumed as difficult, as subjects are in a range of ages in which cerebral biorhythms have not reached ultimate definition.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Epilepsy in the third age: seizures presenting after the age of 60 years (author's transl)].

In a group of 400 epileptic inpatients of the Neurological Clinic of Parma, 82 were over 60 years of age. Only 59 of them presented fits for the first time after the 60th year of age and in 78% of these, a definite anatomical damage could be demonstrated (neuroradiological investigations). One half of the epileptic syndromes with known etiology were thought to be related to cerebrovascular disease, but only few cases followed a stroke with persistent neurological symptoms. Intracranial space-occupying lesions were found to be the cause of epilepsy in 17% of cases. Partial epileptic seizures, secondarily generalized seizures, clinical signs of neurological damage, slow focal changes in the E.E.G. were the main features of this group of patients. In 22% of cases, miscellaneous causes were found: head injuries, exogenous intoxications due to accidental or iatrogenic ingestion, or alcoholic abuse. Relatively frequent were the seizures appearing in the course of degenerative or slow viruses induced encephalopathies. In 22% no demonstrable cause was found. Adequate follow-up may help us to discover etiological factors which at present are not obvious, but some form of idiopathic epilepsy with onset in this age range cannot be definitively ruled out. Only in 15% of cases interictal E.E.G. changes consisted in specific generalized or focal paroxysmal discharges (spikes, polyspikes, polyspike-and-wave). In about half of the cases the interictal E.E.G. failed to provide valuable informations, but an ictal E.E.G. could be obtained in 13 cases out of 59.

Adolescent↗