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Biomedical subjects

W B Barr

Publications and source records attributed to W B Barr.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Postictal and chronic psychoses in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to elucidate the relation of clinical, neuropsychological, and seizure variables to chronic and postictal psychoses in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. METHOD: Forty-four patients with treatment-refractory temporal lobe epilepsy were given formal psychiatric evaluations; 29 patients had no psychiatric disorder or a nonpsychotic disorder, eight patients had postictal psychoses, and seven patients had chronic psychoses. Comparisons of clinical, neuropsychological, magnetic resonance imaging, and seizure variables were made between the nonpsychotic and the psychotic patients and, secondarily, between the patients with transient postictal psychoses and those with chronic psychoses. RESULTS: Bitemporal seizure foci, clustering of seizures, and absence of febrile convulsions were associated with both postictal psychoses and chronic psychoses. Younger age at onset of epilepsy and lower verbal and full-scale IQs differentiated the patients with chronic psychoses from those with postictal psychoses. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy with chronic and postictal psychoses show similar profiles of clinical and seizure variables, suggesting shared etiologic factors. These factors may increase the propensity to develop psychotic symptoms, while other factors, such as time of onset of epilepsy and underlying neuropathology, may determine whether transient or chronic psychotic symptoms develop. Even among patients with treatment-refractory temporal lobe epilepsy, a specific subgroup of patients, characterized by bitemporal seizure foci, an absence of febrile convulsions, and a history of clustering of seizures, appears to be particularly prone to develop psychotic disorders. A process similar to secondary epileptogenesis may be involved in the development of the psychoses.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Cerebral metabolic topography in unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) studies of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) generally report interictal hypometabolism in the vicinity of the seizure focus. Yet, other evidence suggests that interictal metabolic abnormalities might extend to remote brain areas. We used FDG-PET to evaluate metabolism in selected regions distant from the focus in TLE. SUBJECTS: Twenty adult patients with medically intractable TLE were selected by criteria favoring a unilateral mesiobasal temporal focus. Structural imaging in this sample were normal except for medial temporal sclerosis in 13 patients. Twenty normal volunteers were controls. DESIGN: PET imaging was performed interictally. Regional glucose metabolism normalized by global metabolism was analyzed using t tests and correlation analysis. RESULTS: Ipsilateral to the seizure focus, metabolism was depressed compared with normal in the temporal pole (p = 0.001), but relatively elevated in the mesiobasal region (p = 0.005). Contralateral to the focus, metabolism was elevated in lateral temporal cortex (p = 0.0003) and mesiobasal regions (p = 0.0001). Metabolic correlation between ipsilateral and contralateral mesiobasal regions was similar in normal subjects (r = 0.74) and patients (r = 0.68). In contrast, correlations were abnormal between temporal poles and other temporal lobe subregions, both ipsilateral and contralateral to the seizure focus. CONCLUSIONS: Relative to normal values, both elevations and depressions of metabolism exist interictally in TLE. Such abnormalities, and accompanying changes in interregional correlations, may have wide spatial distribution. These findings are atypical among PET studies but are consistent with other physiologic, anatomic, and neuropsychological investigations of TLE.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Cerebellar atrophy in patients with long-term phenytoin exposure and epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Cerebellar atrophy has been noted in patients with phenytoin exposure. This finding has been attributed by some investigators to seizures, but by others to phenytoin. Previous studies included patients with mental retardation and convulsive seizures. We undertook a study in a group of nonretarded patients with partial epilepsy to better elucidate the cause of the cerebellar atrophy. DESIGN: Case control study. SETTING: Referral population from an epilepsy center. PATIENTS: Thirty-six patients with partial epilepsy and long-term phenytoin exposure were selected from a consecutive sample of admissions to an epilepsy center. Patients with histories of ethanol abuse, perinatal distress, anoxia, status epilepticus, or neurodegenerative disorders were excluded. Age- and sex-matched controls were selected from a pool of healthy volunteers and patients who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging for complaints of headache and dizziness. INTERVENTIONS: All patients and controls underwent magnetic resonance imaging. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Degree of cerebellar atrophy. RESULTS: The magnetic resonance imaging scans were reviewed in a blind fashion. A rating was assigned to each scan based on the degree of cerebellar atrophy. Cerebellar atrophy was significantly more pronounced in patients than in controls. No correlation was found between cerebellar atrophy and variables reflective of seizure severity or degree of phenytoin exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Cerebellar atrophy may be seen in phenytoin-exposed patients with epilepsy in the absence of generalized tonic-clonic seizures or preexistent brain damage. Whether it is the phenytoin or the seizures that play the primary etiologic role remains unanswered. These factors may be synergistic.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Retrograde amnesia following unilateral temporal lobectomy.

Remote memory performance was assessed in a carefully matched sample of temporal lobectomy subjects and normal controls. Left temporal lobectomy subjects exhibited a consistent pattern of remote memory disturbance. Right temporal lobectomy subjects performed at the same level as normal controls. The pattern of impairment observed in left temporal lobectomy subjects was characterized by deficits in recall of chronological information from the past decade and extended to deficits in recall in some aspects of factual knowledge. The disorder could not be attributed solely to language deficits and was at least as severe as accompanying deficits in recent memory. These findings suggest that the left medial temporal region may play a significant role in recall of remote information in addition to its role in recent memory functions.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Anomalous dominance and persistent tardive dyskinesia.

We examined handedness and cerebral hemispheric asymmetries on computed tomography (CT) scan in a sample of schizophrenic patients who were rated also for the presence or absence of persistent tardive dyskinesia (TD). Patients with TD showed a more standard dominance pattern, with dextral hand preference and normal occipital asymmetry. Anomalous dominance was associated with a marked underrepresentation of TD. Stepwise discriminant analyses indicated that the statistical prediction of TD was enhanced by the inclusion of dominance measures. Schizophrenic patients with strong standard dominance patterns may be more susceptible to developing TD, or conversely, anomalous dominance may confer protection against TD.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Regional distribution of cerebral arteriovenous malformations. Interactions with sex and handedness.

On the basis of clinical observation and a developmental theory of cerebral laterality, Geschwind and Galaburda suggested that cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are more common in the left hemispheres of male patients. We tested this hypothesis by examining interactions among sex, handedness, and location of lateralized, supratentorial AVMs. Data from 112 cases were analyzed by log-linear procedures. We found that (1) females had a greater proportion of left-hemisphere AVMs, whereas males showed an opposite trend; (2) there were no interactions between sex and handedness; and (3) nondextrals showed a higher proportion of AVMs located in frontal regions, regardless of the hemispheric side of the lesion. Although these findings appear to be inconsistent with the Geschwind-Galaburda hypothesis, the inconsistency may be attributable to the embryonic stage at which this developmental abnormality occurs. In addition, the unexpected findings may also reflect our use of multivariate statistical procedures, which control for interaction effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

The neuropsychology of schizophrenic speech.

Recent interest in the biological basis of schizophrenia has led to a reexamination of many symptomatic aspects of the disorder in terms of brain-behavioral models. Schizophrenic speech disturbances have traditionally been described in terms of a model of acquired aphasia. We review some of the limitations of this model and provide an alternative model for the study of some characteristics of schizophrenic speech based on neuropsychological theories of frontal lobe dysfunction in schizophrenia. The emphasis is placed on the study of productive errors noted in schizophrenic speech, most notably verbal perseverations. In a study of errors observed during a sample of 15 schizophrenics performance on a confrontation naming test, we were able to reliably identify and classify hierarchic categories of verbal perseverations occurring at both semantic and phonemic levels. These perseverations constituted 20% of the total errors. We argue that these perseverations represent a special case of executive dysfunction resulting from a disturbance of language monitoring mechanisms. We examine the implications of these findings for a hypothesis of schizophrenic speech disturbances in terms of frontal lobe dysfunction and the developmental neuropathological processes involved in the illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Neuropsychological function in physically asymptomatic, HIV-seropositive men.

Twenty asymptomatic, HIV-seropositive homosexual men and a control group of 20 seronegative homosexual men were evaluated for evidence of neuropsychological impairment. Two-tailed paired t-tests of group differences revealed that the seropositive patients had significantly lower scores on two of 20 neuropsychological measures. Ten seropositive patients had scores two standard deviations below the sample, compared with three seronegative patients, a significantly different distribution (p = .04). The HIV-infected group exhibited lower mean scores on 17 of 20 variables (binomial probability, p less than .005). The 10 seropositive patients with scores that fell below the cut-off had significantly lower mean T4/T8 ratios than the 10 seropositive patients with scores above the cut-off (p = .02). The data suggest that a subpopulation of HIV-infected adults may exhibit subtle neuropsychological impairment before they develop clinical signs of cognitive deficit or immunosuppression.

AIDS Dementia Complex↗
PubMed1986

Epileptic aphasia.

We document a case of isolated epileptic aphasia with clear correlation between episodic clinical and electrographic events. This disorder is rarely recognized, perhaps because it is obscured by ictal motor activity or speech arrest, or by the lack of clinical manifestations if the seizure occurs when the patient is not attempting to speak.

Aphasia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Game-playing epilepsy.

A 25-year-old woman with documented generalized seizures evoked by playing checkers was given a battery of psychological tests as well as a series of cognitive and non-game-related tasks during a session of intensive EEG-video monitoring. Generalized epileptiform discharges during each task, as well as during intervals of checkers playing, were quantified to determine possible triggering factors. Previous reports have discussed the roles of attention, concentration, stress, thinking, and spatial processing in similar cases. Our analysis showed significant activation of the EEG only with tasks involving strategic thinking, i.e., considering a sequence of moves based on evaluating the consequences of previous moves.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Three-dimensional fast low-angle shot imaging and computerized volume measurement of the hippocampus in patients with chronic epilepsy of the temporal lobe.

This study investigated the use of three-dimensional fast low-angle shot (FLASH) imaging and computer-assisted morphometry for identifying hippocampal changes associated with unilateral temporal lobe seizures. Contiguous 3.1-mm coronal FLASH images were obtained in 28 patients with electroencephalographically verified left (n = 17) or right (n = 11) temporal lobe seizures and 28 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Hippocampal volumes were calculated with the use of a computerized mensuration system developed for detailed morphometric assessment. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant group difference by hemisphere interaction (F = 26.3, p less than .001). Significant reductions in left hippocampal volume (32%, p less than .001) were exhibited in patients with left temporal lobe seizures, and significant reductions in right hippocampal volume (35%, p less than .001) were seen in patients with right temporal lobe seizures. A discriminant analysis with the use of left and right hippocampal volumes classified patients with left temporal lobe seizures with 94% sensitivity and 73% specificity and patients with right temporal lobe seizures with 89% sensitivity and 94% specificity. The results of this study demonstrate that unilateral temporal lobe seizures are accompanied by significant reductions in hippocampal volume ipsilateral to the seizure focus. The use of FLASH imaging and computer-assisted morphometry of the hippocampus appears to provide valuable structural information for confirming the laterality of the electroencephalographic seizure focus.

Adolescent↗