Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0013362 (dysarthria)
 3,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We examined six patients with an abrupt change in behavior after infarction involving the inferior genu of the internal capsule. The acute syndrome featured fluctuating alertness, inattention, memory loss, apathy, abulia, and psychomotor retardation, suggesting frontal lobe dysfunction. Contralateral hemiparesis and dysarthria were generally mild, except when the infarct extended into the posterior limb. Neuropsychological testing in five patients with left-sided infarcts revealed severe verbal memory loss. Additional cognitive deficits consistent with dementia occurred in four patients. A right-sided infarct caused transient impairment in visuospatial memory. Functional brain imaging in three patients showed a focal reduction in hemispheric perfusion most prominent in the ipsilateral inferior and medial frontal cortex. We infer that the capsular genu infarct interrupted the inferior and anterior thalamic peduncles, resulting in functional deactivation of the ipsilateral frontal cortex. These observations suggest that one mechanism for cognitive deterioration from a lacunar infarct is thalamocortical disconnection of white-matter tracts, in some instances leading to "strategic-infarct dementia."
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PMID:Confusion and memory loss from capsular genu infarction: a thalamocortical disconnection syndrome? 841 58

An 85-year-old housewife was admitted owing to the sudden onset of amnestic syndrome on June 27, 1986. There was no history of abulia or somnolence. Though she showed severe amnesia, her understanding was not impaired. There was no aphasia, no dysarthria or other focal sings. The CT showed a low density area in the genu of the left internal capsule. The patient's amnestic syndrome did not improve during the following four years and thus she was readmitted for further examination in July, 1990. Although her WAIS scores were fairly good and intelligence was considered normal, she showed very poor performance on the Wechsler memory scale-R and Benton visual retention test. MRI of the brain showed infarction which extended from the genu to the anterior limb of the left internal capsule. The longstanding amnesia in the present case was induced probably by the infarction of the genu of the left internal capsule, where some fibers of memory pathways, such as the anterior thalamic peduncle, ansa peduncularis, and stria terminalis, may pass.
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PMID:[Persistent amnestic syndrome due to infarction of the genu of the left internal capsule]. 176 47

Thirty-six patients with Parkinson's disease and medically refractory tremor underwent stereotactic ventrolateralis thalamotomy at the Mayo Clinic between 1984 and 1989. All patients had been or were being treated with carbidopa/levodopa but with unsatisfactory tremor control. Modern stereotactic techniques, including microelectrode recording, were used to treat 36 patients, of whom 31 (86%) had complete abolition of tremor and three patients (5%) had significant improvement. Tremor recurred in two patients within 3 months of surgery; however, the remaining patients suffered no recurrence of tremor during follow-up periods ranging from 14 to 68 months (mean 33 months). Persistent complications (arm dyspraxia, dysarthria, dysphasia, or abulia) were noted in five patients but were a source of disability in only two. It is concluded that thalamotomy in carefully selected patients is a beneficial operation for the control of medically refractory parkinsonian resting tremor.
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PMID:Stereotactic ventrolateralis thalamotomy for medically refractory tremor in post-levodopa era Parkinson's disease patients. 156 56

Eighteen patients had caudate nucleus infarcts (10 left-sided; 8 right-sided). Infarcts extended into the anterior limb of the internal capsule in 9 patients, and also the anterior putamen in 5 patients. Thirteen patients had motor signs, most often a slight transient hemiparesis. Dysarthria was common (11 patients). Cognitive and behavioral abnormalities were frequent, and included abulia (10 patients), agitation and hyperactivity (7 patients), contralateral neglect (3 patients, all right caudate), and language abnormalities (2 patients, both left caudate). The majority of patients had risk factors for penetrating artery disease. Branch occlusion of Heubner's artery, or perforators from the proximal anterior or middle cerebral arteries were the posited mechanism of infarction.
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PMID:Caudate infarcts. 240 18

The mechanisms of dementia resulting from small deep infarctions are incompletely understood. The thesis underlying the concept of "multi-infarct dementia" is that multiple lesions have a synergistic effect on mental functions, resulting in dementia irrespective of specific location or volume. In this report, we summarize our experience with six patients reported previously along with additional patients examined subsequently, whose clinical features and brain imaging findings allow an alternative formulation for dementia resulting from lacunar stroke. The six initial patients presented with an abrupt change in behavior after acute infarction involving the inferior genu of the internal capsule documented by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The acute syndrome featured fluctuating alertness, inattention, memory loss, apathy, abulia, and psychomotor retardation suggesting frontal lobe dysfunction. Contralateral hemiparesis and dysarthria were generally mild, except when the infarct extended into the posterior limb. Neuropsychological testing in five patients with left-sided infarcts revealed severe verbal memory loss. Additional cognitive deficits consistent with dementia were evident in four patients. A right-sided infarct caused transient impairment in visuospatial memory. Functional brain imaging in three patients using 133xenon regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) showed focal reduction in hemispheric perfusion most prominent in the ipsilateral inferior and medial frontal cortex. Perfusion was also defective in the medial and laterial temporal cortex. Important pathways of the limbic system traverse the inferior capsule in the region of the genu. Corticothalamic and thalamocortical fibers form the thalamic peduncles which detach from the internal capsule and enter the thalamus at its rostral and caudal poles and along its dorsal surface. The anterior thalamic peduncle, conveys reciprocal connections between the dorsomedial nucleus and the cingulate gyrus, as well as the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex. The inferior thalamic peduncle carries fibers which connect the thalamus with orbitofrontal, insular, and temporal cortex, as well as the amygdala via the ansa peduncularis to the ventral amygdalofugal pathway. Thus, damage to one or both white-matter tracts may occur with infarctions in the region of the inferior genu, causing striking frontal behavioral effects and memory loss in our patients associated with functional deactivation of the ipsilateral frontal and temporal cortex.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Strategic infarcts in vascular dementia. A clinical and brain imaging experience. 776 29

The authors report the underestimated cognitive, mood, and behavioral complications in patients who have undergone bilateral contemporaneous pallidotomy, as seen in their early experience with functional neurosurgery for Parkinson's disease (PD) that is accompanied by severe motor fluctuations before pallidal stimulation. Four patients, not suffering from dementia, with advanced (Hoehn and Yahr Stages III-IV), medically untreatable PD featuring severe "on-off" fluctuations underwent bilateral contemporaneous posteroventral pallidotomy (PVP). All patients were evaluated according to the Core Assessment Program for Intracerebral Transplantations (CAPIT) protocol without positron emission tomography scans but with additional neuropsychological cognitive, mood, and behavior testing. For the first 3 to 6 months postoperatively, all patients showed a mean improvement of motor scores on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), in the best "on" (21%) and worst "off" (40%) UPDRS III motor subscale, a mean 30% improvement in the UPDRS II activities of daily living (ADL) subscore, and 60% on the UPDRS IV complications of treatment subscale. Dyskinesia disappeared almost completely, and the mean daily duration of the off time was reduced by an average of 60%. Despite these good results in the CAPIT scores, one patient experienced a partially regressive corticobulbar syndrome with dysphagia, dysarthria, and increased drooling. No emotional lability was found in this patient, but he did demonstrate severe bilateral postoperative pretarsal blepharospasm (apraxia of eyelid opening), which interfered with walking and which required treatment with high-dose subcutaneous injections of botulinum toxin. No patient showed visual field defects or hemiparesis, but postoperative depression, changes in personality, behavior, and executive functions were seen in two individuals. Postoperative abulia was reported by the family of one patient, who lost his preoperative aggressiveness and drive in terms of ADL, speech, business, family life, and hobbies, and became more sleepy and fatigued. One patient reported postoperative mental automatisms, such as compulsive mental counting, and circular thoughts and reasoning during off phases; postoperative depression was found in two patients. However, none of the patients demonstrated these symptoms during intraoperative microelectrode stimulation. These findings are compatible with previous reports on bilateral pallidal lesions. A progressive lowering of UPDRS subscores was seen after 12 months, consistent with the progression of the disease. Bilateral simultaneous pallidotomy may be followed by emotional, behavioral, and cognitive deficits such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and loss of psychic autoactivation-abulia, as well as disabling corticobulbar dysfunction and apraxia of eyelid opening, in addition to previously described motor and visual field deficits, which make this surgery undesirable even though significant improvement in motor deficits can be achieved.
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PMID:Bilateral contemporaneous posteroventral pallidotomy for the treatment of Parkinson's disease: neuropsychological and neurological side effects. Report of four cases and review of the literature. 1070 52

A 68-year-old right handed man with treated hypertension presented with acute-onset somnolence without hemiparesis, dysarthria or sensory disturbance. Although he became laconic and his verbal responses were only in short terms, his replies were accurate and judgmental. A cranial MRI in axial, coronal, and sagittal section revealed small hemorrhagic infarcts essentially limited to the bilateral capsular genua without involvement of the inferior thalamic peduncles. A 123I-IMP single photon emission CT disclosed remarkable hypoperfusion in the bilateral frontal cortex. After a week of somnolence, he gradually became wakeful, but was still abulic. Neuropsychological examinations revealed no memory disturbance. We consider that disconnection of the thalamo-frontal projection at the genua of the internal capsules caused somnolence, apathy, and abulia in our case. The hitherto reported cases of the genu infarcts that showed memory disturbance had the lesion involving both the inferior thalamic peduncle and its nearby mamillothalamic tract. In contrast, our case without memory disturbance had infarcts confined to the genua apparently sparing the two tracts, implicating that memory function may be preserved when such structures are intact.
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PMID:[A case of abulia without memory disturbance due to infarction of the bilateral genua of the internal capsules]. 1054 18

A 47-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of general convulsion, loss of consciousness and hyperthermia. A diagnosis of acute heat stroke was made clinically and neuroradiologically. As the consciousness level ameliorated, he developed severe abulia and mutism, then cerebellar ataxic syndrome (viz. truncal ataxia, hypermetria, ataxic speech and nystagmus). An MRI (diffusion weighted image; DWI) disclosed abnormal diffuse high signal intensity of the cerebellar cortex with reduced apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). Two months later after the onset, truncal ataxia and dysarthria significantly improved, while dysmetria of the extremities rather worsened. At that time, the abnormal signal intensity of the cerebellar cortex disappeared, and the cerebellum became atrophic. The cerebellar blood flow was significantly decreased on brain SPECT (99mTc-ECD). The abnormal DWI signal intensity of the cerebellar cortex in the present patient may represent the cytotoxic edema of Purkinje cells resulting from heat stroke-related hyperthermia It is essential to repeat MRI examination for cerebellar pathology and to obtain better insight into sequelae in patients with acute heat stroke. Protirelin tartrate seemed to be valid for improvement of abulia in the present patient. Further study is indicated.
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PMID:[An acute severe heat stroke patient showing abnormal diffuse high intensity of the cerebellar cortex in diffusion weighted image: a case report]. 1999 44