Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0017638 (glioma)
 30,880 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A case of spontaneous pontine hematoma in young boy, with remitting and relapsing clinical course of up to 11 years, suspected of having pontine glioma or multiple sclerosis is reported. Differential diagnosis of these are mentioned with reference to our cases of pontine glioma. This patient was a man aged 16. At 5 years of age he had his first episode of double vision. 20 days after first episode, gait disturbance, left facial palsy and consciousness disturbance developed. Neurological and neuroradiological examination revealed a pontine glioma and radiotherapy was administered. All signs and symptoms resolved except for bilateral abducens palsy. Four months later, he again complained of gait disturbance and facial palsy. Examination revealed bilateral conjugate ocular palsy, left facial palsy and cerebellar ataxia. These symptoms again resolved spontaneously, except for bilateral abducens palsy. At age 16 years, having been asymptomatic for 10 years, he suddenly noticed loss of taste. At that time sensory disturbance of the left side of himself, right hearing disturbance, dysarthria and retardation urinae. Neurological examination revealed bilateral optic atropy, bilateral abducens palsy, left facial palsy, right hyperacuisis, dysarthria, left hemiparesis, hypesthesia of the left side of the body and left cerebellar ataxia. The vertebral angiography was no evidences of mass lesion and vascular anomalies. The computed tomography demonstrated a pontine hematoma. Conservative therapy was performed and these symptoms cleared off except for bilateral abducens palsy.
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PMID:[A case of spontaneous pontine hematoma in patient suspected of pontine glioma and multiple sclerosis (author's transl)]. 72 72

Increasingly vigorous chemotherapy of cancer including primary and metastatic central nervous system disease has resulted in prolonged good-quality survival. However, there has been an associated increase in neurotoxicity from both radiation therapy and chemotherapy. All classes of chemotherapeutic agents contain drugs that are potentially neurotoxic, often only at high doses. Mechlorethamine, the first nitrogen mustard, is not neurotoxic at conventional dosage, but at high doses, it may produce both an acute and a delayed encephalopathy. Methotrexate administered intrathecally often induces reversible aseptic meningitis, but chronic administration, either intrathecally or high-dose intravenously, may produce fatal leukoencephalopathy. 5-Fluorouracil at high dosage may cause cerebellar ataxia, but may also do so at low dosage when combined with thymidine infusions. Cytosine arabinoside at high dosage may also produce cerebellar ataxia. Vincristine produces a peripheral neuropathy, and less commonly causes both autonomic and cranial neuropathy. The enzyme L-asparaginase can produce a dose-related reversible encephalopathy. BCNU, now the mainstay of glioma chemotherapy, may combine with radiation to produce long-term cerebral atrophy. Both intracarotid and high-dose intravenous BCNU administration may cause encephalopathy. Several other chemotherapeutic agents have also been reported to cause neurotoxicity under certain circumstances.
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PMID:Neurological complications of antineoplastic therapy. 638 4

Pontine gliomas have been considered to be out of indication for operative treatment. However, in case of a cystic type, evacuation of the cyst alone can possibly extend the survival time of the patient. Since the advent of high resolution CT the nature of the pontine tumor, whether cystic or solid, can be easily differentiated, and cystic ones subjected to operation will be increasing in number. We report a case of cystic pontine glioma associated with von Recklinghausen's disease. The patient showed a remarkable improvement in her neurological status after evacuation of the cyst. A 16-year-old girl was admitted to our clinic with complaints of tinnitus and hearing difficulty of the left ear, progressive gait disturbance and double vision. Neurological examination revealed a sensory disturbance on the left side of the face, left abducens palsy, left facial paresis, left deafness, left cerebellar ataxia, right hemiparesis and right hemisensory disturbance excluding the face. Signs and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure were absent. There were many cafe-au-lait spots and several subcutaneous nodules. CT scan demonstrated a cystic lesion with a mural nodule in the left cerebello-pontine angle. The patient underwent left suboccipital craniectomy, and a puncture of the cyst between the trigeminal and facial-acoustic nerves which were displaced dorsally yielded yellowish fluid. The content of the cyst was evacuated and its wall was widely opened. After the operation the patient showed a remarkable improvement in her neurological deficits only with left deafness remained unchanged. Histological examination showed anaplastic astrocytoma. She was discharged after irradiation of 5000 rads.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Cystic pontine glioma associated with von Recklinghausen's disease--report of a case]. 643 42

A case of cryptococcosis simulating brain tumor was reviewed. A 66-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with chief complaint of vertigo, gait disturbance and dysarthria. These symptoms started about one year before admission and worsened. Vomiting and urinary incontinence appeared. Neurological examination revealed left cerebellar ataxia and dysarthria. In plain CT (computerized tomography) irregular ill-defined low density area was noted in the cerebellar vermis and bilateral cerebellar hemispheres. And slight ventricular dilatation was found. Irregular shape of ring-like enhancement corresponding to capsule and patchy or mottled enhancement inside the tumor were seen. Suboccipital craniectomy was performed and yellowish necrotic tumor with hard capsule was removed. Histological diagnosis was not neoplasm or tuberculoma. Postoperatively liver function progressively worsened. She died due to disseminated intravascular coagulation. Autopsy revealed typical liver cirrhosis without malignant change. 3.0 X 2.5 cm sized, slightly hard, yellowish lesion was found on upper part of cerebellar hemispheres. This had extremely necrotic tissue and a great number of cryptococcus neoformans were found. And other intracranial lesion was not confirmed. Finding of pulmonary cryptococcosis was not gained. Our case is very rare because of solitary cerebellar abscess and absence of meningitic episode or pulmonary cryptococcosis. There are three types of inflammation in cerebral cryptococcosis. The commonest manifestation is the meningitic type, the second mode is granulomatous lesion and the third and the least presentation is intracranial abscess formation. CT reveals various findings according to clinical stage. CT findings are those of meningitis, meningoencephalitis, granuloma and abscess. Cryptococcal granuloma or abscess often simulates brain abscess, glioma and metastatic brain tumor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[A case of cerebral cryptococcosis, with special reference to computerized tomography findings]. 646 65

A 7-year and 11 month-old girl with cerebellar astrocytoma linked to familial ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is presented. She was born as the 7th girl of a woman with aortic arch syndrome. Two elder sisters of the patient have ataxia telangiectasia. She had immunodeficiency, and cerebellar ataxia, but had no oculocutaneous telangiectasia. The risk of cancer developing in AT patients is about 1,200 times greater than that in age-matched controls. With regard to central nervous system tumours, seven primary tumours have been reported, such as 3 cases of medulloblastoma and 4 cases of glioma. Members of AT families who were under the age of 45 had a risk of dying of a malignant neoplasm five times greater than in the general population. However, there were no reports of glioma in AT families. In this case, it is suggested that IgA deficiency linked to familial AT may have contributed to the development of astrocytoma.
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PMID:Astrocytoma linked to familial ataxia-telangiectasia. 874 98

It is well established that, like glycine and D-alanine, D-serine potentiates glutamate neurotransmission via the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor by selective stimulation of its strychnine-insensitive glycine site and acts as a co-agonist of the glutamate receptor. D-Serine has been found to modify behavioral changes associated with higher brain functions such as memory, convulsion, anxiety, psychotomimetic-induced abnormal behavior and cerebellar ataxia. Interestingly, a substantial amount of free D-serine has been demonstrated in mammalian brains, although it has long been presumed that D-amino acids are uncommon in mammals. Free D-serine is predominantly concentrated in the brain with a persistent high content throughout life. The patterns of the regional variations and the postnatal changes in brain D-serine are closely correlated with those of the R2B subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type excitatory amino acid receptor. Moreover, D-serine is released to the extracellular space and taken up into the brain homogenates, C6 glioma cells and primary culture of astrocytes of the rat cerebral cortex. Recently, the conversion of L-serine to its D-form by serine racemase has been suggested by in vivo and in vitro experiments. These data are consistent with the view that D-serine might be an intrinsic positive modulator of the brain NMDA receptor containing the R2B subunit and play a pivotal role in controlling behavioral expression in mammals.
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PMID:[Endogenous D-serine in mammalian brains]. 1089 22

We report on two children with bilateral thalamic astrocytomas. The first patient developed psychomotor regression at the age of 20 months followed by rapidly progressive ataxia, intention tremor, slurred speech, and bouts of drowsiness. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed swelling and high signal intensity in both thalami accompanied by supratentorial hydrocephalus. The second patient presented with progressive cerebellar ataxia, headache, and vomiting at the age of 11 years. MRI of the brain revealed symmetrical, hyperintense and sharply delineated swelling of both thalami. Additional lesions were seen in the cerebellum and the right temporal lobe. In both cases proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the lesions showed a striking decrease of the neuronal marker N-acetylaspartate, an increase of choline-containing compounds, and a minimal lactate peak. Stereotactic biopsies from the thalamus of the first patient and from a cerebellar lesion of the second patient finally revealed glial tumors, namely a diffuse astrocytoma of World Health Organization (WHO) grade II in the first patient and an anaplastic astrocytoma of WHO grade III in the second patient. We conclude that the clinical manifestations and MRI patterns of bilateral thalamic astrocytomas are very similar to those of encephalitis and neurometabolic disorders and should therefore be included in the differential diagnosis of these encephalopathies.
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PMID:Diagnostic difficulties in childhood bilateral thalamic astrocytomas. 1257 91

5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-induced fluorescence-guided resection is a widely used procedure for patients with malignant gliomas. However, the clinical application of 5-ALA for surgery in primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is uncommon. Here, we present a case of PCNSL treated using 5-ALA-induced fluorescence-guided resective surgery. A 70-year-old woman presented with cerebellar ataxia, and magnetic resonance imaging revealed an irregularly shaped and homogenously enhanced mass with surrounding brain edema in the vermis that extended to the right hemisphere of the cerebellum. Under the preoperative diagnosis of a malignant glioma in the cerebellum, the patient underwent 5-ALA-induced fluorescence-guided surgery. Under blue light illumination, the tumor revealed strong 5-ALA-induced fluorescence. The tumor was identified as a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. After partial resection, the patient received adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Importantly, the neurological deficit of the patient improved, and recurrence of the tumor was not observed 21 months post-surgery. Together with previous reports, this case study emphasizes the efficacy of the surgical application of 5-ALA for PCNSL.
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PMID:5-Aminolevulinic Acid-Induced Fluorescence in Cerebellar Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma: A Case Report and Literature Review. 2644 50