Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018681 (headache)
 56,091 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Five patients developed mycotic spinal arachnoiditis-meningitis causing signs and symptoms of spinal cord neoplasm. Four had cryptococcal infection, the fifth had aspergillosis. In three patients, diagnosis was made at surgery; all three developed acute fungal meningitis postoperatively and two died. The diagnosis was made nonsurgically in two patients and was followed by medical cure. These five and twelve other reported patients with mycotic spinal arachnoiditis shared features that suggested the diagnosis. In contrast to most patients with spinal tumors, those reported here tended to be young (mean age, 32 years), to lack evidence for a primary tumor, and to have a fluctuating history of spinal symptoms for several months. Frequent associated findings were recent pregnancy; the abuse of alcohol, narcotics, or both; and the presence of headache and fever. Plain roentgenograms of the spine were normal. No single finding was diagnostic, but the combination of several would be rare with spinal tumor.
 ...
PMID:Chronic mycotic meningitis with spinal involvement (arachnoiditis): a report of five cases. 710 28

A 19-year-old girl had headaches, blurred vision and vomiting for 2 weeks. Neurological examination revealed only bilateral papilloedema and left abducens palsy. Neuroimaging of the brain was normal. Cerebrospinal fluid study showed intracranial hypertension (IH), hypoglycorrhachia, hyperproteinorrhachia, and a negative cytology study. Eight months after the onset, paraparesis occurred. Spinal magnetic resonance imaging showed intramedullary masses at the cervical and thoracic cords with extensive seeding. Biopsy of the mass showed primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET). IH rarely occurs in patients with spinal cord neoplasms. Its incidence is low and the condition is always associated with signs of myelopathy. We report a patient whose initial manifestation of spinal PNET was IH only. Spinal tumor should be considered in IH patients whose intracranial examinations are negative.
 ...
PMID:Intracranial hypertension as an initial manifestation of spinal neuroectodermal tumor. 1602 36