Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0040822 (tremor)
 18,428 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Approximately 20-25% of patients with limited small cell lung cancer (SCLC) can be cured with an aggressive approach (chest radiation concomitant with chemotherapy) followed by prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) to a total dose of 30-36Gy with 3-2Gy per fraction, five fractions per week. Steroid prophylactic therapy with dexamethasone is usually prescribed during PCI to minimize acute radiation induced brain oedema. This approach may induce an immunosuppressive condition leading to a reactivation of an endogenous latent Herpes simplex virus and severe or fatal acute encephalitis may occur as our report will show. A 55-year-old man affected by locally advanced SCLC was referred to our institution after four cycles of chemotherapy with a good partial remission. Chest radiation started concomitantly with two cycles of chemotherapy followed by PCI 36Gy total dose and dexamethasone 8mg i.m. daily. Fifteen days after PCI completion the patient developed acute neurological symptoms of confusion, cognitive impairment, fever with shaking requiring severe sedation therapy. Twenty-five days later MRI T1 weighted images showed haemorrhagic streaked lines on cortical convolutions of the right cerebral hemisphere and diffuse oedema suggestive of herpetic encephalitis. The DNA consensus test on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was positive for Herpes simplex virus 1 infection (HSV-1). A diagnosis of herpetic encephalitis HSV-1 was made. Antiviral therapy with high doses of acyclovir was prescribed but symptoms did not ameliorate leading to a comatose state. The patient died 55 days after the end of PCI. In eligible SCLC patients, PCI is an important part of an aggressive therapeutic approach that improves overall and disease free survival decreasing the risk of relapse in the brain. A primary infection or a reactivation of an endogenous latent HSV in brain parenchyma under steroid therapy concomitant to brain irradiation may compromise these benefits.
Lung Cancer 2007 Aug
PMID:A Herpes simplex virus-1 fatal encephalitis following chemo-radiotherapy, steroids and prophylactic cranial irradiation in a small cell lung cancer patient. 1736 25

BACKGROUND Little is known about adult-onset opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) outside of individual case reports. OBJECTIVE To describe adult-onset OMS. DESIGN Review of medical records (January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2011), prospective telephone surveillance, and literature review (January 1, 1967, through December 31, 2011). SETTING Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. PATIENTS Twenty-one Mayo Clinic patients and 116 previously reported patients with adult-onset OMS. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Clinical course and longitudinal outcomes. RESULTS The median age at onset of the 21 OMS patients at the Mayo Clinic was 47 years (range, 27-78 years); 11 were women. Symptoms reported at the first visit included dizziness, 14 patients; balance difficulties, 14; nausea and/or vomiting, 10; vision abnormalities, 6; tremor/tremulousness, 4; and altered speech, 2. Myoclonus distribution was extremities, 15 patients; craniocervical, 8; and trunk, 4. Cancer was detected in 3 patients (breast adenocarcinoma, 2; and small cell lung carcinoma, 1); a parainfectious cause was assumed in the remainder of the patients. Follow-up of 1 month or more was available for 19 patients (median, 43 months; range, 1-187 months). Treatment (median, 6 weeks) consisted of immunotherapy and symptomatic therapy in 16 patients, immunotherapy alone for 2, and clonazepam alone for 1. Of these 19 patients, OMS remitted in 13 and improved in 3; 3 patients died (neurologic decline, 1; cancer, 1; and myocardial infarction, 1). The cause of death was of paraneoplastic origin in 60 of 116 literature review patients, with the most common carcinomas being lung (33 patients) and breast (7); the most common antibody was antineuronal nuclear antibody type 2 (anti-Ri, 15). Other causes were idiopathic in origin, 38 patients; parainfectious, 15 (human immunodeficiency virus, 7); toxic/metabolic, 2; and other autoimmune, 1. Both patients with N -methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibody had encephalopathy. Improvements were attributed to immunotherapy alone in 22 of 28 treated patients. CONCLUSIONS Adult-onset OMS is rare. Paraneoplastic and parainfectious causes (particularly human immunodeficiency virus) should be considered. Complete remission achieved with immunotherapy is the most common outcome.
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PMID:Adult-onset opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. 2369 54