Facial nerve paralysis and partial brachial plexopathy after epidural blood patch: a case report and review of the literature

We report a complication related to epidural analgesia for delivery in a 24- year-old woman who was admitted with mild pre-eclampsia and for induction of labor. At the first postpartum day she developed a postdural puncture headache, which was unresponsive to conservative measures. On the fifth day an epidural blood patch was done, and her headache subsided. Sixteen hours later she developed paralysis of the right facial nerve, which was treated with prednisone. Seven days later she complained of pain in the left arm and the posterior region of the shoulder. She was later admitted and diagnosed with partial brachial plexopathy

Amoxicillin-induced aseptic meningoencephalitis

Meningitis is usually produced by an infectious agent, but there are multiple noninfectious causes. Drug-induced aseptic meningitis (DIAM) is an important entity and has been reported as an uncommon adverse reaction with numerous agents. Thus, DIAM constitutes a diagnostic and patient management challenge. We present a patient with three episodes of aseptic meningitis due to amoxicillin, and then review the literature on this rare idiosyncratic event which may occur after local or systemic drug administration. A 77-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Seven days before admission he had a dental and gingival inflammation. He was treated with two oral doses of 500 mg daily of amoxicillin for one week. The seventh day he awoke with the complaints that prompted hospital admittance. Amoxicillin was stopped 1 day before his admission. From his history we knew of two similar episodes: The first episode was after a dental procedure 3 months before this incident. He had received a 1-week course of postprocedure amoxicillin of 500 mg daily and had similar headache, fever, and chills during the entire course of treatment. He wasn’t admitted to the hospital, because he stopped taking amoxicillin and he felt spontaneous pain relief after taking symptomatic pain treatment. The second episodes was 6 months after his first admission, he had been admitted to our hospital with the same symptoms. Amoxicillin was stopped and changed with intravenous (IV) ceftriaxone (CTRX) for 10 days due to suspected partial untreated meningitis. The patient improved rapidly within 2 days and was discharged from the hospital. On the basis of these three confirmed episodes of meningitis after recurrent exposure to amoxicillin, with repetitive negative testing for viral, bacterial, and mycobacterial micro-organisms, we diagnosed aseptic meningitis induced by amoxicillin. To our knowledge, this is the seventh well documented publication of such a severe side effect of a commonly used antibiotic

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy in an Israeli family

Cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the most common monogenic form of hereditary cerebral microangiopathy, and is caused by over 170 different mutations in the NOTCH3 gene at locus 19p13.1–13.26. We report the first study of familial CADASIL in a 39-year-old Jewish woman and her mother who had died previously. The patient’s investigations revealed a normal hemogram with no vascular risk factors or chronic disease. Lumbar puncture was normal. Cranial computed tomography scan revealed bilateral diffuse hypodensities in the subcortical white matter. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed hyperintense lesions in the cerebral white matter on T2-weighted images. On electron microscopy, a characteristic granular osmiophilic material was seen in the basement membrane surrounding the pericytes and smooth muscle cells in small-sized and medium-sized vessels. Molecular analysis of the NOTCH3 gene was performed with automatic sequencing of exon 3 and 4 (and intron-exon boundaries) showing a nucleotide c.268C > T substitution, leading to a pathogenic amino acid substitution of p.Arg90Cys, confirming a diagnosis of CADASIL. This mutation was also found in the patient’s mother. Although the exact prevalence of CADASIL is not known, this disorder has been reported worldwide, and now including Jews, with a genotype and clinical phenotype similar to that in other ethnic groups

OCT as a monitoring tool for assessment of the stage and severity of multiple sclerosis

AIM: To identify a link between optical coherence tomography(OCT), length of multiple sclerosis(MS)and the expanded disability status scale(EDSS).METHODS: In a prospective double blind study, 29 patients with a diagnosis of MS were compared with 29 healthy patients, matched by age and sex. All participants underwent an OCT study and neurological EDSS test on the same day.RESULTS: The mean EDSS score was 3.2 in the MS group vs 0.03 in the control group, and the duration of MS was 11.7y. The mean retinal nerve fiber layer(RNFL)thickness was significantly thinner in those with MS (PCONCLUSION: RNFL is thinner in MS patients than in the general population. MS duration has a direct statistically significant effect on RNFL thickness. There seems to be a tendency of a relationship between RNFL thinning and EDSS. OCT is suggested as a monitoring and evaluation tool of MS patients

Neuro-Behçet’s disease: A report of sixteen patients

Radi Shahien, Abdalla BowirratDepartment of Neurology, Ziv Medical Center, Safed, IsraelBackground: Neurologic involvement in Behçet’s disease (BD), also known as neuro-Behcet’s disease (NBD), is one of the most devastating manifestations of the disease. The etiology of BD remains obscure and speculative. NBD usually occurs 1–10 years after the first symptom of BD has occurred, and its incidence is 18% (range of 4%–49%).Objective: This study was conducted to describe the clinical and prognostic aspects of neurologic involvement in BD among patients attending a multidisciplinary hospital clinic.Methods: Eighty patients with BD were diagnosed according to the International Study Group Criteria for BD at our hospital. Sixteen patients (20%, including 11 men and five women) had evidence of and fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for NBD. These patients underwent laboratory and imaging investigations, including human leukocyte antigen-typing, lumbar puncture, electroencephalographic studies, and computed tomography scanning.Results: Fourteen of the 16 patients received high-dose steroids, and four of these 14 patients were treated with a combination of steroids and cytotoxic agents. Relief was observed in 14 of 16 patients (87.5%). The remaining two patients were untreated males who suffered severe brainstem lesions, and later died.Conclusion: In contrast with previous reports of a poor prognosis with NBD, our study shows that early aggressive intervention with corticosteroids and cytotoxic agents may ameliorate the prognosis in these patients, and can diminish and stabilize the negative effect of neurologic involvement.Keywords: neuro-Behçet’s disease, neurologic involvement, aphthous ulceration, genital ulceration, iridocycliti