Neuropathy Is Skin Deep
McArthur et al (SEE ARTICLE) describe skin punch biopsy to diagnose sensory neuropathy. They point out in this unique and new technique that skin biopsies may be useful to assess the course and distribution of involvement in peripheral nerve disease and response to therapies. This important diagnostic modality is carefully discussed in an editorial by Barohn (SEE ARTICLE) .
-Synuclein and Parkinson Disease
Wang and colleagues (SEE ARTICLE) have examined patients with Parkinson disease (PD) with a family history of PD and with sporadic PD with no known Greek and/or Italian background. None of the DNA samples showed the G209A mutation known to occur in Greek and Italian families. The frequency of this mutation in US patients in other ethnic groups appears to be quite low.
Gamma Knife for Trigeminal Neuralgia
Gamma knife radiosurgery is a new technique to treat trigeminal neuralgia, and early follow-up suggests significant pain relief with a low recurrence rate as shown by Kondziolka and colleagues (SEE ARTICLE) .
Anticoagulation in Pediatric Patients With Sinovenus Thombosis
Very encouraging results are described by deVeber et al (SEE ARTICLE) in this pilot study using anticoagulation therapy in children with sinovenus thrombosis.
Prothrombotic Disorders in Children
Asignificant proportion (38%) of children with cerebral thromboembolism had evidence of prothrombotic conditions as found by deVeber and colleagues (SEE ARTICLE) . There was a predominance of children with anticardiolipin antibody in this group. These data provide new insights into childhood-onset stroke syndromes.
Lewy Body and Alzheimer Disease Cognitive Loss
Shimomura et al (SEE ARTICLE) describe severe visual perceptual impairments and disproportionately mild memory impairment in dementia of the Lewy body type compared with standard Alzheimer disease. This is an interesting and important set of observations.
Is Essential Tremor Symmetric?
Louis and colleagues (SEE ARTICLE) report that mild asymmetry is a fundamental property of essential tremor and that tremor is more severe in the nondominant arm. These observations provide additional insight into the physiology of this disorder.
Cerebellar-Frontal Lobe Cognitive Integration
Children treated for acute leukemia with chemotherapy before 5 years of age developed specific cerebellar and prefrontal cortical atrophy with neuropsychological deficits. Lesnik et al (SEE ARTICLE) suggest that these anatomical functional areas comprise an interrelated and interacting subsystem. An integrated cerebellar-frontal system is suggested for normal visual-spatial attention, short-term memory, and visual-motor coordination, based on these unique observations.
