Palatal tremor has been subdivided into essential (EPT) and symptomatic palatal tremor (SPT). A subgroup of the SPT form has a syndrome of progressive ataxia and palatal tremor (PAPT). Published details of cases of PAPT are sparse and the disorder appears heterogeneous. We present clinical and MRI features of six patients with sporadic PAPT who attended The University Health Network between 1991 and 2002. Eye movements were recorded using a magnetic search coil technique. We review previously reported cases of PAPT from the English language literature and relate this disorder to EPT and SPT. PAPT may be divided into sporadic and familial forms. We identified 22 other prior reported cases of sporadic PAPT. Sporadic PAPT is a subtype of SPT in which progressive cerebellar degeneration is the most symptomatic feature. A combination of vertical nystagmus and palatal tremor was found in one of our cases. Internuclear ophthalmoplegia, a new finding, was present in two of our patients and indicated additional brainstem dysfunction. Inferior olivary high signal abnormalities were present on MRI in all of our cases. The cause of sporadic PAPT remains uncertain. In some previous reports of sporadic PAPT, the combination of brainstem or pontine atrophy, parkinsonism, autonomic dysfunction or corticospinal tract abnormalities suggests a diagnosis of multiple system atrophy, although pathological verification is lacking. Familial PAPT is associated with marked brainstem and cervical cord atrophy with corticospinal tract findings, but the typical olivary MRI abnormalities have not been reported. A substitution in the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene has been described in a family with PAPT, raising the possibility of Alexander's disease. One other familial syndrome of PAPT, termed 'dark dentate disease', has also been reported. PAPT is a subgroup of SPT in which ataxia progresses and is not usually the result of a monophasic illness. Eye movement abnormalities suggest a disorder of both the cerebellum and brainstem. Familial PAPT differs from sporadic PAPT in having marked atrophy of cervical cord and brainstem with corticospinal signs but without hypertrophic olivary appearance on MRI.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused much morbidity and mortality to patients but also health care providers. AimsWe tabulated the cases of physician deaths from COVID-19 associated with front-line work in hopes of mitigating future events. MethodsOn 15 April 2020, a Google internet search was performed using the keywords 'doctor', 'physician', 'death', 'COVID' and 'coronavirus' in English and Farsi, and Chinese using the Baidu search engine. The age, sex and medical speciality of physicians who died from COVID-19 in the line of duty were recorded. Individuals greater than 90 years of age were excluded. ResultsWe found 278 physicians who died with COVID-19 infection, but complete details were missing for 108 individuals. The average age of the physicians was 63.7 years with a median age of 66 years, and 90% were male (235/261). General practitioners and emergency room doctors (108/254), respirologists (5/254), internal medicine specialists (13/254) and anaesthesiologists (6/254) comprised 52% of those dying. Two per cent of the deceased were epidemiologists (5/254), 2% were infectious disease specialists (4/254), 6% were dentists (16/254), 4% were ENT (9/254) and 3% were ophthalmologists (8/254). The countries with the most reported physician deaths were Italy (121/278; 44%), Iran (43/278; 15%), Philippines (21/278; 8%), Indonesia (17/278; 6%), China (16/278; 6%), Spain (12/278; 4%), USA (12/278; 4%) and UK (11/278;4%).Conclusions Physicians from all specialities may die from COVID. Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a common cause of death. Consideration should be made to exclude older physicians from front-line work.

Physicians and patients should be aware of the potential of bimatoprost 0.03% to produce periorbital changes.

PurposeTo develop and validate a diagnostic prediction model for patients with suspected giant cell arteritis (GCA).MethodsA retrospective review of records of consecutive adult patients undergoing temporal artery biopsy (TABx) for suspected GCA was conducted at seven university centers. The pathologic diagnosis was considered the final diagnosis. The predictor variables were age, gender, new onset headache, clinical temporal artery abnormality, jaw claudication, ischemic vision loss (VL), diplopia, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and platelet level. Multiple imputation was performed for missing data. Logistic regression was used to compare our models with the non-histologic American College of Rheumatology (ACR) GCA classification criteria. Internal validation was performed with 10-fold cross validation and bootstrap techniques. External validation was performed by geographic site.ResultsThere were 530 complete TABx records: 397 were negative and 133 positive for GCA. Age, jaw claudication, VL, platelets, and log CRP were statistically significant predictors of positive TABx, whereas ESR, gender, headache, and temporal artery abnormality were not. The parsimonious model had a cross-validated bootstrap area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.810 (95% CI =0.766–0.854), geographic external validation AUROC’s in the range of 0.75–0.85, calibration pH–L of 0.812, sensitivity of 43.6%, and specificity of 95.2%, which outperformed the ACR criteria.ConclusionOur prediction rule with calculator and nomogram aids in the triage of patients with suspected GCA and may decrease the need for TABx in select low-score at-risk subjects. However, misclassification remains a concern.

Purpose To develop and validate neural network (NN) vs logistic regression (LR) diagnostic prediction models in patients with suspected giant cell arteritis (GCA). Design: Multicenter retrospective chart review. Methods An audit of consecutive patients undergoing temporal artery biopsy (TABx) for suspected GCA was conducted at 14 international medical centers. The outcome variable was biopsy-proven GCA. The predictor variables were age, gender, headache, clinical temporal artery abnormality, jaw claudication, vision loss, diplopia, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and platelet level. The data were divided into three groups to train, validate, and test the models. The NN model with the lowest false-negative rate was chosen. Internal and external validations were performed. Results Of 1,833 patients who underwent TABx, there was complete information on 1,201 patients, 300 (25%) of whom had a positive TABx. On multivariable LR age, platelets, jaw claudication, vision loss, log C-reactive protein, log erythrocyte sedimentation rate, headache, and clinical temporal artery abnormality were statistically significant predictors of a positive TABx ( P ≤0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve/Hosmer–Lemeshow P for LR was 0.867 (95% CI, 0.794, 0.917)/0.119 vs NN 0.860 (95% CI, 0.786, 0.911)/0.805, with no statistically significant difference of the area under the curves ( P =0.316). The misclassification rate/false-negative rate of LR was 20.6%/47.5% vs 18.1%/30.5% for NN. Missing data analysis did not change the results. Conclusion Statistical models can aid in the triage of patients with suspected GCA. Misclassification remains a concern, but cutoff values for 95% and 99% sensitivities are provided ( https://goo.gl/THCnuU ).

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Schwannomas of cranial nerves in the absence of systemic neurofibromatosis are relatively rare. Among these, schwannomas of the trochlear nerve are even less common. They can be found incidentally or when they cause diplopia or other significant neurological deficits. Treatment options include observation only, neuro-ophthalmological intervention, and/or neurosurgical management via resection or sterotactic radiosurgery (SRS). In recent years, the latter has become an attractive therapeutic tool for a number of benign skull base neoplasm including a small number of reports on its successful use for trochlear Schwannomas. However, no treatment algorithm for the management of these tumors has been proposed so far. The goal of this manuscript is to illustrate a case series of this rare entity and to suggest a rational treatment algorithm for trochlear schwannomas, based on our institutional experience of recent cases, and a pertinent review of the literature. Including our series of 5 cases, a total of 85 cases reporting on the management of trochlear schwannomas have been published. Of those reported, less than half (40 %) of patients underwent surgical resection, whereas the remainder were managed conservatively or with SRS. Seventy-six percent (65/85) of the entire cohort presented with diplopia, which was the solitary symptom in over half of the cases (n = 39). All patients who presented with symptoms other than diplopia or headaches as solitary symptoms underwent surgical resection. Patients in the non-surgical group were mostly male (M/F = 3.5:1), presented at an older age and had shorter mean diameter (4.6 vs. 30.4 mm, p < 0.0001) when compared to the surgical group. Twelve patients in the entire cohort were treated with SRS, none of whom had undergone surgical resection before or after radiation treatment. Trochlear schwannoma patients without systemic neurofibromatosis are rare and infrequently reported in the literature. Of those, patients harboring symptomatic trochlear Schwannomas do not form a single homogenous group, but fall into two rather distinct subgroups regarding demographics and clinical characteristics. Among those patients in need of intervention, open microsurgical resection as well as less invasive treatment options exist, which all aim at safe relief of symptoms and prevention of progression. Both open microsurgical removal as well as SRS can achieve good long-term local control. Consequently, a tailored multidisciplinary treatment algorithm, based on the individual presentation and tumor configuration, is proposed.

Clinicians should be aware of the association between acute orbital inflammation and recent treatment with systemic bisphosphonate medication.