The authors describe a simple clinical adjunct to the routine neurological examination of patients with intermittent cauda equina compression syndrome. The "bicycle test" helps exclude intermittent claudication due to vascular insufficiency and frequently confirms the relationship of posture to radicular pain.
Extensive thrombosis of a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, not associated with clinically recognizable hemorrhage, appears to be exceedingly rare. Angiographic and operative verification of such an occurrence is described in a 4-year-old child. Computed axial tomographic and ultrasonographic findings are discussed. It is proposed that thrombosis of the anomaly occurred as a result of intravascular turbulence, promoted by progressive elongation and increasing tortuosity of the lesion.
The incidence of seizures related to primary brain tumors is 20-80%. High-dose tamoxifen was recently reported as a novel treatment for patients with malignant gliomas who have failed standard therapies. Tamoxifen inhibits protein kinase C (PKC) in vitro and thus may regulate glioma cell growth by modulating intracellular signal transduction. We report a patient with a recurrent supratentorial pilocytic astrocytoma who had an untoward interaction between high-dose tamoxifen therapy and phenytoin (PHT), drugs that share a common enzyme for metabolism, therefore emphasizing the need to monitor concomitant antiepileptic drug (AED) levels when high-dose tamoxifen therapy is instituted.
A woman presented with a mass in the left groin, which was later shown to be a sliding hernia. A bony sacral defect prompted investigation, which uncovered a massive anterior sacral meningocele. Examination, including ultrasonography and myelography, is discussed, and a surgical approach proposed.
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