BACKGROUND
Cervical myelopathy is a potential stroke imitator, for which intravenous thrombolysis would be catastrophic.
CASE SUMMARY
We herein present two cases of cervical myelopathy. The first patient presented with acute onset of right hemiparesis and urinary incontinence, and the second patient presented with sudden-onset right leg monoplegia. The initial diagnoses for both of them were ischemic stroke. However, both of them lacked cranial nerve symptom and suffered neck pain at the beginning of onset. Their cervical spinal cord lesions were finally confirmed by cervical computed tomography. A literature review showed that neck pain and absence of cranial nerve symptom are clues of cervical myelopathy.
CONCLUSION
The current report and the review remind us to pay more attention to these two clues in suspected stroke patients, especially those within the thrombolytic time window.
Background Gait impairment is common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, which greatly reduces their quality of life. Executive dysfunction is associated with gait impairment. Compensatory strategies, including visual cues, have been shown to be effective in improving PD gait. In this study, we aimed to understand whether carpets with visual cues could improve PD gait, and how the improvement varies across patients with different executive function state.Methods We designed carpets with chessboard and stripe cues. A total of 65 Chinese PD patients were recruited. Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, L-dopa equivalent daily dosage, Hoehn & Yahr stage, Frontal Assessment Battery, Mini Mental State Examination Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, and Hamilton Depression Scale were evaluated. Gait parameters including stride length, gait speed and fall risk were recorded by a wearable electronic device.Results The stride length and gait speed were significantly improved and the fall risk was significantly mitigated when PD patients walked on carpets with chessboard and stripe patterns. Further analysis showed the amelioration of gait parameters was independent of executive dysfunction.Conclusions Our study demonstrates that carpets with visual cues can improve the gait of PD patients even in those with partial executive dysfunction.
IntroductionBlepharospasm is uncommon in Parkinson's disease, especially in the peak-dose dyskinesia period.Case presentationWe herein present the case of a patient with PD who developed blepharospasm in the peak-dose dyskinesia period. The symptom was improved by taking amantadine.ConclusionThe current report expands the phenomenology of peak-dose dykinesia in PD to include dystonic blepharospasm. This complication of levodopa therapy may respond to amantadine despite the dystonic appearance of movements.
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