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A 73-year-old man with focal brain lesions and peripheral-nerve disease

Article Abstract:

A 73-year-old man hospitalized with symptoms of weakness, drowsiness, headache, and confusion, was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, probably secondary to arteritis. Arteritis involves inflammation of the arteries, and peripheral neuropathy involves pain in the peripheral nerves. The man became ill four weeks before hospital admission, with symptoms of fatigue, anorexia, confusion, and a constant bilateral frontal headache, with pain on the left side of the face and jaw and neck stiffness. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of the brain revealed infarcts, dead areas of tissue caused by a lack of blood supply. Ceftriaxone, acyclovir, prednisone, and cyclophosphamide were administered during the first two months of the patient's hospitalization. The patient died 314 days after symptoms began. No infections, poisons, or degenerative processes were found to explain his illness. The patient's symptoms were similar to those seen in systemic vasculitis and polyarteritis nodosa. His arteritis was characterized by giant-cell reactions and multiple infarcts in the brain.

Vasculitis, Peripheral nerve diseases, Peripheral nervous system diseases, Giant cell arteritis, Temporal arteritis

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A 63-year-old man with changes in behavior and ataxia

Article Abstract:

A 63-year-old man was admitted to a hospital with behavior changes and a movement disorder. His condition had worsened progressively over a three-month period. Samples of his cerebrospinal fluid had red and white blood cells. This pointed to bleeding in the brain. His doctors suspected angiitis of the central nervous system. Angiitis is an inflammation of blood vessels, which can destroy small blood vessels. This could lead to bleeding in the brain. Biopsies of brain tissue showed an accumulation of beta4-amyloid protein and an inflammation of small blood vessels.

Causes of, Ataxia

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Case 22-2005: An 81-year-old man with cough, fever, and altered mental status

Article Abstract:

An 81-year-old man is admitted to the Massachusetts General Hospital in September because of fever, chills, productive cough, and diffuse weakness. The patient is examined for seven days to find a syndrome of meningomyeloencephalitis or encephalomyelitis, while he remained comatose and unresponsive.

Massachusetts, Case studies, Encephalomyelitis

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