eLetters

637 e-Letters

  • Smoking and Exercise in Combination may adversely affect mitochondrial function and cause ALS in susceptible individuals
    Steven R Brenner

    I read the article by Alonso on smoking and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with interest (1) While the meta-analysis may not support a strong association with smoking and ALS, there may be a relationship with the combination of smoking and exercise. Smoking increases carbon monoxide (CO) levels (2) and cyanide (3) in the blood. Cyanide binds with cytochrome oxidase in the mitochondria, and CO interferes wi...

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  • A systematic review of Terson’s syndrome: frequency and prognosis after subarachnoid haemorrhage
    Seyed F. Amlashi

    Dear Editor,

    We read with great interest the review article by McCarron et al. [1] concerning Terson’s syndrome. Having recently realised a prospective study in the subject, we feel interested to share our experience and to add some information.

    1- Although the original description of the syndrome by Dr Terson in 1900 concerned only intravitreous haemorrhages in association with subarachnoid haemorrhage, in o...

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  • Critical appraisal for an article of tongue acupuncture
    Michael Wong

    Dear Editor,

    I enjoyed reading Sun et al.’s (2004) article regarding effects of the tongue acupuncture (invasive treatment) on children with cerebral palsy. But I note that some important issues were not covered in the article.

    The authors reported "the treatment group received 40 sessions of TAC (tongue acupuncture) in a daily basis" and "Sterile gauze was used to pick and station the tongue with the ac...

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  • Intracranial metabolic monitoring: why is it not being exploited?
    Richard G Fiddian-Green

    Dear Editor

    This review confirms that ICP monitoring provides no information about intracerebral tissue energetiics except by inference in extremis.[1]

    This informtion is vital if the management of the disorders listed in this review and many others is to be significantly improved beyond optimal care today. There is an opportunity to obtain this information in conjunction with the ICP with the same ease and...

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  • Dementia in parkinson disease: need of clarification
    Gurutz Linazasoro

    Dear Editor,

    I have read with great interest the article by Edison et al about the amyloid load in patients with Parkinson´s disease (PD), PD with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) (1). Authors hypothesised that amyloid pathology would be uncommon in PD without dementia, an occasional feature of PDD and present in the majority of DLB cases. This hypothesis was clearly demonstrated (1). However,...

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  • Cerebral amyloid angiopathy-scoring methods
    Kurt A Jellinger

    In their recent meta-analysis of genetics of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), Rannikmae et al,[1] focusing on the association between APOEe4 and sporadic CAA, stated that there is no widely accepted standardised histopathological grading system for CAA. Although this is true, several methods are currently used to describe the severity of CAA in postmortem brain,[2, 3] and recently a semiquantitative scoring method has...

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  • Re:Aortic arch and ulcerative plaques
    Kanzunori Toyoda

    We appreciate the comment regarding our study on ulcerated plaque in the aortic arch.

    As the commenter pointed, vascular neurologists might have believed that the aortic plaque configuration was as important as the plaque thickness when aortogenic embolism was assessed. Our study could identify a strong association between ulcerated plaque and recent multiple brain infarction, which was possibly caused by rec...

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  • a useful resource
    Andrew Bateman

    Dear Editor,

    I most enjoyed reading this paper about white matter disruption <Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 2006;77:850-855>

    I have especially found the tractography image (figure 4) both an elegant image, and very helpful in explaining to my patients who have not understood why their brain injury was not revealed by standard brain imaging scans. So thank you for this useful cl...

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  • CT scan technique is unclear from study
    Sanjay Prabhu

    Dear Editor,

    I read with interest the article looking at headache as an isloated symptom of venous thrombosis. As a radiologist, I was interested in the assertion that a "normal CT scan" necessitated a MRI/MRV scan. In my experience if the symptomatology is atypical, performing a CT venogram, particularly on the multislice CT scanner can give an accurate result in a large proportion of cases. We perform CT venog...

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  • Thecoperitoneal shunts for the treatment of  syringomyelia associated with adhesive arachnoiditis.
    Milind S Deogaonkar

    Dear Editor

    Chang et al.[1] give an excellent analysis of pathophysiology of syringomyelia associated with adhesive arachnoiditis (SAA). This is a complex problem with a very few effective treatment options. In countries like India where tuberculous arachnoiditis is an often seen entity, SAA can frustrate the treating neurosurgeon. As suggested in article subarachnoid bypass is a feasible alternative. We...

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