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Biomedical subjects

P Nichelli

Publications and source records attributed to P Nichelli.

64 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

[A case of visual agnosia for objects (author's transl)].

Following an ischemic accident in the territory of the left posterior cerebral artery, a 71 year-old woman had a severe disorder of visual recognition of objects while she quickly identified them by touch. Visual recognition of pictures, written symbols, colours and, to a lesser degree, faces was also impaired. A careful examination showed that the patient's defect could not be accounted for by general intellectual impairment, language disorder, visual acuity, or pattern discrimination deficit. These findings are consistent with the classical concept of associative agnosia: the pathophysiology of the syndrome is discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Verbal and non-verbal short-term memory impairment following hemispheric damage.

Short-term memory was investigated in 30 control and 125 unilaterally brain-damaged patients with a series of tests requiring the immediate reproduction of strings of items of increasing length. In three tests the items were auditorially presented digits or words: one test asked for oral repetition of digits, while the other two required the patient to point to written digits or to pictures. The fourth test aimed at measuring spatial span. On both the Digits Forward test and the two other verbal tests not requiring the use of speech, left brain-damaged patients were impaired in comparison to normals, while the right brain-damaged patients were not. Aphasics had a significantly shorter verbal span than non-aphasic patients with left hemisphere damage. Spatial span, on the other hand, was significantly affected by a lesion posteriorly located in either hemisphere, but not by aphasia. Two patients with an exceedingly poor verbal memory span were observed, one suffering from anomic aphasia and the other from conduction aphasia. There were also two right hemisphere damaged patients who showed an extreme reduction of spatial span, which could not be accounted for by space perceptual disorders and contrasted with a normal performance on a spatial long-term memory test.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Typhoid encefalopathy followed by permanent memory defects (author's transl)].

An 18-years-old girl suddenly became comatose and afterwards presented stlpor, complex hyperkinesias and aphonia lasting 15-20 days. The clinical picture was that of an acute encephalopathy which was found to be due to typhoid fever. Follow-up showed severe permanent memory impairment and some degree of mental deterioration, but no longer evidence of basal ganglia signs.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Lupus anticoagulant antibody (LAC) and juvenile cerebral ischemic attack: a clinical case].

The lupus anticoagulant (LAC) is an acquired circulating serum immunoglobulin that prolongs all phospholipid-dependent coagulation tests. It has been recently associated with focal cerebral ischemia. We present here a case of LAC associated multiple cerebral ischemic events in a young adult and discuss laboratory criteria for a reliable diagnosis. In order to detect the presence of LAC, both the activated partial thromboplastin time (PTT), the kaolin clotting time (Exner assay) and the tissue thromboplastin inhibition assay (Schleider assay) should be evaluated. We conclude that LAC should be looked for in all young stroke patients with otherwise unexplained cerebral infarctions.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Opsoclonus-ataxia syndrome. Description of a case].

This report describes an 18-year-old woman who, after a febrile illness, developed opsoclonus, truncal ataxia and mild body tremulousness. The oculomotor disorder was documented by electro-oculography. The results of extensive neurological investigations, including CT scan, visual, auditory and somesthetic evoked potentials, nuclear magnetic resonance and complete cerebrospinal fluid evaluation, were negative. The patient recovered completely within about 1 month. After having thoroughly analyzed the pertinent literature, we conclude that the pathogenetic hypothesis of direct encephalitic damage is unproved, and that these peculiar unwanted ocular movements can be explained by assuming an abnormality of "pause" cell control over saccadic "burst" neurons.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Subclinical deficit in the memory of chronic alcoholics. Comparison between 2 learning tests].

Normal subjects and chronic alcoholics without clinical evidence of memory disorders have been compared on two tasks of verbal learning of a word list, one administered with the classical procedure and the other with the "selective reminding" technique developed by Bushke. Results showed that the selective reminding technique has the same discriminative power as the classical procedure: both brought out a remarkable learning deficit in chronic alcoholics. The selective reminding procedure is easier to administer and can distinguish between storage and retrieval deficits; it seems therefore preferable for diagnostic purposes. Practical criteria to distinguish a normal from pathologic performance on this test are suggested. Alcoholics were also inferior on Raven Progressive Matrices. The scope of the impairment produced by chronic alcohol consumption is wider than suggested by clinical observations and deserves careful assessment.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Licorice-induced myopathy. Report of a new case].

A 64 year-old man, who had been ingesting 20 g of licorice daily for about five months, developed a progressive, diffuse muscle weakness, with myoglobinuria, severe hypokalemia and elevated serum muscle enzymes. Electromyography and muscle biopsy results were consistent with a necrotizing myopathy. Following licorice withdrawal and appropriate electrolyte administration, complete clinical recovery was observed within about ten days. Previous reports of similar cases are reviewed and causative factors of this kind of myopathy are discussed.

Foodborne Diseases↗