Patients present with headache, personality changes, irritability, somnolence, and cognitive changes. Intracranial pressure may be increased. There may be cranial nerve deficits. The diagnosis can only be made definitively by…
There are a number of human prion diseases: sporadic CJD, iatrogenic CJD, variant CJD, kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, and fatal familial insomnia. Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The cardinal manifestations of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease…
Diagnosis is confirmed by examination of peripheral blood smears every 8 to 24 hours. The CSF is examined to exclude other possible causes of symptoms in patients with suspected cerebral…
The incubation period varies with severity of infection. Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms may develop in the first week. Periorbital edema may occur for a few days. Subsequently, muscle and…
RABIES Humans acquire rabies from the bite of a rabid animal or from inhalation from aerosolized virus in caves inhabited by rapid bats. Two forms of classic rabies are recognized:…
Encephalitis. Varicella-zoster virus encephalitis can develop associated with zoster, follow zoster by days to months, or may develop without any history of a vesicular rash. The symptoms of encephalitis include…
Poliovirus is a single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) enterovirus. There are three immunologically defined serotypes of poliovirus (serotypes 1, 2, and 3), all of which cause paralytic disease. Natural polio infection…
A primary vacuolar and inflammatory myelopathy may occur in AIDS and may mimic the myelopathy of vitamin B12 or copper deficiency, with predominant involvement of the posterior columns. There is…
Acute aseptic meningitis is a common manifestation in patients with primary neurologic HIV-1 infection (PNHI) and leads to headache and meningismus. Other less common neurologic presentations are with meningoencephalitis, encephalopathy,…
SELECT ARTHROPOD-BORNE VIRUS INFECTIONS Various mosquito-borne viruses may cause an infectious encephalitis. Treatment is primarily symptomatic, making preventive strategies important, especially for arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), such as eastern equine encephalitis…
