Document Detail


Does corticobasal degeneration exist? A clinicopathological re-evaluation.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20584946     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The pathological findings of corticobasal degeneration are associated with several distinct clinical syndromes, and the corticobasal syndrome has been linked with a number of diverse pathologies. We have reviewed all the archival cases in the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders over a 20-year period with either a clinical diagnosis of corticobasal syndrome or pathological diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration in an attempt to identify the main diagnostic pitfalls. Of 19 pathologically confirmed corticobasal degeneration cases, only five had been diagnosed correctly in life (sensitivity=26.3%) and four of these had received an alternative earlier diagnosis. All five of these had a unilateral presentation, clumsy useless limb, limb apraxia and myoclonus, four had cortical sensory impairment and focal limb dystonia and three had an alien limb. Eight cases of corticobasal degeneration had been clinically diagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy, all of whom had vertical supranuclear palsy and seven had falls within the first 2 years. On the other hand, of 21 cases with a clinical diagnosis of corticobasal syndrome, only five had corticobasal degeneration pathology, giving a positive predictive value of 23.8%; six others had progressive supranuclear palsy pathology, five had Alzheimer's disease and the remaining five had other non-tau pathologies. Corticobasal degeneration can present very commonly with a clinical picture closely resembling classical progressive supranuclear palsy or Richardson's syndrome, and we propose the term corticobasal degeneration-Richardson's syndrome for this subgroup. Cases of corticobasal degeneration-Richardson's syndrome have delayed onset of vertical supranuclear gaze palsy (>3 years after onset of first symptom) and the infrequent occurrence of predominant downgaze abnormalities, both of which can be helpful pointers to their underlying corticobasal degeneration pathology. Fourty-two per cent of corticobasal degeneration cases presented clinically with a progressive supranuclear palsy phenotype and 29% of cases with corticobasal syndrome had underlying progressive supranuclear palsy pathology. In contrast, in the Queen Square Brain Bank archival collection, corticobasal syndrome is a rare clinical presentation of progressive supranuclear palsy occurring in only 6 of the 179 pathologically diagnosed progressive supranuclear palsy cases (3%). Despite these diagnostic difficulties we conclude that corticobasal degeneration is a discrete clinicopathological entity but with a broader clinical spectrum than was originally proposed.
Authors:
Helen Ling; Sean S O'Sullivan; Janice L Holton; Tamas Revesz; Luke A Massey; David R Williams; Dominic C Paviour; Andrew J Lees
Related Documents :
16643566 - Exploding head syndrome followed by sleep paralysis: a rare migraine aura.
16944156 - Bilateral ocular ischemic syndrome as an initial manifestation of takayasu's arteritis ...
1417076 - Borderline omnipotence in pathological gambling.
19833366 - Ocular ischemic syndrome.
14680916 - Fibrosing mediastinitis and thrombosis of superior vena cava associated with behçet's ...
7777106 - Hereditary interstitial nephritis without basement membrane changes.
Publication Detail:
Type:  Evaluation Studies; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Brain : a journal of neurology     Volume:  133     ISSN:  1460-2156     ISO Abbreviation:  Brain     Publication Date:  2010 Jul 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-06-29     Completed Date:  2010-07-20     Revised Date:  2011-01-19    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0372537     Medline TA:  Brain     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  2045-57     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 1 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PJ, UK.
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Basal Ganglia / pathology*
Basal Ganglia Diseases / classification,  pathology
Cerebral Cortex / pathology*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neurodegenerative Diseases / classification*,  pathology*
Retrospective Studies
Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / classification,  pathology
Comments/Corrections
Comment In:
J Neurol. 2011 Jan;258(1):173-5   [PMID:  21165636 ]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Is hypovitaminosis D one of the environmental risk factors for multiple sclerosis?
Next Document:  Reliability and validity of an Italian four-level emergency triage system.