Rapidly progressive tabetic neurosyphilis

Since the sexually transmitted diseases were recognizedas a public health problem in China during the early1980's, the incidence of syphilis has graduallyincreased. Though there have been case reports ofclinical variants of neurosyphilis, including syphiliticcerebrospinal meningitis or meningomyelitis andmeningovascular syphilis, occurring in different regions ofChina, ~(1-3) tabes dorsalis or tabetic neurosyphilis has notyet been reported in China. Here, we report a young manwith rapidly progressive tabetic neurosyphilis admitted toour hospital in October 1999.     

麻痹性痴呆12例临床分析

目的探讨麻痹性痴呆(GPI)患者的临床表现,实验室检查、影像学、脑电图特征以及诊断、治疗及预后。方法回顾性分析经临床和实验室确诊的12例GPI患者的相关资料。结果GPI患者临床以智能障碍、精神异常、癫痫最常见。12例患者血清甲苯胺红凝集试验(TRUST)和梅毒螺旋体明胶凝集试验(TPPA)均( ),脑脊液TPPA均( ),而TRUST( )9例。头颅MRI检查结果示大脑皮质萎缩。3例以肢体抽搐为表现者脑电图可见广泛中高幅尖慢波,余脑电图为弥漫性慢波。经抗梅毒治疗,痊愈4例,显效5例,好转3例。结论GPI现已是我国神经梅毒分型中极常见类型,多见于中年男性,临床表现多变,早期误诊率高,早期发现、及时正规治疗预后好。     

Trancranial Doppler Monitoring of Response to Therapy for Meningovascular Syphilis

Meningovascular syphilis is now quite uncommon, but there have been increasing reports in patients immunocompromised with human immunodeficiency virus. The response of syphilis affecting the central nervous system to antibiotic therapy remains a challenge. This is an even greater challenge in patients who have underlying compromise of the immune system. The authors present a 46-year-old male with recurrent stroke who was found to have cerebrospinal fluid compatible with syphilitic involvement of the central nervous system and a cerebral arteriogram, which revealed focal narrowing of the right middle cerebral artery. The baseline transcranial Doppler study demonstrated increased mean and peak flow velocity within the right middle cerebral artery. Despite a 10-day course of intravenous penicillin, with substantial improvement in the cerebrospinal fluid results, this flow velocity elevation persisted, in a remarkably consistent pattern, over a 4-month follow-up period. Thus, the involved vessel remained patent following treatment, but no clear resolution of the stenotic lesion was observed.     

麻痹性痴呆的临床特征与诊断(附2例报告)

目的探讨麻痹性痴呆的临床特征，以及实验室及影像学检查在诊断中的价值。方法回顾性分析2例麻痹性痴呆患者的临床资料，并结合文献进行讨论。结果主要临床表现为隐匿起病，进行性加重性痴呆、精神障碍、癫痫发作等；2例患者均被误诊。血清及脑脊液快速血浆反应素环状卡片试验（RPR）阳性，梅毒螺旋体明胶凝集试验（TPPA）阳性，头颅MRI主要表现为弥漫性脑萎缩。结论麻痹性痴呆的临床表现复杂多变，早期误诊率高；诊断主要根据临床特点、血清学及脑脊液检查综合考虑。     

某炼油厂466名苯作业工人职业健康状况分析

目的　探讨头孢曲松钠联合阿立哌唑对神经梅毒患者的临床治疗效果。方法　选取2014年1月—2019年2月淄博市第一医院收治的78例神经梅毒患者作为研究对象，按照随机数字表法分为对照组（n=39）和观察组（n=39）。对照组采用青霉素联合阿立哌唑治疗，观察组采用头孢曲松钠联合阿立哌唑治疗，并完成4周治疗及12个月随访。比较2组阳性与阴性症状量表（positive and negative syndrome scale, PANSS）评分、临床疗效总评量表病情严重程度（clinical global impression- severity of illness, CGI-SI）评分、T细胞百分比、细胞因子水平、不良反应及复发情况。结果　观察组治疗后4周阴性症状评分、阳性症状评分、一般精神病理症状评分及PANSS总分下降幅度均大于对照组（P均＜0.05）；观察组治疗后4周CD3+ T细胞、CD4+ T细胞、CD4+/CD8+ T细胞 、IL-2、IL-12水平上升幅度均高于对照组（P均＜0.05）；观察组治疗后1、2、3、4周CGI-SI评分均低于对照组（P均＜0.05）；观察组治疗后6个月、12个月复发率均低于对照组（P均＜0.05）。结论　头孢曲松钠在治疗神经梅毒患者中，能改善患者神经症状，降低患者临床症状评分，提高患者T细胞百分比，改善细胞因子水平，降低治疗后复发率，药物安全性较高，值得推广应用。     

Treponemal antibody in CSF and cellular immunity in peripheral blood of syphilitic patients with persisting positive rapid plasma regain

The ratio of patients with RPR constant positive more than 2 years despite receiving standard syphilis treatment has been reported to be 11.54%~31.3%. The current interpretations on this phenomenon are cellular immune function restrained and the existence of neurosyphilis or asymptomatic neurosyphilis. We conducted this study to detect the treponemal antibody in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of syphilis patients with persisting RPR positive more than 2 years without neurologic signs, and then explore their relationship. In this study, Treponemal antibody in CSF of 46 syphilitic with HIV negative were measured by syphilis serum test and compared with that of 5 neurosyphilis. Lymphocyte subsets were measured by flow cytometry (FCM) and compared with that of 30 healthy controls. We observed that treponemal antibody in CSF was detected not only in 12 cases (25.21%) of 46 treated patients, but also in 5 neurosyphilis. The ratio of lymphocyte subsets revealed that CD3⁺, CD4⁺ T cells and natural killer (NK) cells showed no significant differences between the patient and healthy controls (P > 0.05), while CD8⁺ T cells in patients were significant higher than that in healthy controls (P < 0.001). Lymphocyte subsets showed no significant differences between the patients with treponemal antibody positive and negative in CSF (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the treponemal antibody in CSF of treated patients suggests that part of them were asymptomatic neurosyphilis and with cellular immunodifeciency. And there is no significant relationship between asymptomatic neurosyphilis and cellular immunodeficiency in peripheral blood.     

A neuropsychological and neuroimaging study of a patient before and after treatment for paretic neurosyphilis

Abstract

A 41-year-old woman suffering from paretic neurosyphilis was treated successfully with high-dose penicillin. Detailed neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies were performed before and after treatment. The patient initially presented with presbyophrenia-like features of an amnesic-confabulatory state with a hypomanic mood. Pre-treatment neuropsychological examination revealed deficits in general intelligence, attention, memory, and frontal lobe executive function. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated severe hippocampa/parahippocampal damage, in addition to fronto-temporal atrophy and ventricular dilatation. Immediately after treatment, she was no longer confabulatory or hypomanic, but remained densely amnesic. Neuropsychological examination at that time revealed a significant improvement in frontal lobe function, whereas her memory was still impaired. However, CT and MRI showed no interval change. Single-photon emission CT (SPECT) demonstrated a remarkable improvement in cerebral perfusion, but the Increase in frontal perfusion was relatively small. Seven months after treatment, clinical and neuropsychological examination revealed no evidence of memory impairment. Cerebral perfusion on SPECT in the frontal areas by this time had improved to normal. Positron emission tomography (PET), however, still showed patchy areas of hypoperfusion/hypometabolism. This study demonstrates the patient's stepwise clinical recovery following early antibiotic therapy and shows the dissociation of neuropsychological recovery and changes on SPECT and PET.     

Erb's paraplegia with primary optic atrophy: Unusual presentation of neurosyphilis: Case report and review of literature

Symptomatic neurosyphilis (NS) can have varied syndromic presentations: Meningitis, meningovascular and parenchymatous involvement. Non-tabetic syphilis affecting the spinal cord is rare and only sporadic case reports have been published. The variant of meningomyelitis known as Erb''s paraplegia refers to patients of spinal syphilis with very slow progression over many years and predominantly motor signs. Primary optic atrophy occurs twice as frequently in tabes dorsalis as in other types of NS. We describe here a case of a 32-year-old truck driver who presented with Erb''s paraplegia with primary optic atrophy. This clinical overlap in NS is extremely rare and to our knowledge is the first case report of its type.     

神经梅毒患者脑脊液改变与预后的关系

目的 探讨神经梅毒患者的脑脊液改变与预后的关系.方法 回顾性分析55例梅毒患者脑脊液及临床资料,其中,神经梅毒组30例,潜伏梅毒组25例,两组分别测定脑脊液压力、白细胞数、蛋白含量,同时测定血清及脑脊液中反应素环状卡片试验(RPR)、螺旋体明胶凝结试验(TPPA),并进行比较;所有患者均正规全程青霉素驱梅治疗;对两组患者门诊复诊或进行电话跟踪随访2年,并进行预后评定,同时进行功能独立性评定(FIM)评分.结果 两组患者血清PRP及TPPA均为阳性;神经梅毒组脑脊液白细胞数、蛋白含量较潜伏梅毒组高,差异有统计学意义(均P<0.01).治疗后,神经梅毒组无变化5例(16.7%),改善21例(70.0%),进展4例(13.3%);潜伏梅毒组无变化15例(60.0%),改善8例(32.0%),进展2例(8.0%).神经梅毒患者脑脊液白细胞数、蛋白含量以及RPR、TPPA滴度升高,与FIM评分呈负相关(分别r=-0.480、-0.504、-0.465及-0.550,均P<0.05).结论 神经梅毒患者脑脊液白细胞数、蛋白含量以及RPR、TPPA升高程度,均与预后密切相关,脑脊液改变越重,则预后越差.     

Binswanger on Binswanger's disease

In 1894 Otto Binswanger described a disease of the hemispheric white matter which he called encephalitis subcorticalis chronica progressiva'. He examined eight patients who had shown a slow but relentless cognitive decay that began in middle or old age and lead to severe dementia, characterized in the early stages by a disturbance of association of cortical sensory and motor areas, by aphasia, hemiamblyopia, hemianopia, hemiparesis and a loss of the sense of pressure, position and touch. At postmortem the patients showed white matter atrophy most pronounced in the temporal and occipital lobes. Binswanger proposed that this subcortical fibre loss was due to cerebral arteriosclerosis, which was almost invariably demonstrated. “Binswangers” disease' has gained topical importance following the introduction of sensitive imaging techniques which have led to the frequent detection of white matter disease during life. This full account of his original observations may contribute to the clarification of contemporary terminological issues.