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This paper describes the Bárány Society Classification OverSight Committee (COSC) position on Cervical Dizziness, sometimes referred to as Cervical Vertigo. This involved an initial review by a group of experts across a broad range of fields, and then subsequent review by the Bárány Society COSC. Based upon the so far published literature, the Bárány Society COSC takes the view that the evidence supporting a mechanistic link between an illusory sensation of self-motion (i.e. vertigo – spinning or otherwise) and neck pathology and/or symptoms of neck pain - either by affecting the cervical vertebrae, soft tissue structures or cervical nerve roots - is lacking. When a combined head and neck movement triggers an illusory sensation of spinning, there is either an underlying common vestibular condition such as migraine or BPPV or less commonly a central vestibular condition including, when acute in onset, dangerous conditions (e.g. a dissection of the vertebral artery with posterior circulation stroke and, exceedingly rarely, a vertebral artery compression syndrome). The Committee notes, that migraine, including vestibular migraine, is by far, the commonest cause for the combination of neck pain and vestibular symptoms. The committee also notes that since head movement aggravates symptoms in almost any vestibular condition, the common finding of increased neck muscle tension in vestibular patients, may be linked as both cause and effect, to reduced head movements. Additionally, there are theoretical mechanisms, which have not been explored, whereby cervical pain may promote vaso-vagal, cardio-inhibitory reflexes and hence by presyncopal mechanisms, elicit transient disorientation and/or imbalance. The committee accepts that further research is required to answer the question as to whether those rare cases in which neck muscle spasm is associated with a vague sense of spatial disorientation and/or imbalance, is indeed linked to impaired neck proprioception. Future studies should ideally be placebo controlled and double-blinded where possible, with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria that aim for high specificity at the cost of sensitivity. To facilitate further studies in “cervical dizziness/vertigo”, we provide a narrative view of the important confounds investigators should consider when designing controlled mechanistic and therapeutic studies. Hence, currently, the Bárány COSC refrains from proposing any preliminary diagnostic criteria for clinical use outside a research study. This position may change as new research evidence is provided.

Determining the lateralizing value of lying-down nystagmus (LDN) in horizontal semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (HSC-BPPV).The authors prospectively investigated LDN in 35 co...

Eye movements are fundamental diagnostic and progression markers of various neurological diseases, including those affecting the cerebellum. Despite the high prevalence of abnormal eye movements in patients with cerebellar disorders, the traditional rating scales do not focus on abnormal eye movements. We formed a consortium of neurologists focusing on cerebellar disorders. The consortium aimed to design and validate a novel Scale for Ocular motor Disorders in Ataxia (SODA). The primary purpose of the scale is to determine the extent of ocular motor deficits due to various phenomenologies. A higher score on the scale would suggest a broader range of eye movement deficits. The scale was designed such that it is easy to implement by non-specialized neurological care providers. The scale was not designed to measure each ocular motor dysfunction's severity objectively. Our validation studies revealed that the scale reliably measured the extent of saccade abnormalities and nystagmus. We found a lack of correlation between the total SODA score and the total International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS), Scale for Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA), or Brief Ataxia Rating Scale (BARS). One explanation is that conventionally reported scales are not dedicated to eye movement disorders; and when present, the measure of ocular motor function is only one subsection of the ataxia rating scales. It is also possible that the severity of ataxias does not correlate with eye movement abnormalities. Nevertheless, the SODA met the consortium's primary goal: to prepare a simple outcome measure that can identify ocular motor dysfunction in patients with cerebellar ataxia.

In any patient with a history of rotational vertigo triggered by changes in the position of head relative to the gravity, whose oculomotor patterns elicit a positional downbeating nystagmus (p-DBN), the localization could be either central in the brainstem, midline cerebellum, or at the craniocerebral junction; or else peripheral due to one of the rare variants of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo of vertical semicircular canals. Most serious causes of central vertigo in patients with p-DBN can be diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging of the posterior fossa and craniovertebral junction. However, the peripheral p-DBN could be either due to anterior semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (ASC-BPPV) or a recently described apogeotropic variant of posterior semicircular canal BPPV (apo-PSC-BPPV) and the two are almost impossible to differentiate initially. The usual clinical scenario in apo-PSC-BPPV is diagnosing it initially as ASC-BPPV. However, following diagnostic or therapeutic positioning maneuvers for the purported ASC-BPPV, the positional oculomotor pattern changes to an upbeating nystagmus with the reversal in the direction of the torsion as well, localizing it to the contralateral PSC with respect to the ASC initially diagnosed. The initial oculomotor pattern observed on the right Dix–Hallpike test in this patient, of a short latency downbeating left torsional (from the patient’s perspective) positional nystagmus suggested a diagnosis of left ASC-BPPV, which was accordingly treated with multiple sessions of reverse Epley maneuvers daily for a week. At the end of the week, a verifying right Dix–Hallpike test elicited an upbeating right torsional (from the patient’s perspective) positional nystagmus. It is extremely unlikely that this patient had resolution of her initial left ASC-BPPV with the daily sessions of reverse Epley maneuvers carried over a week and immediately suffered from commoner geotropic variant of the right PSC-BPPV (geo-PSC-BPPV). It is plausible to interpret that this patient suffered from the right apo-PSC-BPPV from the very outset, and the reverse Epley maneuver performed for the ostensive left ASC-BPPV led to an intracanal shift of otoconial debris from its nonampullary to the ampullary arm resulting in right geo-PSC-BPPV. The reasons why situations like this outwit the clinician resulting in inaccurate localization as well as lateralization is discussed. The patient was successfully treated with right Epley maneuver after transformation to geo-PSC-BPPV and was asymptomatic at follow-up for 4 weeks. A peripheral p-DBN with torsional component in any patient with a history of positionally triggered vertigo can be either ASC-BPPV or apo-PSC-BPPV. A very close follow-up at a short interval of time with meticulously executed positional tests is the only definitive way to differentiate the two conditions.

The virtual practice has made major advances in the way that we care for patients in the modern era. The culture of virtual practice, consulting, and telemedicine, which had started several years ago, took an accelerated leap as humankind was challenged by the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID19). The social distancing measures and lockdowns imposed in many countries left medical care providers with limited options in evaluating ambulatory patients, pushing the rapid transition to assessments via virtual platforms. In this novel arena of medical practice, which may form new norms beyond the current pandemic crisis, we found it critical to define guidelines on the recommended practice in neurotology, including remote methods in examining the vestibular and eye movement function. The proposed remote examination methods aim to reliably diagnose acute and subacute diseases of the inner-ear, brainstem, and the cerebellum. A key aim was to triage patients into those requiring urgent emergency room assessment versus non-urgent but expedited outpatient management. Physicians who had expertise in managing patients with vestibular disorders were invited to participate in the taskforce. The focus was on two topics: (1) an adequate eye movement and vestibular examination strategy using virtual platforms and (2) a decision pathway providing guidance about which patient should seek urgent medical care and which patient should have non-urgent but expedited outpatient management. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s12311-020-01178-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Introduction: Most patients presenting with acute vertigo are believed to suffer from acute, self-limited, presumed viral or post-viral vestibular neuritis (VN). But 25% of such cases can be “Pseudo VN”, and are due to central causes, most often stroke. The aim of the present research was to study the sensitivity and specificity of Head Impulse, Nystagmus, Skew deviation (HINTS) battery for diagnosis of stroke in patients with acute-onset first episode of spontaneous vertigo. Materials and Methods: Seventy-five patients who visited outpatient department or admitted between August 2014 and April 2016 with acute-onset first episode of spontaneous vertigo were included. Each patient was subjected to bedside oculomotor tests and HINTS. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Stroke was diagnosed by MRI brain. If initial MRI brain was normal and still clinical signs favor stroke, repeat MRI brain-diffusion-weighted imaging study was done at 72 h after symptom onset to confirm the diagnosis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy and Youden's Index were used to quantify the diagnostic efficiency of HINTS at presentation against final MRI. Results: Patients presented with acute-onset first episode of spontaneous vertigo, HINTS battery was found to be more sensitive than the initial MRI of the brain done in first 24 h in diagnosing stroke (97.1 % Vs 82.9%). The specificity of the initial MRI of the brain and HINTS battery was 100.0 % and 80.0% respectively. Conclusions: The HINTS battery was more sensitive than the initial MRI of the brain in diagnosing stroke in first 24 h in patients presented with acute-onset first episode of spontaneous vertigo.

Nearly one-third of patients don't achieve seizure control with existing antiepileptic drugs. Brivaracetam (BRV) is a new member of the racetam class of drug, designed to selectively target SV2A, with binding affinity 15- to 30-fold greater than that of levetiracetam.This pooled analysis reports efficacy and tolerability data of adjunct BRV (50, 100, and 200 mg/day) compared with placebo in Indian patients with uncontrolled focal epilepsy.Data of 104 patients (aged 16-80 years) from 2 studies (N01252 and N01358) were pooled for this analysis. The studies comprised an 8-week prospective baseline period, and a 12-week treatment period. The study endpoints included median percent reduction from baseline in focal seizure frequency/28-days, ≥50% responder rate, and seizure freedom (all seizure types). The safety analysis included treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs).The efficacy population comprised 101 patients. In the Indian sub-group population, median percent reduction from baseline in focal seizure frequency/28-days was greater in the BRV dose groups: 39.7% (p = 0.00868), 46.8% (p = 0.00180) and 48.2% (p = 0.05224), for BRV 50, 100, 200 mg/day, respectively, compared with 20.6% for placebo. Responder rates (≥50%) were 38.1%, 45.7%, and 45.5% for BRV 50, 100, and 200 mg/day, respectively, compared with 11.7% for placebo. Complete seizure freedom was reported by 4.8% (1/21) and 2.9% (1/35) of patients on BRV50 and 100 mg/day, respectively, and none out of the 11 and 34 patients on BRV200 mg/day and placebo, respectively. In the safety population (n = 104), most commonly reported TEAEs (reported by ≥5% of patients taking brivaracetam) were headache and cough; most TEAEs were mild or moderate in intensity.This pooled analysis has provided evidence that adjunct brivaracetam, was effective and well-tolerated in Indian patients with uncontrolled focal epilepsy.

Primary Small bowel tumours are rare accounting for only 3-6% of GI neoplasm; 1-2% of these are malignant. Their presentation is usually with nonspecific symptoms that causes delay in diagnosis and consequently a worse outcome for the patient. We report a case of Jejunal adenocarcinoma where early diagnosis and treatment lead to good outcome.

Synovial sarcomas are a rare variety of neoplasms accounting for 8%of all soft tissue sarcomas [1]. They are generally found in the paraarticular areas of the tendon sheaths and joints, more commonly the knee joint. However, synovial sarcomas may be found in regions without apparent relationship to synovial structures (

Angiomyolipoma is a rare benign tumour of the kidney. They are composed of abnormal vasculature, smooth muscle and adipose elements. They may be associated with Tuberous sclerosis. The unilateral presentation is uncommon. Angiomyolipoma is presented as an enlarge lump in the abdomen may mimic malignant lesion such as renal cell carcinoma, yet malignancy has to be ruled out. The diagnosis of this condition may not be straight forward with imaging alone. Excision is recommended for definite histopathological diagnosis (in symptomatic patients) and to prevent the potential risk of haemorrhage and malignancy. A case of benign giant Angiomyolipoma is presented here because of its uncommon occurrence.

Epidermoid cysts are common benign disorders of the skin,which occur frequently in the scalp and in the skin of the neck and back . When they develop in the breast parenchyma they are an uncommon benign con- dition, yet have the potential for malignancy.The diagnosis of this condition may not be straightforward with imaging alone. An epidermoid cyst presenting as an enlarging lump in the breast may mimic a benign breast lesion such as fibroadenoma or malignant lesion with benign imaging features. Excision is recommended for definite histopathological diagnosis and to prevent potential risk of malignant transformation.