Cerebellar Syndrome

HIV or the Human Deficiency virus is like other viruses including the flu, but the one thing that makes this virus so different than any other is that the body is unable to clear this one out completely. Once someone is infected, there is no cure. Over time, HIV can also hide or mask itself in the body's cells. The cells within a person's body that fight off infection are called CD4 cells or T cells. HIV attacks these cells and copies or replicates itself inside these cells, then destroys them. HIV over time will destroy so many of these cells that the body is unable to fight off infection anymore. When this starts happening, AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome happens which is the final stage

Observed clinical signs will include: fever, coughing, wheezing, nasal discharge, mucus coming from the eyes, lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, conjunctivitis, a possible loss of appetite, inflammation of the throat, pustules in the thighs and abdomen and depression (Carvalho, 2012). If however the CNS is affected as well, symptoms will extend to: tremors, night seizures, coma, vocalization, blindness, dry retinas, muscular atrophy, no bladder control, lack of interest in things, paralysis (of all limbs or just torso), jerky contraction of muscles, circling behavior and the inflammation of the brain and spinal cord; primarily traveling by the cerebrospinal fluid and spinal fluid (Carvalho,

Encephalitis is a neurological disorder that results in the inflammation of the brain and sometimes the meninges. It is usually due to a viral infection. Most often arboviruses cause encephalitis, by transference via mosquitos to humans and animals. When bitten by an infected mosquito the virus moves from the mosquito into the person’s blood, it then reaches the brain and spinal cord, it multiplies within the central nervous system thus inflaming and damaging nerve cells, this interferes with signals from the brain to the rest of the body. The herpes simplex virus type one can commonly cause encephalitis. HIV has also been noted as an increasing cause of encephalitis. Viral infections like: mumps, chicken pox and measles can also cause encephalitis, but rarely.

Multiple Sclerosis and Guillain-Barré Syndrome are two autoimmune disorders of the nervous system that occur when the myelin sheath surrounding the axons of a nerve degenerate. Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the central nervous system while Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) involves the peripheral nervous system.1,2 MS is a gradually regressing disease that usually occurs in one of four ways. The first is relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and is the most common. Patients typically experience relapses where the symptoms are aggravated and enhanced followed by episodes of remissions during which the symptoms cease or calm down. 3 The second type is called secondary-progressive MS (SPMS). This type mimics RRMS but undergoes a steadier decline that may or may not include relapses3. The third type is primary-progressive MS (PPMS) where the disease progresses at a more regular rate from onset. PPMS, however, may speed up, slow down, or even plateau for a bit, but no remissions are present.3 Lastly, progressive-relapsing MS (PRMS), the least common type, presents similarly to PPMS in that the decline is steady, but this type of MS has exacerbations that the patient may or may not recover from.3 Unlike MS, Guillain-Barré does not present in types and characteristically attacks more rapidly.2 It is a poorly understood disease, however, research has shown that it is generally preceded by a bacterial or viral infection.4

Multiple Sclerosis, commonly known as MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Scientists have been studying MS since the 19th century. In MS, the body’s immune system produces cells and antibodies that attack myelin in your brain which is essential for the nerves in your brain and spinal cord to conduct electricity to perform its function. The attack on myelin results in vison loss, paralysis, numbness, muscle weakness, difficulty walking, stiffness, spasms, and bladder and bowel problems. MS has varying degrees of severity and affects people between the ages of 20-50, mostly women. Although there are treatments, there is no cause and cure yet.

The occipital lobe is in a posterior position and the function of the occipital lobe is vision including perception and colour and movement (Stannard Gromisch, 2012). Atrophy is described as a process of tissue wastage or cell death (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006). According to (Jones & Gaillard, 2005-2013) the pathology of PCA includes Neuritic plagues and neurofibrillary tangles which are found in the parieto-occipital and temporo-occipital areas, as well as occasionally in the primary visual cortex. It is thought that PCA is a version of AD, with very little difference in the pathology. “Neuritic plagues or senile plagues are extracellular and composed of a central core of beta-amyloid peptides aggregated together with fibrils of beta-amyloid, dystrophic neurites, reactive astrocytes, phagocytic cells, and other proteins and protein fragments derived from degenerating cells or liberated from neurons” (Weerakkody & Gaillard, 2005-2013).

The part of the brain that I picked is the Cerebellum. The Cerebellum is the part of the brain at the back of the skull in the vertebrates. Its function is to coordinate and regulate muscular activity. The Cerebellum is located behind the top part of the brain stem, it is where the spinal cord meets the brain, the Cerebellum is made of two hemispheres. The Cerebellum receives information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord, and other different parts of the brain, and then it also regulates motor movements. The Cerebellum coordinates voluntary movements such as posture, balance, coordination, and speech, and then it results in smooth and balanced muscular activity.

disease and Alzheimer’s. Severe infection that has spread to the brain, epilepsy, stroke, and the late

With such badly compromised immune systems people with AIDS get a growing number of serious sicknesses, they are called opportunistic diseases. With no treatment, the AIDS patients predictably survive about three years. The most usual Symptoms of AIDS are fever, chills, swollen, sweats, lymph glands, weight loss, and weakness. The diagnosis of AIDS is when the CD4 cell counts drops below 200 cells/mm or if they acquire certain opportunistic diseases. Being infected with the HIV can increase the viral load in

PCD is one of the most common and characteristic paraneoplastic syndromes. In series of patients with antibody-associated PNS, presentation with cerebellar signs occurred in 37%. Usually the syndrome starts acutely with nausea, vomiting, dizziness and slight incoordination of walking, evolving rapidly over weeks to a few months with progressive ataxia of gait, limbs and trunk, dysarthria and often nystagmus associated with oscillopsia. The disease is progressive in months and then stabilizes. By this time most patients are severely debilitated: walking without support, sitting unsupported and self-feeding becomes difficult while handwriting is often impossible. Signs are always bilateral but may

Three months after Accelerated approval on 18 February 2005, FDA shockingly received information from Biogen Idec of one confirmed death and one possible case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in patients receiving natalizumab for multiple sclerosis. There was a clear progressive association between treatment with natalizumab and the development of PML. As a selective blocker of adhesion molecules, natalizumab prevents the migration of immunocompetent T-cells across biological barriers and suppresses T-cell mediated immune responses. Risk of infections increases due to this therapeutic effect. PML is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease usually caused by opportunistic infection with John Cunningham virus, a papova virus, and occasionally after simian

The purpose of this project was for the interns to have a greater understanding of what kind of disabilities that they will be working with, not only at Adaptive, but also as a future physical therapist. For me personally, I have never heard of cerebellar ataxia before, and it was interesting to learn how the cerebrum works, and it vital role in movement. The idea for doing this project came from our instructor Jeff Krug. At the very start of the internship, he assigned all the interns a specific disability that we had to research and do a powerpoint on. Initially we were suppose to present them, but time did not allow this. Hopefully though, he will be able to use some of the information that I have presented for future interns, or even a

Some factors that contribute to the development of the disease are viral infection, environmental factors, genetic predisposition, and more importantly autoimmune inflammation (Cheng & Chen, 2014). During the inflammation process, the lymphocytes are stimulated and travel to the damage area in the brain and spinal cord. These cells then release pro-inflammatory cytokines to attack the myelin of the nerve fiber (Cheng & Chen, 2014). According to the research completed by Matsushita et al in 2013 suggested that chemokines play a significant role in recruiting macrophages and T lymphocytes to cause demyelination in the

In conclusion, the risk of PML was stratified based on the anti-JC virus antibodies status, the previous use of immunosuppressant, and the length of natalizumab treatments. In addition, the patients that

Encephalitis is a condition caused by viruses which cause the brain to become inflamed. There are two types of encephalitis one is called primary because the viruses affect the brain itself. Secondary is the viruses travel from some other part of the body that has been affect to the brain. When the virus reaches the brain it begins to multiply causing inflammation. The brain’s white matter can be destroyed. This destruction causes cell death, hemorrhage and edema. The edema begins to compress the blood vessels this causes intracranial pressure (Mayo Clinic, 2011).