Fukusako T

Acute myopathy after liver transplantation

To the Editor: We were interested in the article by Campellone et al.1 Liver transplantations were performed in adult patients with liver failure. The authors reported a necrotizing myopathy with loss of myosin thick filaments and a focal accumulation of lipid. They did not mention carnitine despite the fact that the cirrhotic patients showed significant hypocarnitinemia.2 We reported an …

Corticobasal degeneration: MRI and SPECT

We studied seven patients (4 men and 3 women, aged 64–82 years) diagnosed clinically as having corticobasal degeneration. MRI was performed on a 1.5 T MRI unit using a T2-weighted spin echo (SE) sequence (TR 3000, TE 80–90 ms), a T1-weighted SE sequence (TR 550–600, TE 15–20 ms) and a proton density-weighted SE sequence (TR 3000 ms, TE 12–22 ms). Brain perfusion SPECT studies were performed in six patients with 123I-IMP and in one patient with 99mTc-HMPAO. MRI revealed diffuse brain atrophy in six patients and asymmetrical front parietal atrophy, especially in posterior central gyri and superior parietal lobules, in four contralateral to the most affected limbs. SPECT disclosed a decrease in cerebral blood flow in two patients in the thalamus or basal ganglia on the side opposite the affected limbs.