Brain & Nervous System Disorders

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• QWhat is prosopagnosia?

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  A Sigma Nursing answered

  Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia. The term "prosopagnosia" comes from the Greek words for "face" and "lack of knowledge." Depending on the degree of impairment, some people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty recognizing a familiar face, others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces, and some may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object. Some people with the disorder are unable to recognize their own face. Prosopagnosia is not related to memory dysfunction, memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities. It is thought to be the result of abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, which is a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neural systems that control facial perception and memory. Prosopagnosia can result from a stroke, a traumatic brain injury, or certain neurodegenerative diseases. In some cases, prosopagnosia is a congenital disorder, present at birth in the absence of any brain damage. Congenital prosopagnosia appears to run in families, which makes it likely to be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. Some degree of prosopagnosia is often present in children with autism and Asperger's syndrome and may be the cause of their impaired social development.

  This answer is based on source information from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

• QWhat causes tremor besides Parkinson’s disease?

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  A St Francis Medical Center answered

  There are other conditions that cause tremor besides Parkinson's disease. For example, essential tremor is a different form of tremor. A person with a tremor and the following characteristics may have essential tremor rather than Parkinson's disease:

  • lifelong tremors
  • tremors in both hands instead of one hand
  • tremors that get really bad in social situations
  • tremors that sometimes get a little better with alcohol consumption
  • tremors in the head where the head bobs up and down
  • family history where other people in the family have these types of tremors in both hands or in their head

  Following are characteristics of tremor and other things not related to tremor that can be more consistent with Parkinson's disease:

  • advanced age
  • tremor starts on one side
  • increased stiffness on the same side as tremor
  • tremor happens primarily at rest
  • tremor goes away with activity
  • decreased arm swing
  • worsening feeling of balance
  • sleep disturbances
  • constipation

  All of these are good enough reasons to get an evaluation with a neurologist or a movement disorder specialist to find out if they could be related to Parkinson's disease.

  Trinity Health is a Catholic health care organization that acts in accordance with the Catholic tradition and does not condone or support all practices covered in this site. In case of emergency call 911. This site is educational and not a substitute for professional medical advice, always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider.

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• QWhat are the causes and risk factors of microcephaly?

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  A Chippenham Hospital - HCA Virginia answered

  Unfortunately we don’t know what causes microcephaly. Some babies have it because of changes in their genes. Conditions like Zika virus, rubella, toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus may cause it. There also seems to be a possible link with severe malnutrition, but we haven’t nailed down exactly what that link is.

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• QWhat is microcephaly?

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  A March of Dimes answered

  Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby’s head is smaller than expected, compared to babies of the same sex and age. Babies with mild microcephaly often don’t have problems other than small head size. Babies with severe microcephaly may have lifelong health problems, including intellectual and developmental disabilities.

  We don’t know for sure what causes microcephaly in most babies, but these things may cause microcephaly in some babies:

  • Gene changes (also called mutations) or chromosomal conditions
  • Being exposed to alcohol or certain drugs or chemicals in the womb
  • Being exposed to certain infections in the womb, including Zika virus, chickenpox (also called varicella), rubella (also called German measles), toxoplasmosis or cytomegalovirus
  • Brain problems, like cerebral anoxia, craniosynostosis or traumatic brain injury
  • Metabolism or nutrition problems

  Learn more at marchofdimes.org/microcephaly

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• QCan aspirin be used to treat moyamoya?

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  A UCLA Health answered

  Aspirin is not recommended as long-term treatment for people with moyamoya. While aspirin is frequently prescribed to bridge a patient to surgical treatment for moyamoya, if doctors wait for surgery just utilizing aspirin, about half the patients will still progress with strokes and other symptoms due to moyamoya.

• QWhat can I do if my child has headaches and I suspect moyamoya?

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  A UCLA Health answered

  If you suspect that your child has headaches due to moyamoya and also has other neurologic symptoms such as weakness on one side of the body or face, speech difficulties that come and go, or neurocognitive decline, then your child should be evaluated by a pediatric neurologist. In the workup for your child, in the appropriate setting, the pediatric neurologist may order a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to look for moyamoya. Headaches happen a lot, but it is also a rare presentation of moyamoya, and treatment of headaches related to moyamoya is often very effective in relieving those headaches.

• QWhich children are good candidates for moyamoya surgery?

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  A UCLA Health answered

  Children are good candidates for moyamoya surgery if they have symptoms attributable to moyamoya and angiographic findings suggestive of progressive moyamoya. These findings include a Suzuki grade 2 angiographic appearance or "ivy sign" on a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

• QIs moyamoya hereditary?

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  A UCLA Health answered

  Moyamoya is hereditary in only approximately 15 percent of cases. In the other 85 percent, it happens sporadically, without a hereditary basis.

• QWhat are the benefits of having moyamoya surgery at a high-volume facility?

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  A UCLA Health answered

  There are benefits to having moyamoya surgery done at a high-volume facility. One study showed that patients are exceedingly more likely to go home without any in-hospital complications if their procedures are done at high-volume centers familiar with moyamoya patients.

• QIs one type of surgical bypass technique for moyamoya better than another?

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  A UCLA Health answered

  The direct surgical bypass technique for moyamoya has theoretical benefits over indirect bypass, but its superiority remains unproven. At this point, both have been proven very effective. While very few centers have expertise in direct bypass techniques, we at UCLA use a number of proprietary advanced imaging modalities and assessments to create recommendations for each individual person as appropriate for their situation.