Heart and brain interaction is an increasingly vital area of clinical investigation. This is the most comprehensive review of the subject available, presented by internationally recognized authorities in the field. The book offers extensive coverage of cardioembolic stroke, including a brand new contribution on the mechanism of hemorrhagic infarction. Controversial topics such as anticoagulation, combined carotid and coronary surgery and screening for silent coronary disease are covered. Also included are a comprehensive review of the cardiovascular/neurobiological role of the central nervous...

Hughlings Jackson, the noted English neurologist, fathered many ideas that today still underlie our understanding of common clinical phenomena. This is a reappraisal of Jackson's work, both within its historical framework and in light of modern concepts of neurology. The approach is new, combining historical, clinical and basic scientific information in one synthesis on the organization and function of the nervous system. The concept of levels of function is addressed, specifically with regard to areas of brain function; and the hierarchical strategy is considered as part of the current...

The period that followed World War II has witnessed a dramatic change in neurology. From being a discipline in which its partici pants were castigated for being interested solely in diagnosis, usually of disorders of unknown causation without effective therapy, neurology has evolved into a highly active treatment orientated subject. This transition is clearly reflected in the ap proach to diseases of the peripheral nervous system, and to the Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in particular. In a state-of-the art review made in 1952, Elkington (1952) observed that no less than 56% of neuropathies...

Multiple sclerosis is one of the major current problems in neurol- ogical practice. It remains incompletely understood, yet is a common cause of chronic disability in developed Western so- cieties: Patients with the disease have difficulty understanding what has happened to them and become bewildered by the con- trast between the evidently large body of knowledge concerning the clinical manifestations and course of the disease, and the conflicting views they so often receive from different specialists as to the best current management of their disease. As in so many disorders for which...

Epilepsy is among the most common scourges afflicting the health of humankind and perhaps the most terrifying. In one form or another, it is suffered by one in everyone hundred people on earth, with a disproportionate prevalence at the early and late extremes of life. There is nothing sacred or sanctifying about it in spite of Hippoc- rates' terming epilepsy "The Sacred Disease" in a famous treatise. There is nothing ennobling about it despite its occasional designa- tion as a "noble disorder" by virtue of i ts having affected the likes of Alexander of Macedon, Julius Caesar and other persons...

Traditionally, investigation of the nervous system has been primarily a clinical matter. The great era of clinical assessment of patients with neurological disease in the first half of the century was determined by the necessity both to understand the phenomena of neurological disease in relation to structure and function and to localise lesions, in order to facilitate the twin processes of diagnosis and management. Over the years diverse techniques have been applied to clinical practice in order to improve the accuracy of diagnosis. These have comprised extensions of clinical method, for...