Search

An 81-year-old man presented with limb weakness and dysesthesia approximately 10 days after eating pork liver. His neurological examination revealed muscle weakness predominantly centered in the lower limbs and absence of deep tendon reflex, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis showed elevated proteins with normal cell counts. Furthermore, his nerve conduction studies revealed distal motor latency prolongation and decreased motor nerve conduction velocities in the bilateral median, ulnar, tibial, and peroneal nerves. Lastly, serological analysis was performed for hepatitis E virus markers, resulting in a positive result for hepatitis E virus (HEV)-IgA antibody and HEV-RNA. Given all these findings, the patient was diagnosed with acute HEV-associated Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment was administered for five days. Following this, muscle weakness and dysesthesia gradually improved. As observed in this report, the number of HEV-associated GBS cases has been increasing over the past several years. Therefore, HEV infection should be considered in GBS patients who have a history of pork consumption or have been suffering from liver dysfunction.

We experienced a case of carotid free-floating thrombus treated by carotid ultrasonography-guided endovascular approach. A 63-year-old man was brought to our hospital with the chief complaint of sudden onset left hemiplegia. MRI revealed acute infarction of the right MCA territory due to the right M1 occlusion. Carotid ultrasonography showed a pedunculated, polypoid mobile plaque floating with the cardiac beat. We attempted ultrasonography-guided endovascular treatment. Under proximal balloon protection, the floating plaque was successfully aspirated into the Penumbra aspiration catheter. Carotid stent was also placed to stabilize the residual pedicle of the plaque. Aspirated plaque was identified as fresh thrombus by pathological examination. Carotid ultrasonography-guided endovascular approach was effective for getting the picture of real-time dynamics of the carotid FFT.