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Introduction: The increasing number of foreign patients being attended in our health centres makes it necessary to have tests that are compatible among different countries, especially in Europe. The objective of this study is to compare the Eurotest with other screening tests and to determine whether there are any differences between European (other than Spanish) and Spanish patients., Patients and Methods: We included patients who were referred because of complaints that were compatible with cognitive impairment and they were asked to carry out a protocol of tests that included the global deterioration scale (GDS), Folstein's MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination), the Clock Test (CT) and the Eurotest. Epidemiological data were collected. The sample used in the study included 45 patients, 21 males and 24 females, with a mean age of 69.76 years; 34 were born in Spain and 11 abroad., Results: Diagnoses were 17 with mild cognitive impairment, 8 with Alzheimer's disease, 6 with age-associated impairment, 5 with vascular dementia, 5 with a psychiatric disorder, 1 with mixed dementia and 1 with dementia with Lewy bodies. The distribution according to the GDS was as follows: 10 with a GDS of 2, 18 with a GDS of 3, and 17 with a GDS of 4. All the patients with a GDS 2 completed the tests correctly, those with a GDS 3 scored below the cut-off point 5 for the Eurotest, 4 for the MMSE and 3 for CT, and in the GDS 4 they were 9, 7 and 6, respectively. Results did not vary between Spaniards and foreigners, the kappa index between MMSE and the Eurotest was 0.39 and the Pearson coefficient was 0.67., Conclusion: The Eurotest was slightly more useful in patients with a greater degree of impairment.

Allopurinol is a drug of wide clinical use and good tolerance. Some patients develop severe hypersensitivity due to immunologic reaction to the drug. A new case which fulfills all the diagnostic criteria of the syndrome of allopurinol hypersensitivity with associated clinical manifestations of multiple mononeuritis and evidence of granulomas and vasculitis in liver biopsy as the most significant data is reported. The syndrome was favorably resolved following withdrawal of the drug without need for corticoid therapy. The characteristics of the cases described in the Spanish literature over the last few years are globally reviewed. The absence of mortality is of note. The inconvenience of prescribing allopurinol to patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia is emphasized.

A retrospective study of 35 non-hypertensive intraparenchymal brain hematomas (NHBH) is made to evaluate their etiopathogenesis and the therapeutic approaches employed. A comparison is made with the hypertensive hematomas seen during the same period. Among the NHBH there were 5 vascular malformations (VM (14%), 5 hematomas secondary to brain tumors (14%), 2 amyloid angiopathies (6%), 2 cases of coagulation dysfunction (6%), 3 hematomas secondary to anticoagulation therapy (9%), and one hematoma in an intravenous drug abuser (3%). No etiological diagnosis was established in the remaining 17 cases (48%). The NHBH were predominantly lobar (43%), and incidence was greater among young patients. Mortality was 20%. All cases were diagnosed by brain CT, the latter suggesting pathology underlying the hematoma in 3 tumoral hematomas, in 2 VM confirmed arteriographically, and in one patient with suspect VM not confirmed by angiography. A total of 22 angiographies were performed: the latter were diagnostic in all VMs and negative in the tumor hematomas, amyloid angiopathies and in those hematomas of unknown etiology where angiography was performed. Fifteen patients were operated on. We recommend that in patients with brain hematomas but without antecedents of arterial hypertension or with an atypically situated hematoma, a careful examination should be carried out to discard all possible causes of brain hemorrhage, together with the early performing of contrasted CT scans and posterior angiography. If the latter prove negative, the patient should undergo a clinico-radiological follow-up, together with an histological study of the blood clot if operated on.

We report three patients who presented pain in the sciatic-crural region as presenting feature of an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta. The first patient developed a fullblown plexopathy with bad condition due to a large aneurysm of common iliac artery. The remaining two patients had abdominal aneurysms each that manifested as femoral neuropathy in one case and as L5-S1 radiculopathy in the other patient. The mechanism of neural involvement is discussed and those clinical and radiologic findings which may prompt us to think of such etiology in front of painful clinical pictures in this region are emphasized.