The primary malignant melanoma of spinal cord is a rare tumor cause of compression of the cord 6)7). We are reporting a case of malignant melanoma, apparently originating from leptomeninges, of with diffuse neoplastic process widely spreaded over the area of cervicothoracic spinal cord of 34-yr-old woman.
Female ; Humans ; Melanocytes ; Melanoma* ; Spinal Cord*

Cerebral cysticercosis is unfortunately a frequent disease in Korea. Cysticercosis in the ventricular system is most frequently found in the fourth ventricle. However it is found rarely in the lateral and third ventricle. Recently, we have encountered accidently a lateral ventricular cysticercosis during a V-P Shunt operation on a 32 year old hydrocephalus patient. The diagnosis was confirmed by the presence of an encysted larvae on aspiration.
Adult ; Cysticercosis* ; Diagnosis ; Fourth Ventricle ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Korea ; Larva ; Lateral Ventricles* ; Third Ventricle

Spinal meningiomas are most commonly found in the thoracic sections while it is extremely rare in the cervical, lumbar and sacral regions. In Elsberg's series, there were 10 cervical, 59 thoracic and 4 lumbar ; none below the 3rd lumbar segment. Recently, we encountered a case of cauda equina meningioma and was completely extirpated with no remnants of any neurological deficits.
Cauda Equina* ; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory ; Meningioma* ; Sacrococcygeal Region

INTRODUCTION: Adult stem cells generate differentiated cells beyond their own tissue boundaries. To prove that stem cells derived from bone marrow is capable of therapeutic application in cerebral ischemic patients, we performed this study. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We transplanted adult stem cells derived from bone marrow of the patient's iliac bone to 5 patients with cerebral infarction. Of 5 patients, two patients had internal carotid artery occlusion, two patients had severe stenosis of the middle cerebral artery, remaining one patient had occlusion of the branch of the middle cerebral artery. At first, we performed extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery in all patients, and then implanted bone marrow stem cell in the infarcted brain and boder zone area directly under the microscopic navigator and also injected bone marrow stem cells through the grafted vessel to the infarcted area. Two weeks after bypass surgery, we confirmed the patency of bypass graft with external carotid angiography. In the same setting, mesenchymal stem cells acquired from autologous bone marrow were superselectively injected into the bypass graft via a microcatheter. Postoperative evaluation of the patients was decided to the neurological status and the degree of reduction of the high signal area on the T2 image of the postoperative MRI. RESULT: All patients who underwent bypass surgery with stem cell implantation had an uneventful postoperative course and showed some improvement of preoperative neurologic dysfunction. Postoperative significant improvement of cerebral vasoreactivity to acetazolamide was showed in all patients. On postoperative 3 months MRI, three patients showed significant reduction of the high signal area on the T2 image, and also improved neurological status on those patients. Other one patient showed moderate degree of the reduction of the high signal area on T2 image of the postoperative MRI, but neurological status of that patient slightly improved. Remaining one patient who showed poor circulation via bypass graft does neither reduction of the high signal area on T2 image of the postoperative MRI nor improvement of the neurological status of that patient. CONCLUSION: In patients of fixed cerebral infarction with major neurologic deficit, EC-IC bypass surgery is not effective, even though infarcted area filled by grafted vessel extensively. In those patients, autologous bone marrow stem cell implantation combined with bypass seems to be expect neuronal regeneration.
Acetazolamide ; Adult Stem Cells ; Angiography ; Bone Marrow* ; Brain ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Cerebral Infarction* ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Neurons* ; Regeneration* ; Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Stem Cells* ; Transplants