Objectives – Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the European region. In spite of a decreasing trend, stroke related mortality remains higher in Hungary and Romania when compared to the EU average. This might be due to higher incidence, increased severity or even less effective care. Methods – In this study we used two large, hospital based databases from Targu Mures (Romania) and Debrecen (Hungary) to compare not only the demographic characteristics of stroke patients from these countries but also the risk factors, as well as stroke severity and short term outcome. Results – The gender related distribution of patients was similar to those found in the European Survey, whereas the mean age of patients at stroke onset was similar in the two countries but lower by four years. Although the length of hospital stay was significantly different in the two countries it was still much shorter (about half) than in most reports from western European countries. The overall fatality rate in both databases, regardless of gender was comparable to averages from Europe and other countries. In both countries we found a high number of risk factors, frequently overlapping. The prevalence of risk factors (hypertension, smoking, hyperlipidaemia) was higher than those reported in other countries, which can explain the high ratio of recurring stroke. Discussion – In summary, the comparatively analyzed data from the two large databases showed several similarities, especially regarding the high number of modifiable risk factors, and as such further effort is needed regarding primary prevention.

Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD) is a rare alcohol-associated disorder characterized by demyelination and necrosis of the corpus callosum. We report three patients who had history of chronic alcoholism, different clinical presentation and MRI findings consistent with the diagnosis of Marchiafava-Bignami disease.

[The balance parameters and the loading symmetry was assessed in a subject with anterior cruciate ligament deficiency. A 14 days intensive training was performed mainly with eyes closed in closed kinematic chain exercises, loading the affected limb. Stabilometry and the assessment of loading symmetry was performed. The sway path was calculated in two direction. The sway path comparisons did not revealed significant differences only a tendency of decrease in anteroposterior direction. Interestingly we found an increased loading of the affected limb after our intensive training, with a mismatch between the subjective perceived symmetry and the objective symmetry data. The changed symmetry perception might be explained with the change in proprioceptive information processing induced by the training. In the future further examinations with higher case number are necessary to support this result. ]

[Lack of neurologists has become an obvious problem recently in Hungary, not only in small hospitals, but in major health care centers and also in university hospitals. With the current survey we set forth to estimate the number of board certified neurologists, and to evaluate the foreseeable changes in the next decade. In the beginning of 2010 there were 1310 physicians in Hungary with an official license to practice neurology. During 2009 neurological performance at least once during the year was claimed to the National Health Insurance Fund by 948 board certified neurologists. The number of those neurologists who are routinely involved in neurological patient care was estimated to be around 750. The lack of the young generation is characteristic for the age distribution of neurologists. In nine out of the 19 counties of Hungary the number of neurologists below the age of 35 is one or nil. In the ten-year period of 2000-2009 the annual mean number of new board certifications in neurology was 22. This number is much lower than that needed to replace those who get employed abroad and who leave the system for other reasons. The number of neurologists in the age range of 40-60 years will drop to 2/3 of the current number by 2020 even if emigration of neurologists will completely halt. If emigration will continue at the current rate and the number of those in neurological training will not increase considerably, then by 2020 only about 300 neurologists will have to cover neurological services throughout Hungary. As this number is insufficient for the task, and the tendency is clearly foreseeable, the health care government should urgently react to this situation to ensure an acceptable level of neurological services in the near future for the population of Hungary.]

[The most effective type of epilepsy surgery in adults is temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery. Three quarter of the patients become seizure free, however the remaining patients experience seizures after resection. In our study we analyzed retrospectively the possible electro-clinical, neuroimaging and surgery-related outcome predictors in 94 adult patients who had anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) from the material of Epilepsy Centre of the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Budapest since the beginning of the surgery program in 1989 until 2001. Three outcome endpoints were chosen: the seizure status at the last visit, the longest seizure free period and the time to the first non-acute postoperative seizure. The predictors were assessed by multivariate and Cox regression methods. After one year of surgery 72% of the patients were seizure free, after two years 67% and after five years 59%. Factors predicting favorable outcome in TLE surgery were: typical temporomesial aura, strictly unilateral interictal anterotemporal spikes, unilateral ictal onset, slow contralateral propagation, hippocampal sclerosis (HS) as etiology. Factors predicting poor outcome in TLE surgery were: increase in seizure frequency in the last two preoperative years, presence of preoperative psychiatric disturbances, ictal contralateral propagation, MRI lesion distant from the surgery site, incongruency of data of preoperative investigations, postoperative sequels and non-HS type MR residuum.]