Czech Neurology Board Examination key terms

A lateral medullary infarct, usually from vertebral or posterior inferior cerebellar artery occlusion, causing ipsilateral Horner sign, facial numbness and ataxia with contralateral pain and temperature loss.

Impaired adduction of one eye with abducting nystagmus of the other on lateral gaze, caused by a lesion of the medial longitudinal fasciculus, typically demyelinating in young adults or vascular in the elderly.

A 15-item scored bedside scale quantifying stroke deficit severity across consciousness, gaze, visual fields, motor, sensory, language and neglect domains; it guides thrombolysis decisions and serial monitoring.

A 10-point grading system applied to non-contrast CT that quantifies early ischaemic change in the middle cerebral artery territory, where lower scores indicate more extensive infarction and poorer prognosis.

The interval after symptom onset within which intravenous alteplase or tenecteplase may be given; standard eligibility extends to 4.5 hours, with selected patients treated later using perfusion imaging.

The difference between hypoperfused but salvageable brain tissue and already infarcted core on CT or MR perfusion; a favourable ratio supports reperfusion therapy in late-presenting stroke.

A continuous seizure lasting five minutes or more, or repeated seizures without recovery of consciousness, requiring immediate benzodiazepine treatment and escalation to second-line antiepileptic drugs.

Prolonged electrographic seizure activity without prominent motor manifestations, presenting as confusion or coma; diagnosis requires EEG because clinical signs alone are unreliable.

Generalised epileptiform discharges triggered by intermittent photic stimulation during EEG, seen in idiopathic generalised epilepsies and a marker of photosensitivity.

Centrotemporal sharp waves on EEG, activated by drowsiness and sleep, that define self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes in children, often with nocturnal facial motor seizures.

An idiopathic generalised epilepsy beginning in adolescence with morning myoclonic jerks, generalised tonic-clonic seizures and sometimes absences, showing generalised spike-wave discharges and lifelong valproate responsiveness.

An overnight multichannel recording of EEG, eye movements, muscle tone, respiration, oxygen saturation and ECG used to diagnose sleep apnoea, narcolepsy and parasomnias and to score sleep architecture.

A daytime protocol of four or five scheduled nap opportunities measuring mean sleep latency and sleep-onset REM periods; short latency with two or more REM onsets supports narcolepsy.

Sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone provoked by emotion, such as laughter, while consciousness is preserved; it is a hallmark of narcolepsy type 1 and reflects hypocretin deficiency.

An acute immune-mediated polyradiculoneuropathy causing ascending flaccid weakness and areflexia, often after infection, with albuminocytological dissociation in cerebrospinal fluid and risk of respiratory failure.

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid protein without proportionate cell count elevation, characteristic of Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy but also seen in some tumours.

Ganglioside antibodies associated with Miller Fisher syndrome and pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variants, causing ophthalmoplegia, ataxia and areflexia through complement-mediated neuromuscular junction and nerve damage.

A nerve conduction technique delivering trains of stimuli to detect decrement of the compound muscle action potential, indicating impaired neuromuscular transmission in myasthenia gravis or Lambert-Eaton syndrome.

A needle electromyography method measuring jitter and blocking between two muscle fibres of the same motor unit, the most sensitive test for neuromuscular junction disorders.

Restricted immunoglobulin G bands in cerebrospinal fluid absent from paired serum, indicating intrathecal synthesis; they support a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and are seen in other inflammatory central nervous system diseases.

Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis requiring dissemination of demyelinating lesions in space and time, demonstrated clinically, by MRI or by cerebrospinal fluid findings, with no better explanation.

An astrocytopathy caused by antibodies to aquaporin-4, producing severe optic neuritis, longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis and area postrema syndrome, with relapses rather than a progressive course.

A clinical syndrome of bradykinesia with rigidity or resting tremor, arising from nigrostriatal dopaminergic loss or from drugs, vascular disease and atypical neurodegenerative conditions.

Involuntary choreiform or dystonic movements appearing during the peak effect of levodopa after years of treatment, reflecting pulsatile dopaminergic stimulation and altered basal ganglia plasticity.

Implanted electrodes delivering high-frequency current to targets such as the subthalamic nucleus or globus pallidus internus, used for advanced Parkinson disease, tremor and dystonia.

A neurodegenerative dementia with fluctuating cognition, visual hallucinations, parkinsonism and REM sleep behaviour disorder, showing reduced striatal dopamine uptake and alpha-synuclein deposits.

Headache preceded by reversible focal neurological symptoms, most often visual, that develop gradually and last under an hour, reflecting cortical spreading depression; it raises stroke risk in some groups.

A trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia of severe unilateral periorbital pain with ipsilateral tearing, ptosis and rhinorrhoea, occurring in circadian bouts and treated acutely with high-flow oxygen or triptans.

Paroxysmal electric-shock pain in one or more trigeminal divisions triggered by touch, chewing or cold, usually caused by vascular compression of the nerve root and treated with carbamazepine.

Chronic daily headache arising from frequent use of acute analgesics or triptans in a susceptible person, requiring withdrawal of the overused drug and preventive treatment.

Far-field recordings of waves generated along the auditory pathway from the eighth nerve to the inferior colliculus, used to detect retrocochlear lesions and to monitor the brainstem during surgery.

A score from three to fifteen combining eye opening, verbal response and best motor response, used to grade impaired consciousness and to detect neurological deterioration.

The clinical and ancillary conditions establishing irreversible loss of brain function: unresponsive coma, absent brainstem reflexes, apnoea and exclusion of confounding factors such as hypothermia, drugs or metabolic disturbance.

Continuous measurement of pressure within the skull using ventricular, parenchymal or subdural devices, guiding treatment of raised pressure after trauma or large hemispheric infarction.

A one-page screening instrument scoring attention, executive function, memory, language, visuospatial ability and orientation, more sensitive than the Mini-Mental State Examination for mild cognitive impairment.

Quadriplegia with preserved consciousness and vertical eye movement, caused by a ventral pontine lesion, most often basilar artery occlusion; it must be distinguished from coma and brain death.

The patient's voluntary agreement to a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure after receiving comprehensible information about its purpose, benefits, risks and alternatives, documented before elective interventions.