Polioencephalitis Polioencephalitis Polioencephalitis is a viral infection of the brain, causing inflammation within the grey matter of the brain stem. The virus has an affinity for neuronal cell bodies and has been found to affect mostly the midbrain, pons, medulla and cerebellum of most infected patients. The infection can reach up through the thalamus and hypothalamus and possibly reach the cerebral hemispheres. The infection is caused by the poliomyelitis virus which is a single-stranded, positive sense RNA virus surrounded by a non-enveloped capsid. Humans are the only known natural hosts of this virus. The disease has been eliminated from the U.S.
Anatomy of the cerebellum the cerebellum. The SCA supplies blood to most of the cerebellar cortex, the cerebellar nuclei, and the superior cerebellar peduncles. The AICA branches off the lateral portion of the basilar artery, just superior to the junction of the vertebral arteries. From its origin, it branches along the inferior portion of the pons at the cerebellopontine angle before reaching the cerebellum. This artery supplies blood to the anterior portion of the inferior cerebellum, the middle cerebellar peduncle, and to the facial (CN VII) and vestibulocochlear nerves (CN VIII). Obstruction of the AICA can cause paresis, paralysis, and loss of sensation in