Lancet neurology
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Prediction of seizure likelihood with a long-term, implanted seizure advisory system in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy: a first-in-man study.
Seizure prediction would be clinically useful in patients with epilepsy and could improve safety, increase independence, and allow acute treatment. We did a multicentre clinical feasibility study to assess the safety and efficacy of a long-term implanted seizure advisory system designed to predict seizure likelihood and quantify seizures in adults with drug-resistant focal seizures. ⋯ NeuroVista.
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Multicenter Study
Eculizumab in AQP4-IgG-positive relapsing neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders: an open-label pilot study.
Complement activation after binding of an IgG autoantibody to aquaporin 4 (AQP4) is thought to be a major determinant of CNS inflammation and astrocytic injury in neuromyelitis optica. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of eculizumab--a therapeutic monoclonal IgG that neutralises the complement protein C5--in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders. ⋯ Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
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Thrombolysis with alteplase administered within a narrow therapeutic window provides an effective therapy for acute ischaemic stroke. However, mainly because of prehospital delay, patients often arrive too late for treatment, and no more than 1-8% of patients with stroke obtain this treatment. ⋯ Measures for improvement include continuous public awareness campaigns, education of emergency medical service personnel, the use of standardised, validated scales for recognition of stroke symptoms and for triaging to the appropriate institution, and advance notification to the receiving hospital. In the future, use of telemedicine technologies for interaction between the emergency site and hospital, and the strategy of treatment directly at the emergency site (mobile stroke unit concept), could contribute to more efficient use of resources and reduce the time taken to instigate treatment to within 60 min--the golden hour--of the onset of the symptoms of stroke.
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The pathway leading from soluble and monomeric to hyperphosphorylated, insoluble and filamentous tau protein is at the centre of many human neurodegenerative diseases, collectively referred to as tauopathies. Dominantly inherited mutations in MAPT, the gene that encodes tau, cause forms of frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism, proving that dysfunction of tau is sufficient to cause neurodegeneration and dementia. ⋯ These become self propagating and spread to distant brain regions in a prion-like manner. The prevention of tau aggregation and propagation is the focus of attempts to develop mechanism-based treatments for tauopathies.