European neurology
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In acute stroke patients, there is a need for noninvasive measurement to monitor blood flow-based therapies. We investigated the utility of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to determine cerebral perfusion in these patients. ⋯ Noninvasive measurements of cerebral ICG kinetics by NIRS provide a useful means of detecting cerebral perfusion deficits in patients with acute stroke, which correlate well with those obtained by PWI.
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Biography Historical Article
Crime, hysteria and belle époque hypnotism: the path traced by Jean-Martin Charcot and Georges Gilles de la Tourette.
Hysteria and hypnotism became a favorite topic of studies in the fin de siècle neurology that emerged from the school organized at La Salpêtrière by Jean-Martin Charcot, where he had arrived in 1861. Georges Gilles de la Tourette started working with Charcot in 1884 and probably remained his most faithful student, even after his mentor's death in 1893. This collaboration was particularly intense on 'criminal hypnotism', an issue on which Hippolyte Bernheim and his colleagues from the Nancy School challenged the positions taken by the Salpêtrière School. ⋯ It was subsequently shown that hypnotism had nothing to do with it. The delusional woman was interned at Sainte-Anne for mental disturbance, thus escaping trial. Ironically, Gilles de la Tourette may have been partly responsible, since he had been one of the strongest proponents of placing mentally-ill criminals in asylums instead of prisons.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Controlled-release oxycodone and pregabalin in the treatment of neuropathic pain: results of a multicenter Italian study.
The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy, safety, and quality of life of combination therapy with controlled-release (CR) oxycodone plus pregabalin versus monotherapy with either CR oxycodone or pregabalin in patients with neuropathic pain. ⋯ The combination of CR oxycodone plus pregabalin may represent a valuable addition to the existing pharmacotherapy for neuropathic pain and warrants further investigation.
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The aim of this study was to investigate sleep architecture in stroke patients, and correlate possible disturbances with the topography, severity and outcome of stroke and the presence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). In total, 62 acute stroke patients and 16 age- and gender-matched hospitalised controls underwent polysomnographic studies. Sleep architecture was analysed according to the topography of lesion, severity (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) and outcome (Barthel Index) of stroke. ⋯ Sleep architecture is impaired in stroke patients (with fragmentation, increased wakefulness and reduced slow wave sleep), and this correlates with severity and outcome. Sleep disturbances should be investigated and addressed in these patients. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and assess the clinical and therapeutic implications.
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Biography Historical Article
Sir Samuel Wilks (1824-1911): 'the most philosophical of english physicians'.
This paper retells some of the achievements and personal attributes of Sir Samuel Wilks, one of the great Guy's Hospital physicians and neurologists of the second half of the 19th century. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, president of the Royal College of Physicians, and physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria. A prolific author and original observer of clinical and pathological diseases, he was renowned for his Lectures on Pathological Anatomy, and his original descriptions of syphilis, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel diseases, and myasthenia gravis.