Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2003
Gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery for unilateral acoustic neuromas.
To evaluate the clinical results achievable using current techniques of gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery to treat sporadic unilateral acoustic neuromas. ⋯ Tumour control rates, while difficult to define, are comparable after radiosurgery with those experienced after surgery. The complications and morbidity after radiosurgery are far less frequent than those encountered after surgery. This, combined with its minimally invasive nature, may make radiosurgery increasingly the treatment of choice for small and medium sized acoustic neuromas.
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Ion channels provide the basis for the regulation of electrical excitability in the central and peripheral nervous systems. This review deals with the techniques that make the study of structure and function of single channel molecules in living cells possible. These are the patch clamp technique, which was derived from the conventional voltage clamp method and is currently being developed for automated and high throughput measurements; and fluorescence and nano-techniques, which were originally applied to non-biological surfaces and are only recently being used to study cell membranes and their proteins, especially in combination with the patch clamp technique. The characterisation of the membrane channels by techniques that resolve their morphological and physical properties and dynamics in space and time in the nano range is termed nanoscopy.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2003
Psychopathology in people with epilepsy and intellectual disability; an investigation of potential explanatory variables.
There are few studies on epilepsy and psychopathology in people with intellectual disability (mental retardation) despite epilepsy prevalence rates that are thirty times higher than in the general population. The aims of this study, therefore, were to identify reliable, epilepsy-specific predictors of psychiatric and behavioural disorder in these patients, and to investigate reliable predictors of carer stress. ⋯ Although epilepsy in itself may be a risk factor for psychopathology in a minority of people with intellectual disability, some epilepsy-specific factors may predict psychiatric disorder. Behavioural problems need to be considered separately from psychiatric disorder because general factors, more closely associated with disability, are stronger predictors of their occurrence.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2003
Medical and environmental risk factors for sporadic frontotemporal dementia: a retrospective case-control study.
A retrospective case-control study was carried out on 80 patients with sporadic frontotemporal dementia and 124 age, sex, and surrogate informant matched controls with respect to various medical and environmental risk factors. Head trauma was associated with an odds ratio of 3.3 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.3 to 8.1). ⋯ Thyroid disease was associated with a 2.5 times increased risk of frontotemporal dementia (95% CI, 0.9 to 7.9), which was not statistically significant (p = 0.09) owing to limited power. As altered thyroid hormone status has been observed before in frontotemporal dementia, future studies will be important to confirm this observation.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2003
Prevalence and impact of depression and pain in neurology outpatients.
We examined the prevalence and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of depression and/or pain in neurology outpatients. ⋯ Depression and pain are common in newly referred neurology outpatients and have substantial negative effects on patients' physical and mental health. Pain is more likely than depression to be recognised and treated by neurologists.