Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2012
Non-invasive ventilation in motor neuron disease: an update of current UK practice.
In motor neurone disease (MND), respiratory muscle weakness causes substantial morbidity, and death is usually due to respiratory failure. Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) improves symptoms, quality of life and survival, but previous surveys showed that few patients with MND received NIV. ⋯ Compared with 2000, there has been a marked increase in the number of patients referred for, and currently using, NIV (2.6 and 3.4-fold, respectively). The proportion successfully established on NIV has also increased, suggesting more appropriate selection and/or improvement in the methods of using NIV in this challenging group of patients. However, monitoring of respiratory function is suboptimal and uncontrolled oxygen is sometimes used inappropriately before the terminal phase.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2012
Letter Case ReportsMyasthenia gravis can cause camptocormia.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2012
Subcortical white matter hyperintensities within the cholinergic pathways of Parkinson's disease patients according to cognitive status.
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) in the cholinergic pathways show a stronger correlation with cognitive performance than general WMH in Alzheimer's disease. However, the role of WMH within the cholinergic pathways in cognitive dysfunction has not been investigated in Parkinson's disease (PD). ⋯ This study demonstrated that the burden of WMH within cholinergic pathways was significantly higher in patients with PDD relative to other groups, and that cholinergic WMH was significantly correlated with a decline in frontal executive function and attention.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2012
Functional connectivity of dissociation in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) resemble epileptic seizures, but lack epileptiform brain activity. Instead, the cause is assumed to be psychogenic. An abnormal coping strategy may be exhibited by PNES patients, as indicated by their increased tendency to dissociate. Investigation of resting-state networks may reveal altered routes of information and emotion processing in PNES patients. The authors therefore investigated whether PNES patients differ from healthy controls in their resting-state functional connectivity characteristics and whether these connections are associated with the tendency to dissociate. ⋯ The abnormal, strong functional connectivity in PNES patients provides a neurophysiological correlate for the underlying psychoform and somatoform dissociation mechanism where emotion can influence executive control, resulting in altered motor function (eg, seizure-like episodes).