Restor Neurol Neuros
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Restor Neurol Neuros · Jan 2006
Comparative StudyImpact of creatine kinase correction on the predictive value of S-100B after mild traumatic brain injury.
To validate a correction factor for the extracranial release of the astroglial protein, S-100B, based on concomitant creatine kinase (CK) levels. ⋯ Although S-100B is overall poorly predictive of outcome, a correction factor using CK is a valid means of accounting for extracranial release. By increasing the proportion of mild TBI patients correctly categorized as low risk for abnormal head CT, CK-corrected S100-B can further reduce the number of unnecessary brain CT scans performed after this injury.
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Restor Neurol Neuros · Jan 2006
ReviewStatin-mediated protective effects in the central nervous system: general mechanisms and putative role of stress proteins.
The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, or "statins", are used as cholesterol-lowering agents worldwide. This review, focused on recent experimental and clinical data, summarizes general mechanisms of statin actions underlying neuroprotective effects in the central nervous system (CNS) and presents evidence for putative mechanisms involving heat shock proteins and the survival-related PI-3K/Akt pathway that may be beneficial for the treatment of neurological disorders. ⋯ Available data suggest that statins may be of potential therapeutic use in a variety of diseases of the CNS including ischemic stroke, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and some forms of retinal and eye diseases. Before general recommendations can be made and specific therapeutic approaches can be developed, more reliable clinical data and studies are required, and possible side effects must be carefully evaluated.
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Restor Neurol Neuros · Jan 2006
ReviewNeglect and prism adaptation: a new therapeutic tool for spatial cognition disorders.
A large proportion of right-hemisphere stroke patients show unilateral neglect, a neurological deficit of perception, attention, representation, and/or performing actions within their left-sided space, inducing many functional debilitating effects on everyday life, and responsible for poor functional recovery and ability to benefit from treatment. This spatial cognition disorder affects the orientation of behaviour with a shift of proprioceptive representations toward the lesion side. ⋯ These cognitive effects of prism adaptation suggest that prism adaptation does not act specifically on the ipsilesional bias characteristic of unilateral neglect but rehabilitates more generally the visuo-spatial functions attributed to the right cortical hemisphere. These results reinforce the idea that the process of prism adaptation may activate brain functions related to multisensory integration and higher spatial representations and show a generalization at a functional level. Prism adaptation therefore appears as a new powerful therapeutic tool for spatial cognition disorders.
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Restor Neurol Neuros · Jan 2006
Comparative StudyCognitive evaluation of traumatically brain-injured rats using serial testing in the Morris water maze.
As deficits in memory and cognition are commonly observed in survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI), causing reduced quality of life for the patient, a major goal in experimental TBI research is to identify and evaluate cognitive dysfunction. The present study assessed the applicability of the serial Morris water maze (MWM) test to determine cognitive function following experimental TBI in the same group of rats which is particularly important for long-term studies and increasingly valuable for the evaluation of novel treatment strategies. ⋯ The validation of this testing paradigm using a clinically relevant experimental brain injury model is an important addition to behavioral outcome testing.