Neurology
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The current literature provides discrepant results regarding preoperative sociodemographic and clinical factors, and no information about preoperative cerebral metabolic patterns associated with apathy after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in Parkinson disease. ⋯ Preoperative PET, but not sociodemographic or clinical factors, is associated with apathy after STN-DBS.
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To determine the effect of dalfampridine (4-aminopyridine), a broad-spectrum, voltage-dependent potassium channel blocker, on patients with trigeminal nerve dysfunction due to multiple sclerosis (MS). ⋯ This study provides Class IV evidence that treatment with dalfampridine may precipitate or exacerbate preexisting trigeminal neuralgia.
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Review Meta Analysis
Intensive blood pressure reduction in acute intracerebral hemorrhage: a meta-analysis.
The aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intensive blood pressure (BP) reduction in patients with acute-onset intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) using data from randomized controlled trials. ⋯ Our findings indicate that intensive BP management in patients with acute ICH is safe. Fewer intensively treated patients had unfavorable 3-month functional outcome although this finding did not reach significance. Moreover, intensive BP reduction appears to be associated with a greater attenuation of absolute hematoma growth at 24 hours.
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The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a novel magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) MRI assay of the proximal sciatic nerve (SN), which is inaccessible via current tools for assessing peripheral nerves, and (2) to evaluate the resulting MTR values as a potential biomarker of myelin content changes in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) diseases. ⋯ MTR measurements may be a viable biomarker of proximal nerve pathology in patients with CMT.
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Observational Study
Depression in small-vessel disease relates to white matter ultrastructural damage, not disability.
To determine whether cerebral small-vessel disease (SVD) is a specific risk factor for depression, whether any association is mediated via white matter damage, and to study the role of depressive symptoms and disability on quality of life (QoL) in this patient group. ⋯ These results suggest that in stroke patients without SVD, disability is an important causal factor for depression, whereas in SVD stroke, other factors specific to this stroke subtype have a causal role. White matter damage detected on DTI is one factor that mediates the association between SVD and depression.