Frontiers in neurology
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2020
Cumulative Effects of Prior Concussion and Primary Sport Participation on Brain Morphometry in Collegiate Athletes: A Study From the NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium.
Prior studies have reported long-term differences in brain structure (brain morphometry) as being associated with cumulative concussion and contact sport participation. There is emerging evidence to suggest that similar effects of prior concussion and contact sport participation on brain morphometry may be present in younger cohorts of active athletes. We investigated the relationship between prior concussion and primary sport participation with subcortical and cortical structures in active collegiate contact sport and non-contact sport athletes. ⋯ Finally, CS with prior concussion had larger hippocampal volumes than CS without prior concussion (p = 0.015). Years of contact sport exposure and prior concussion(s) are associated with differences in subcortical volumes in young-adult, active collegiate athletes, consistent with prior literature in retired, primarily symptomatic contact sport athletes. Longitudinal follow-up studies in these athletes are needed to determine clinical significance of current findings.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2020
ReviewAccelerating Telemedicine for Cerebral Palsy During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.
The effects of COVID-19 extend beyond the pandemic and are expected to transform healthcare in various ways, many of which remain unknown. With social distancing, telemedicine may become the preferred communication channel between caregivers and patients. Implications for cerebral palsy (CP) children are that this will pose a challenge within this transformation. ⋯ Accessible, continuous care is expected to lower comorbidities, as demonstrated for other chronic conditions. Enhanced monitoring is crucial for younger children as devastating complications, such as hip dysplasia, could be minimized. Last but not least, we will discuss digital health care as an accelerator for participatory medicine, including networked patients and families, as responsible drivers of their health as full partners.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2020
Case ReportsCOVID-19 and Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Report and Review of Literature.
During the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Northern Italy, we observed a 57-year-old man developing acute motor-sensory axonal neuropathy, a variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), 12 days after severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Similarly to other bacterial and viral infections, dysregulation of the immune system due to post-infectious mechanisms, such as the molecular mimicry, could lead to an indirect damage of the peripheral nervous system related to SARS-CoV-2. ⋯ Therefore, we performed a review of the 29 articles so far published, describing 33 GBS cases and five MFS cases associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. We recommend awareness of this rare, but treatable, neurological syndrome, which may also determine a sudden and otherwise unexplained respiratory deterioration in COVID-19 patients.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2020
Negative Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Admissions for Intracranial Hemorrhage.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted healthcare systems worldwide. Admissions for various non-COVID-19 emergencies have significantly decreased. We sought to determine the impact of COVID-19 on admissions for intracranial hemorrhage to a German University Hospital emergency department. ⋯ Likewise, admission rates for traumatic intracranial hemorrhage decreased significantly by 53.7% [RR = 0.463, p < 0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.358-0.599]. Conclusion: The decrease of spontaneous intracranial hemorrhages may be a consequence of underutilization of the healthcare system whereas decreasing rates of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage admissions may predominantly reflect a decrease in true incidence rates due to lockdown measures with restricted mobility. Raising patient awareness to seek emergency healthcare for acute neurological deficits during lockdown measures is important to ensure appropriate emergency care for patients with intracranial hemorrhage.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2020
"I Dreamed of My Hands and Arms Moving Again": A Case Series Investigating the Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Phantom Limb Pain Alleviation.
Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a type of chronic pain that follows limb amputation, brachial plexus avulsion injury, or spinal cord injury. Treating PLP is a well-known challenge. Currently, virtual reality (VR) interventions are attracting increasing attention because they show promising analgesic effects. ⋯ We found that repetitive exposure to our VR intervention led to reduced pain and improvements in anxiety, depression, and a sense of embodiment of the virtual body. Importantly, we also found that their ability to move their phantom limbs improved as quantified by shortened motor imagery time with the impaired limb. Although the limited sample size prevents us from performing a correlational analysis, our findings suggest that providing PLP patients with sensorimotor experience for the impaired limb in VR appears to offer long-term benefits for patients and that these benefits may be related to changes in their control of the phantom limbs' movement.