Journal of neurology
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Journal of neurology · Feb 2009
Clinical TrialBilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation in advanced Parkinson's disease: five year follow-up.
To assess the long-term efficacy and safety of bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). ⋯ Our data confirm that bilateral STN stimulation is beneficial in the long-term for PD patients but does not prevent disease progression and the occurence of axial levodopa unresponsive signs in some patients.
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Journal of neurology · Feb 2009
Migraine and tumour necrosis factor gene polymorphism. An association study in a Sardinian sample.
To assess the possibility of an association between TNF gene polymorphisms and migraine without aura, a case-control study was performed in a Sardinian sample. Migraine without aura is a complex genetic disease in which susceptibility and environmental factors contribute towards its development. Several studies suggest that tumour necrosis factors (TNF) (TNF-alpha and lymphotoxin-alpha or TNF-ss) may be involved in the pathophysiology of migraine. ⋯ We found a statistically significant difference in allele (p = 0.018; OR = 1.46 95 % CI: 1.066 to 2.023) and genotype (trend chi2 = 5.46, df = 1, p = 0.019) frequencies of TNF-beta gene, between cases and controls. Allele and genotype frequencies of TNF-alpha polymorphism did not differ significantly between the two groups. These data suggest that subjects with the TNFB2 allele have a low risk of developing migraine without aura and/or that the polymorphism of the TNF-beta gene is in linkage disequilibrium with other migraine responsible genes in the HLA region.
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Journal of neurology · Jan 2009
Psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity in different vestibular vertigo syndromes. Results of a prospective longitudinal study over one year.
High rates of coexisting vestibular deficits and psychiatric disorders have been reported in patients with vertigo. Hence, a causal linkage between the vestibular system and emotion processing systems has been postulated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of vestibular function and vestibular deficits as well as preexisting psychiatric pathologies on the course of vestibular vertigo syndromes over 1 year. ⋯ A positive history of psychiatric disorders is a strong predictor for the development of reactive psychiatric disorders following a vestibular vertigo syndrome. Especially patients with vestibular migraine are at risk of developing somatoform dizziness. The degree of vestibular dysfunction does not correlate with the development of psychiatric disorders.
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Journal of neurology · Jan 2009
Multicenter StudyExplorative investigation of biomarkers of brain damage and coagulation system activation in clinical stroke differentiation.
A simple and accurate method of differentiating ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is potentially useful to facilitate acute therapeutic management. Blood measurements of biomarkers of brain damage and activation of the coagulation system may potentially serve as novel diagnostic tools for stroke subtypes. ⋯ This exploratory study indicated that blood levels of biomarkers GFAP and APC-PCI, prior to neuroimaging, may rule out ICH in a mixed stroke population.