Cardoso discusses the study by Silva and colleagues on a series of 10 patients with acute chorea seen at an adult Neurology emergency unit. Their retrospective analysis of patients has some ...interesting results. First, the authors confirm the widely held notion that stroke is by far the most common etiology of acute chorea. This is a finding with obvious practical implication for health professionals working at adult emergency services. Once the diagnosis of acute chorea is established, the next mandatory step is to search for a likely vascular cause and to set in motion a stroke protocol. There are also some novel findings in this study. One of them is the lack of infectious causes, particularly HIV, in their cohort.
In memoriam Dr. Ângelo Machado CARDOSO, Francisco
Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria,
05/2020, Letnik:
78, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
An obituary for professor Angelo Barbosa Monteiro Machado, who died on Apr 6, 2020, is presented. His most significant contributions in the field of Neurobiology were to elucidate the formation of ...norepinephrine containing synaptic vesicles from the smooth endoplasmic reticulum as well as several aspects of involvement of the autonomic nervous system in experimental models of Chaga's disease.
Neutrophils are crucial mediators of host defense that are recruited to the central nervous system (CNS) in large numbers during acute bacterial meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. ...Neutrophils release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) during infections to trap and kill bacteria. Intact NETs are fibrous structures composed of decondensed DNA and neutrophil-derived antimicrobial proteins. Here we show NETs in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with pneumococcal meningitis, and their absence in other forms of meningitis with neutrophil influx into the CSF caused by viruses, Borrelia and subarachnoid hemorrhage. In a rat model of meningitis, a clinical strain of pneumococci induced NET formation in the CSF. Disrupting NETs using DNase I significantly reduces bacterial load, demonstrating that NETs contribute to pneumococcal meningitis pathogenesis in vivo. We conclude that NETs in the CNS reduce bacterial clearance and degrading NETs using DNase I may have significant therapeutic implications.
Background Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty has been used with increasing frequency in the treatment of infrainguinal arterial occlusive disease. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the ...middle-term outcomes after crural angioplasty in patients with chronic critical limb ischemia and compare results with a meta-analysis of popliteal-to-distal vein bypass graft. Methods Data were retrieved from 30 articles published from 1990 through 2006 (63% of articles published between 2000 and 2006). All studies used survival analysis, reported a 12-month cumulative rate of patency or limb salvage, and included at least 15 infrapopliteal angioplasties. The outcome measures were immediate technical success, primary and secondary patency, limb salvage, and patient survival. Data from life-tables, survival curves, and texts were used. Results The pooled estimate of success was 89.0% ± 2.2% for immediate technical result. Results at 1 and 36 months were 77.4% ± 4.1% and 48.6% ± 8.0% for primary patency, 83.3% ± 1.4% and 62.9% ± 11.0% for secondary patency, 93.4% ± 2.3% and 82.4% ± 3.4% for limb salvage, and 98.3% ± 0.7% and 68.4% ± 5.5% for patient survival, respectively. Studies with >75% of the limbs with tissue loss fared worse than their respective comparative subgroup for technical success and patency but not for limb salvage or survival. No publication bias was detected. Conclusion The technical success and subsequent durability of crural angioplasty are limited compared with bypass surgery, but the clinical benefit is acceptable because limb salvage rates are equivalent to bypass surgery. Further studies are necessary to determine the proper role of infrapopliteal angioplasty.
If wealthier people have advantages in having higher returns than the poor, inequality will unequivocally increase. But is equal opportunity enough to prevent it? According to our results, no. We ...prove that fair markets lead to the inevitable concentration of wealth. It is an intrinsic feature of its non-trivial dynamics, even though no individual can have the advantages of repeated gains. We solve this apparent paradox by presenting a rigorous analytical proof. Using the Boltzmann-like master equation formalism, we demonstrate that a fair market that gives each agent the same expected return leads the system to maximum inequality, i.e. the thermal death of the economy. Therefore, even equality of opportunity –without an explicit bias in favor of wealthy people– generates inequality.
Andrew Lees, Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital Queen Square (London, UK), has been recognized as the world's most highly-cited researcher over the 200-year history of Parkinson's ...Disease. Although he remains actively involved in the investigation of movement disorders, Prof. Lees embarked on a literary career that started in 2011 with the publication of a social history of his native Liverpool. His last work is Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment, which is reviewed here.
Extreme inequality represents a grave challenge for impoverished individuals and poses a threat to economic growth and stability. Despite the fulfillment of affirmative action measures aimed at ...promoting equal opportunities, they often prove inadequate in effectively reducing inequality. Mathematical models and simulations have demonstrated that even when equal opportunities are present, wealth tends to concentrate in the hands of a privileged few, leaving the majority of the population in dire poverty. This phenomenon, known as condensation, has been shown to be an inevitable outcome in economic models that rely on fair exchange. In light of the escalating levels of inequality in the 21st century and the significant state intervention necessitated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of scholars are abandoning neo-liberal ideologies. Instead, they propose a more robust role for the state in the economy, utilizing mechanisms such as taxation, regulation, and universal allocations. This paper begins with the assumption that state intervention is essential to effectively reduce inequality and to revitalize the economy. Subsequently, it conducts a comparative analysis of various taxation and redistribution mechanisms, with a particular emphasis on their impact on inequality indices, including the Gini coefficient. Specifically, it compares the effects of fortune and consumption-based taxation, as well as universal redistribution mechanisms or targeted redistribution mechanisms aimed at assisting the most economically disadvantaged individuals. The results suggest that fortune taxation are more effective than consumption-based taxation to reduce inequality.
There are scarce data comparing Parkinson's disease (PD) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) in social cognition (SC). We aimed to compare patients with PSP and PD in SC.
We included three ...groups: PD (n = 18), PSP (n = 20) and controls (n = 23). Participants underwent neuropsychological exams, including the mini-version of the Social and Emotional Assessment, which is composed of the facial emotion recognition test (FERT) and the modified faux-pas (mFP) test, which assesses Theory of Mind (ToM).
Patients with PD scored lower than controls in the FERT, but not in the mFP test. Patients with PSP performed worse than controls in both the mFP and FERT. PD and PSP groups did not differ in the FERT, but PSP performed worse than PD in the mFP test. The mFP test distinguished PSP from PD with 89% accuracy.
The assessment of ToM may contribute to the differentiation between PD and PSP.
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