Rehabilitation must be based on the individual needs and specific goals of the person and must be adapted to his abilities. According to the recommendation of the World Stroke Organization, the team ...involved in conducting rehabilitation should be multidisciplinary. One of the treatments that are applied within the multidisciplinary approach to a neurological patient is educational-rehabilitation treatment, which is multicomponent in nature. Before starting educational-rehabilitation treatment, an educational-rehabilitation clinical assessment is necessary, which aims to detect difficulties caused by impairment; identify potentials and constraints in these areas; determine the specifics, course, and forecasts of difficulties; formulate clear treatment recommendations; form a watch list that will be available to all team members in the process of diagnosis, treatment, education, and to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment; and continuously monitor the ability and adaptive behavior of the person. Educational-rehabilitation clinical treatment includes treatment of cognitive abilities, treatment of motor skills, relaxation, treatment of adaptive skills, as well as informing the person about the disease and counseling. This review focuses on some aspects of rehabilitation such as treatment of cognitive and motor disorders, treatment of adaptive skills, relaxation issues, and informing and counseling patients from the perspective of an educational rehabilitator with practical experiences in this area of rehabilitation.
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread globally, with relistic hope that will be solved with adequate vacination, more and more evidences are collected about the presence of psychiatric and ...neurological manifestations and symptoms associated with this diseas. Neurological manifestations, are part of the COVID-19 clinical picture, but questions remain regarding the frequency and severity of centra nervous system symptoms, the mechanism of action underlying neurological symptoms, and the relationship of symptoms with the course and severity of COVID-19. The review of the so far published papers shows that although more and more papers are reporting neurological and psyhiatric manifestations associated with COVID-19, many items remain unclear. The long-term psychological implications of this infectious diseases should not be ignored. In this paper, we aim to present a some of psychological consequences and neurological disorders associated with the SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to emphasize the need a global action that requires close coordination and open-data sharing between hospitals, academic and public health institutions and the fast establishment of harmonised research priorities to face acut and long-term the neurological and psychological consequences.
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread globally, with relistic hope that will be solved with adequate vacination, more and more evidences are collected about the presence of psychi-atric and ...neurological manifestations and symptoms associated with this diseas. Neurological manifestations, are part of the COVID-19 clinical picture, but questions remain regarding the frequency and severity of centra nervous system symptoms, the mechanism of action underlying neurological symptoms, and the relationship of symptoms with the course and severity of COVID-19. The review of the so far published papers shows that although more and more papers are reporting neuro-logical and psyhiatric manifestations associated with COVID-19, many items remain unclear. The long-term psychological implications of this infectious diseases should not be ignored. In this paper, we aim to present a some of psychological consequences and neurological disorders associat-ed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to emphasize the need a global action that requires close coordination and open-data sharing between hospitals, academic and public health institutions and the fast establishment of harmonised research priorities to face acut and long-term the neurological and psychological consequences.
- Multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) is a chronic demyelinating neuropathy mainly characterized by multifocal distribution; affecting only motor nerve fibers of two or more peripheral nerves, with the ...absence of symptoms and signs of upper motor neuron; chronic, sometimes cascading progressive course; demyelination with partial block of motor conduction; immune-mediated pathogenesis and good response to intravenous immunoglobulin treatment (IVIG). The diagnosis of MMN is based on clinical, laboratory and electrophysiological characteristics. Steroids are ineffective in MMN and may lead to worsening of the disease. Similarly, therapeutic plasma exchange is negligibly effective in this neuropathy. However, more than 80% of patients with MMN experience improvement after IVIG. We present our three cases of MMN with positive response to IVIG.
Background: Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is an extracorporeal blood purification technique that is designed to remove substances with a large molecular weight. The TPE procedure includes removal ...of antibodies, alloantibodies, immune complexes, monoclonal protein, toxins or cytokines, and involves the replenishment of a specific plasma factor. The aim of the study was to describe the clinical response to TPE in various neurological patients, and to assess the clinical response to this therapy.
Methods: The study was retrospective. We analyzed the medical records of 77 patients who were treated at the Department of Neurology, University Clinical Center (UCC) Tuzla from 2011 to 2016.
Results: 83 therapeutic plasma exchanges were performed in the 77 patients. There was a slight predominance of male patients (54.5%), with an average age of 51±15.9 years. The most common underlying neurological diseases were Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (37.7%), then chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) (23.4%), multiple sclerosis (MS) (11.7%) and myasthenia gravis (10.4%). Less frequent neurological diseases that were encountered were paraneoplastic polyneuropathies (5.2%), neuromyelitis optica (also known as Devic's disease) (3.9%), motor neuron disease (3.9%), polymyositis (2.6%) and multifocal motor neuropathy (1.2%).
Conclusions: Six years experience of therapeutic plasma exchange in neurological patients in our department have shown that, following evidence-based guidelines for plasmapheresis, the procedure was most effective in patients with GBS, CIDP and myasthenia gravis.
Infection with the new corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) was first registered in December 2019 in China, and then later spread rapidly to the rest of the world. On December 31, 2019, the World Health ...Organization (WHO) informed the public for the first time about causes of pneumonnia of unknown origin, in the city of Wuhan (Hubei Province, China), in people who were epidemiologically linked to a seafood and wet animal whole sale local market in Wuhan. Coronavrus disease, called COVID-19 (Corona virus disease 2019), after China quickly spread to most countries in the wold, and the WHO on March 11, 2020 declared a pandmic with this virus. SARS-CoV-2, has a high level of sequential similarities to the SARS-CoV-1 and uses the same receptors when it enters the human body (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2/ACE2). COVID-19 is respiratry infection that is primarily transmitted via respiratry droplets. Typical symptoms of COVID-19 infection can be very moderate (infected can be even asymptomatic) to very severe, with severe respiratory symptoms (bilateral severe pneumonia), septic schock, and fatal outcome. Numeous unknows regarding the biological, epidemilogical adn clinical characteristics of COVID-19, still exist, and make it impossible to predict with certainty the further course of the current pandemic. COVID-19 is primarily a disease of the respiratory system, but SARS-CoV-2, in a number of patients also penetrates the CNS, and apparently could be responsible for fatal outcome in some cases. The entrry of the virus into the brain can lead to neurological and psychiatric manifestationss, which are not uncommon, including headache, paresthesia, myalgia, impaired consciousnessm, confusion or delirum and cerebrovascular diseases. SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals should be evaluated in a timely manner for neurological and psychiatic symptoms because tretament of infection-related neurological and psychiatric complications is an important factor in better prognosis of severe COVID-19 patients.From the current point of view, it seems that in COVID-19 survivors, in the coming years and decades, the inflammatory systemic process and/or the inflammatory process of the brain could trigger long-term mechanisms that generally lead to an increase of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. Psychosocial consequences as well as consequences for mental health are also significant, both for the general population and especially for health workers of all profiles. COVID-19 pandemia is associtaed with negative psychosocial consequences, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, anger and stress, sleep disorders, simpotms of posttrauamtic stres disorder, social isolation, loneliness and stigmatization.
Post-stroke dementia (PSD) or post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) may affect up to one third of stroke survivors. Various definitions of PSCI and PSD have been described. We propose PSD as a ...label for any dementia following stroke in temporal relation. Various tools are available to screen and assess cognition, with few PSD-specific instruments. Choice will depend on purpose of assessment, with differing instruments needed for brief screening (e.g., Montreal Cognitive Assessment) or diagnostic formulation (e.g., NINDS VCI battery). A comprehensive evaluation should include assessment of pre-stroke cognition (e.g., using Informant Questionnaire for Cognitive Decline in the Elderly), mood (e.g., using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and functional consequences of cognitive impairments (e.g., using modified Rankin Scale). A large number of biomarkers for PSD, including indicators for genetic polymorphisms, biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid and in the serum, inflammatory mediators, and peripheral microRNA profiles have been proposed. Currently, no specific biomarkers have been proven to robustly discriminate vulnerable patients ('at risk brains') from those with better prognosis or to discriminate Alzheimer's disease dementia from PSD. Further, neuroimaging is an important diagnostic tool in PSD. The role of computerized tomography is limited to demonstrating type and location of the underlying primary lesion and indicating atrophy and severe white matter changes. Magnetic resonance imaging is the key neuroimaging modality and has high sensitivity and specificity for detecting pathological changes, including small vessel disease. Advanced multi-modal imaging includes diffusion tensor imaging for fiber tracking, by which changes in networks can be detected. Quantitative imaging of cerebral blood flow and metabolism by positron emission tomography can differentiate between vascular dementia and degenerative dementia and show the interaction between vascular and metabolic changes. Additionally, inflammatory changes after ischemia in the brain can be detected, which may play a role together with amyloid deposition in the development of PSD. Prevention of PSD can be achieved by prevention of stroke. As treatment strategies to inhibit the development and mitigate the course of PSD, lowering of blood pressure, statins, neuroprotective drugs, and anti-inflammatory agents have all been studied without convincing evidence of efficacy. Lifestyle interventions, physical activity, and cognitive training have been recently tested, but large controlled trials are still missing.
Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the most common and best known monogenic small vessel disease. Here, we review the clinical, ...neuroimaging, neuropathological, genetic, and therapeutic aspects based on the most relevant articles published between 1994 and 2016 and on the personal experience of the authors, all directly involved in CADASIL research and care. We conclude with some suggestions that may help in the clinical practice and management of these patients.