Background and purpose
To date, no study has attempted to quantify the impact of the COVID‐19 outbreak on the incidence and treatment of acute stroke.
Methods
This was a retrospective review of acute ...stroke pathway parameters in all three stroke units in the Alsace region during the first month of the outbreak (1–31 March 2020), using the similar period from 2019 as a comparator. A secondary detailed analysis of all stroke alerts and stroke unit admissions was performed in the centre with the largest case volume.
Results
Compared to the same period in 2019, in March 2020 there were 39.6% fewer stroke alerts and 33.3% fewer acute revascularization treatments 40.9% less intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and 27.6% less mechanical thrombectomy (MT). No marked variation was observed in the number of stroke unit admissions (−0.6%). The proportion of patients with acute revascularization treatments (IVT or MT) out of the total number of stroke unit admissions was significantly lower in March 2020 (21.3%) compared to 2019 (31.8%), P = 0.034. There were no significant differences in time delays or severity of clinical symptoms for patients treated by IVT or MT, nor in the distribution of final diagnosis amongst stroke alerts and stroke unit admissions.
Conclusion
These results suggest that the overall incidence of stroke remained the same, but fewer patients presented within the therapeutic time window. Increased public awareness and corrective measures are needed to mitigate the deleterious effects of the COVID‐19 outbreak on acute stroke care.
In a familial case of motor neuron disease (MND), 2 unusual features were noted in the necropsy. The first was a pallidoluysonigral degeneration, observed in only 4 other cases of MND and which was ...here asymptomatic. The second was the presence in degenerated spinal cord anterior horns and in degenerated basal ganglia of neuronal Lewy body-like inclusions stained by antibodies against ubiquitin.
Future multi-functional hybrid devices might combine switchable molecules and 2D material-based devices. Spin-crossover compounds are of particular interest in this context since they exhibit ...bistability and memory effects at room temperature while responding to numerous external stimuli. Atomically-thin 2D materials such as graphene attract a lot of attention for their fascinating electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, but also for their reliability for room-temperature operations. Here, we demonstrate that thermally-induced spin-state switching of spin-crossover nanoparticle thin films can be monitored through the electrical transport properties of graphene lying underneath the films. Model calculations indicate that the charge carrier scattering mechanism in graphene is sensitive to the spin-state dependence of the relative dielectric constants of the spin-crossover nanoparticles. This graphene sensor approach can be applied to a wide class of (molecular) systems with tunable electronic polarizabilities.
We report a prospective study concerning the association of surgery-chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the treatment of primary high grade digestive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in 19 patients. The analysis ...of 11 stages IE, 5 stages II1E and 3 stages II2E allowed us to evaluate the efficacy and the tolerance of this triple therapeutic association. Fifteen patients are alive and well with a median follow-up of 54 months. One of these patients relapsed, but after autologous bone marrow transplantation is in second unmaintained complete remission. Four patients died of intercurrent aetiology although one death was related to treatment morbidity. Our results and the analysis of literature data lead us to recommend the triple association in the treatment of stage II2E high grade primary digestive lymphomas (PDL) and for PDL without complete resection. However, surgery and chemotherapy appear to be sufficient in the treatment of stages IE and II1E with complete resection.
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