An ischemic stroke caused by the occlusion of the artery of Percheron encompasses both posterior thalami, and the resulting clinical presentation can mask the clinical presentation of a stroke. We ...present the case report of a 62-year-old female patient who was admitted to our emergency department in a soporous state after initial headache and dizziness. A neurological exam found left-sided spasticity and a flexor response to pain. Systemic thrombolysis was administered after an urgent computerized tomography (CT) of the brain with angiography. The interventional radiologist proposed a digital subtraction angiography which found a vasospasm in the right medial cerebral artery from the M2 seg- ment reaching distally, and a balloon dilation was done. Following the endovascular procedure, a CT scan showed ischemia in both posterior thalami. Additionally, the patient’s neurological impairment improved at that moment showing Parinaud syndrome, drowsiness, and left-sided palsy. The patient experienced a possible reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome, the cause of which is still unknown, which resulted in an ischemic stroke. The typical clinical presentation of that syndrome was lacking, probably due to the presence of the artery of Percheron ipsilateral to the vasospasm. Our goal in presenting this case study is to draw attention to the artery of Percheron syndrome as a potential clinical sign of an acute ischemic stroke that can easily lead us to be misled.
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•Any medium of accessing digital information is a digital intermediary.•Accessing information on the COVID-19 pandemic relys on digital intermediaries.•Digital spaces have been ...recognized as important social determinants of health.•Mechanisms of some digital intermediaries do not gurantee truthfulness of content.•Data curation changes both the availability of information and the users’ dispositions.•Ethical governance of digital data curation is needed to ensure truthfulness of its content.
Digital technologies have a significant role in collecting, filtering and disseminating information, allowing for social, healthcare and economic activities even in the context of highly restrictive public health measures in the current COVID-19 pandemic. As personal contact is greatly reduced, they also create a shared informational landscape, allowing for a shared threat response. This is a difficult task, since truthfulness of content that leads to actionable knowledge is impossible to consistently validate. So, not only that curation of information is rarely congruent with pressing health issues, but digital spaces may also become fertile ground for misinformation and disinformation, contributing to the devastating effects of an infodemic.
Digital intermediaries are useful exactly because their representation of reality is not a true construct, but a result of purposely curated information. However, they are active, dynamic epistemological agents with their own logic and aim. In dealing with a pandemic, we should reconsider the ways how our digital informational landscapes are created and sustained. This urges us to consider ethical governance of digital data curation and dissemination, alongside forms of control of the truthfulness and reach of its content.
Some of the most fundamental issues in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, including the newly available vaccines are reliant on digital information and data sharing among experts, and the role of informing the general public. The need to create a reproducible, valid and truthful informational landscape is paramount, while allowing for free and rational, behavioral individual choices oriented toward preserving and promoting healthy behavior. These are issues at the heart of dealing with any pandemic, as well as a well-organized health care policy.
Background and purpose: Inevitable lockdown scenario during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic led to different approaches of medical care system worldwide. During this period, health care services ...faced theproblem of time, place and human resources management. However, in spite of redirecting health forces to fight this new and unknown virus in all countries, the need of routine treatment of all the other emergencies according to the guidelines remained present. The aim of our study was to analyse the acute stroke care in Croatia during first wave of Covid pandemic.Materials and methods: In order to achieve the rate of stroke patients admitted to hospital care in dedicated hospital stroke units and centers, we have gathered the data from four Croatian University Hospitals. We analyzed the number of hospitalized stroke patients from 1th of February to 1th of May 2020 and the proportions of patients treated with recanalization therapy.Results: Our results showed a slight decrease of number of all neurological patients who arrived to the Emergency Unit. In 2019 recanalization therapy was given to 158 patients (19%) vs 177 (26%) in 2020. Thrombolysis alone was given to 72 (9%) of patients in 2019 and to 68 (10%) of patients in 2020, while thrombectomy (with or without thrombolysis) has been performed to 86 (10%) vs 109 (16%) patients in 2019 and 2020 respectively.Conclusion: In conclusion, we did not notice less severe stroke patients or lower level of stroke care in University Hospitals.
Kolesterol – što niže, to bolje? Roje Bedeković, Marina
Medicus (Zagreb, Croatia : 1992),
05/2022, Volume:
31, Issue:
1 Moždani udar
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Odnos razine serumskoga kolesterola i rizika za moždani udar složen je, oprečan i prisutan u širokom rasponu serumskih razina ukupnoga kolesterola, LDL-a i HDL-a. Različite tvari različitog mehanizma ...djelovanja, ali s istim ciljem snižavanja razine serumskog LDL-a, statini, ezetimib i PCSK9 inhibitori snizuju incidenciju ishemijskoga moždanog udara, što izravno upućuje na uzročno-posljedičnu povezanost snižavanja serumske razine LDL-a i sprječavanja nastanka moždanog udara. Upozorenja o mogućemu povećanom riziku za hemoragijski moždani udar na temelju rezultata SPARCL istraživanja i statistički neznačajno povećanje rizika naznačeno u rezultatima IMPROVE-IT, FOURIER i Cholesterol Treatment Trialist metaanalize moguće upućuju kako bi značajno snižavanje LDL-C-a moglo uzrokovati hemoragijski moždani udar u posebno ranjivoj podskupini bolesnika, osobito u žena i bolesnika s loše reguliranom arterijskom hipertenzijom. S obzirom na to da je hemoragijski moždani udar u usporedbi s ishemijskim moždanim udarom rijedak, zabrinutost zbog mogućega povećanog rizika za hemoragijski moždani udar ne smije zasjeniti dobrobit od primjene lijekova za snižavanje LDL-C-a i boljeg ishoda vaskularnih bolesti u bolesnika liječenih ovom terapijom. Nužno je utvrditi stratifikaciju različitih kategorija bolesnika s obzirom na rizične čimbenike, kao i s obzirom na spol i životnu dob, te primijeniti individualan pristup i personalizaciju liječenja, kako u primarnoj tako i u sekundarnoj prevenciji moždanog udara.
Stroke Caused by Lung Cancer Invading the Left Atrium Dimitrović, Ana, MD; Breitenfeld, Tomislav, MD, PhD; Supanc, Višnja, MD, PhD ...
Journal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases,
05/2016, Volume:
25, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We describe a 59-year-old stroke patient presented with sudden onset left side weakness and a speech disorder due to a major acute cerebral infarction in the area of the right middle cerebral artery, ...right posterior cerebral artery, and small infarctions in the area of the left middle and left posterior cerebral artery. For the previous month, the patient had been feeling weak and had no appetite. The patient had not been previously seriously ill. A chest x-ray showed a large mass in the upper zone of the right lung. Chest computed tomography scan and echocardiography were performed and revealed advanced lung cancer invading the left atrium. Spontaneous tumor embolism is a rare cause of stroke and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of stroke in a cancer patient. Also, sometimes stroke can be the first manifestation of advanced cancer.
Art is a product of human creativity; it is a superior skill that can be learned by study, practice and observation. Modern neuroscience and neuroimaging enable study of the processes during artistic ...performance. Creative people have less marked hemispheric dominance. It was found that the right hemisphere is specialized for metaphoric thinking, playfulness, solution finding and synthesizing, it is the center of visualization, imagination and conceptualization, but the left hemisphere is still needed for artistic work to achieve balance. A specific functional organization of brain areas was found during visual art activities. Marked hemispheric dominance and area specialization is also very prominent for music perception. Brain is capable of making new connections, activating new pathways and unmasking secondary roads, it is "plastic". Music is a strong stimulus for neuroplasticity. fMRI studies have shown reorganization of motor and auditory cortex in professional musicians. Other studies showed the changes in neurotransmitter and hormone serum levels in correlation to music. The most prominent connection between music and enhancement of performance or changing of neuropsychological activity was shown by studies involving Mozart's music from which the theory of "The Mozart Effect" was derived. Results of numerous studies showed that listening to music can improve cognition, motor skills and recovery after brain injury. In the field of visual art, brain lesion can lead to the visuospatial neglect, loss of details and significant impairment of artistic work while the lesions affecting the left hemisphere reveal new artistic dimensions, disinhibit the right hemisphere, work is more spontaneous and emotional with the gain of artistic quality. All kinds of arts (music, painting, dancing...) stimulate the brain. They should be part of treatment processes. Work of many artists is an excellent example for the interweaving the neurology and arts.
Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) enlargement is detectable in traumatic brain injury patients with raised intracranial pressure (ICP). The aim was to assess its value in neurological patients ...suspected to have increased ICP. Patient clinical imaging data and hospitalization outcome were analyzed. Patients were divided into groups according to brain pathology and level of consciousness with Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). Poor hospitalization outcome was assessed by modified Rankin scale (mRS) >3. Data obtained by ocular sonography performed in acute setting were compared with data of 100 control subjects. Data were expressed as mean + or - SD. Intergroup comparison was performed by Student's t-test. Data of 34 patients (63+16 years) were suitable for analysis, including 8 primary intracerebral hemorrhage (PICH), 8 subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), 12 PICH or SAH and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), 4 tumors and 2 ischemic strokes. The mean ONSD was 5.86+0.69 mm in patients versus 4.38+0.41 mm in controls (p<0.01). ONSD was 6.28+0.61 mm in patients with GCS <8 and 5.77+0.55 mm in other patients (p<0.05). ONSD was 5.72+0.59 mm in PICH versus 6.20+0.65 mm in PICH/SAH with IVH (p=0.1). ONSD was 5.73+0.38 mm in SAH in comparison to PICH/SAH with IVH (p=0.05). There was no statistically significant diference in optic nerve diameter between patients and controls (2.48+0.28 mm vs. 2.39+0.33 mm; p>0.05). Pronounced enlargement of ONSD was observed in patients with ICH or SAH with IVH, and in patients with GCS <8. Enlarged ONSD was associated with poor neurological outcome (mRS >3). Key words: Optic nerve; Brain injuries, traumatic; Intracranial pressure; Ultrasonography
Increasing evidence suggests that patients with medical emergencies are avoiding the emergency department because of fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, leading to increased ...morbidity and mortality due to other diseases. In order to analyse the impact of patient’s fear of COVID-19 on the admittance rate of stroke patients and severity of neurological diseases, we compared the stroke admittance rate, numbers of thrombectomies and thrombolysis and hospitalization refusal rate during the time period from March 1st until June 30th 2020 in temporal relationship with the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in Croatia. We assessed the patients’ neurologic disease severity measured by ventilation time and mortality rate in the same time period. We compared the data with the data obtained from the same time period in 2019. We observed dramatically decreased presentation in Neurologic Emergency Department due to stroke and neurologic disease in 2020 compared to 2019, increased refused hospitalization rate and similar stroke treatment rate despite bigger catchment area. Greater neurologic disease severity with almost 40% increased ventilation time and double mortality rate during the same time was observed. During the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, fear of infection had significant impact on neurologic service leading to decreased presentation to NED, resulting in increased stroke or neurologic disease-related morbidity and mortality.
Uniform case definitions are required to ensure harmonised reporting of neurological syndromes associated with SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, it is unclear how clinicians perceive the relative importance of ...SARS-CoV-2 in neurological syndromes, which risks under- or over-reporting.
We invited clinicians through global networks, including the World Federation of Neurology, to assess ten anonymised vignettes of SARS-CoV-2 neurological syndromes. Using standardised case definitions, clinicians assigned a diagnosis and ranked association with SARS-CoV-2. We compared diagnostic accuracy and assigned association ranks between different settings and specialties and calculated inter-rater agreement for case definitions as “poor” (κ ≤ 0.4), “moderate” or “good” (κ > 0.6).
1265 diagnoses were assigned by 146 participants from 45 countries on six continents. The highest correct proportion were cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST, 95.8%), Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS, 92.4%) and headache (91.6%) and the lowest encephalitis (72.8%), psychosis (53.8%) and encephalopathy (43.2%). Diagnostic accuracy was similar between neurologists and non-neurologists (median score 8 vs. 7/10, p = 0.1). Good inter-rater agreement was observed for five diagnoses: cranial neuropathy, headache, myelitis, CVST, and GBS and poor agreement for encephalopathy. In 13% of vignettes, clinicians incorrectly assigned lowest association ranks, regardless of setting and specialty.
The case definitions can help with reporting of neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2, also in settings with few neurologists. However, encephalopathy, encephalitis, and psychosis were often misdiagnosed, and clinicians underestimated the association with SARS-CoV-2. Future work should refine the case definitions and provide training if global reporting of neurological syndromes associated with SARS-CoV-2 is to be robust.
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•146 clinicians from 45 countries on six continents assessed ten scenarios of acute neurological complications of COVID-19.•Using case definitions, non-neurologists achieved similar diagnostic accuracy to neurologists.•Diagnostic accuracy was lowest for conditions presenting with altered mental status.•Association between SARS-CoV-2 and neurological syndromes was underestimated in over 10% of cases.•Training and further refinement of case definitions will target these challenges.
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