European neurology
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Although elevated blood pressure (BP) levels are a common complication of acute stroke, whether of ischaemic or haemorrhagic type, a long-standing debate exists regarding the management of post-stroke hypertension. In the absence of solid, randomised data from controlled trials, the current observational evidence allows different approaches, since theoretical arguments exist for both lowering BP in the setting of acute stroke (reduce the risk of stroke recurrence, of subsequent oedema formation, of rebleeding and haematoma expansion in patients with cerebral bleeding) as well as leaving raised BP levels untreated (avoid reduction in cerebral perfusion pressure and blood flow to viable ischaemic tissue in the absence of normal autoregulation). The present review will summarize the evidence for and against the therapeutic manipulation of BP in acute stroke provided by the currently available observational studies and randomised trials, consider the ongoing clinical trials in this area and address the present recommendations regarding this conflicting issue.
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Comparative Study
Chronic deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus for Parkinson's disease: effects on cognition, mood, anxiety and personality traits.
To evaluate modifications occurring in cognitive functions and behavioural aspects in a group of 72 consecutive patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) 15 months after bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN). ⋯ The present study confirms that STN DBS is cognitively safe since the only relevant change observed was a mild decrease in verbal fluency tasks. Globally, a small postoperative improvement was found in the BDI, and in two SCID-II subscales concerning obsessive-compulsive and paranoid personality traits, even though postoperative behavioural disturbances can occur in individual patients.
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To investigate the bilateral effects of unilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS), we prospectively studied 9 consecutive advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients (2 men and 7 women) who underwent unilateral STN-DBS. Patients were evaluated preoperatively and at 3 and 6 months postoperatively with and without dopaminergic medications ('on' and 'off' medication, respectively). Postoperatively, patients were assessed with and without stimulation. ⋯ Daily dosage of levodopa was reduced by 15% at 6 months. No patient exhibited permanent side effects. These findings indicate that unilateral STN-DBS may be a reasonable surgical procedure for selected PD patients who have markedly asymmetric parkinsonism.
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We report 5 stroke patients with lesions affecting the insula and parietal operculum sparing the postcentral gyrus (somatosensory cortical area SI); 3 had spontaneous central poststroke pain (CPSP) and 2 did not. All were imaged and underwent quantitative sensory threshold tests, though not all modalities were tested in all subjects. ⋯ The patients with CPSP exhibited greatly elevated thresholds for mechanical pain (skinfold pinch), sharpness and thermal sensations; the pain-free patients had distinctly lesser elevations of their skinfold pinch and innocuous and noxious thermal thresholds, and no sharpness deficit. It is therefore suggested that, in the case of similar cortical lesions, the presence or absence of spontaneous pain either modifies the thresholds for some innocuous modalities, or that the degree of deficit of some innocuous modalities determines whether or not central pain occurs.