Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2024
Randomized Controlled TrialImproved naming in patients with Broca's aphasia with tDCS.
Language impairment (aphasia) is a common neurological deficit after strokes. For individuals with chronic aphasia (beyond 6 months after the stroke), language improvements with speech therapy (ST) are often limited. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising approach to complement language recovery but interindividual variability in treatment response is common after tDCS, suggesting a possible relationship between tDCS and type of linguistic impairment (aphasia type). ⋯ These results indicate that adjuvant tDCS can enhance ST to treat naming in Broca's aphasia, and this may guide intervention approaches in future studies.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2024
Environmental risk scores of persistent organic pollutants associate with higher ALS risk and shorter survival in a new Michigan case/control cohort.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, progressive neurogenerative disease caused by combined genetic susceptibilities and environmental exposures. Identifying and validating these exposures are of paramount importance to modify disease risk. We previously reported that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) associate with ALS risk and survival and aimed to replicate these findings in a new cohort. ⋯ These data continue to support POPs as important factors for ALS risk and progression and replicate findings in a new cohort. The assessments of POPs in non-Michigan ALS cohorts are encouraged to better understand the global effect and the need for targeted disease risk reduction strategies.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2024
Effect of long-term Tai Chi training on Parkinson's disease: a 3.5-year follow-up cohort study.
Tai Chi has shown beneficial effects on the motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), but no study has reported the effect of long-term Tai Chi training. ⋯ Tai Chi training has a long-term beneficial effect on PD, with an improvement in motor and non-motor symptoms and reduced complications.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2024
Reduced long-term mortality after successful resective epilepsy surgery: a population-based study.
We investigated all-cause and epilepsy-related mortality in patients operated with resective epilepsy surgery and in non-operated patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Our hypothesis was that patients who proceed to surgery have lower mortality over time compared with non-operated patients. ⋯ In this large population-based epilepsy surgery cohort, operated patients had a lower all-cause mortality compared with non-operated patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Seizure freedom was the most important beneficial factor for both all-cause mortality and SUDEP among operated patients.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Jan 2024
Can CANVAS due to RFC1 biallelic expansions present with pure ataxia?
Biallelic expansion of AAGGG in the replication factor complex subunit 1 (RFC1) was identified as a major cause of cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy (sensory ganglionopathy, or SG) and vestibular areflexia syndrome (CANVAS). We wanted to clarify if RFC1 expansions can present with pure ataxia and if such expansions could be responsible for some cases where an alternative diagnosis had been made. ⋯ Isolated cerebellar ataxia without SG makes the diagnosis of CANVAS due to RFC1 expansions highly improbable, but CANVAS is frequently the cause of the combination of idiopathic cerebellar ataxia with SG. It is important to screen patients diagnosed with other causes of acquired ataxia and SG as a small percentage were found to have RFC1 expansions.