Irish journal of medical science
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Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rapidly progressive, neurodegenerative disease. In Ireland, clinical diagnostics and laboratory testing remain the responsibility of the managing clinician and the Neuropathology Department at the Beaumont Hospital, respectively. Centralized review of individual cases is not undertaken. ⋯ These findings support the need for improvements to the Irish National CJD Surveillance Unit to maximize antemortem diagnostic accuracy. On foot of this, a clinical CJD Multidisciplinary Team (CJD MDT) has been established to provide a second opinion on (i) the patient's clinical history, (ii) neuroradiology and (iii) and neurophysiology reports (where available).
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It is known that targeting cancer-related modifiable risk factors is the best way to fight cancer. Behavioral and lifestyle changes can significantly reduce the burden of cancer. ⋯ People who have relatives with cancer had less modifiable risk factors, which might reflect on their willingness to modify their cancer-related risk factors.
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Galanin is a neuroendocrine peptide with diverse biological actions in humans. Here, we evaluated plasma galanin levels in pregnant women with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) to elucidate the mechanism underlying the causal link between regulatory neuropeptides and IUGR. ⋯ The lack of correlation between galanin levels and maternal BMI and preterm pregnancies suggests a blunted neuropeptide response to hormonal stimulus in IUGR pregnancies, compared with the positive association with maternal BMI and negative association with healthy preterm pregnancies.
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Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disease. Amyloidosis is the most important complication of FMF that determines the prognosis of the disease. ⋯ In our study, the distribution of the frequency of mutations is consistent with other similar studies performed in Turkey. We found that patients with M694V mutation had a significantly higher rate of exacerbation, higher drug doses for treatment, and a close relationship with amyloidosis, as compared to patients with other mutations.
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During the COVID-19 lockdown, social isolation from school closures and home visitation restrictions compounded known risk factors for child maltreatment. The aim of our study was to determine the incidence and types of child protection concern (CPC) among inpatients during the COVID-19 lockdown compared to the matched timeframe in 2019. We retrospectively reviewed the CPC assessments performed at Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin and Tallaght from March 13 to August 31, 2020, and the same period in 2019. ⋯ Case complexity, defined as involving two or more types of CPC, increased with 48.8% in 2020 versus 13.5% in 2019 (p < 0.001). In conclusion, there were fewer assessments for CPC during the 2020 lockdown. However, the complexity of the CPC cases was significantly increased in 2020.