European journal of neurology : the official journal of the European Federation of Neurological Societies
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In this article we investigate the changes observed in the scales that quantify the quality of life (PDQ-39) in patients that have already completed 1 and 2 years of bilateral subthalamic stimulation (DBS-STN). Fourteen patients were evaluated 1 year after DBS-STN; the evaluation was repeated on 11 of them, 2 years after surgery. All of them suffered from Parkinson's disease with a 14.3 (+/-5.7) years history of motor complications. ⋯ Patient's quality of life (PDQ-39 summary index) improvement was 62% 2 years after surgery (P < 0.001), and caregivers' quality of life improvement was 68% (P = 0.002) by the same time. DBS-STN is a therapy that efficiently improves the quality of life of selected patients with Parkinson's disease. This improvement is still present 2 years after surgery and has a positive impact on caregivers quality of life.
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The chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1/CCL2 and its receptor CCR2 have been strongly implicated in disease pathogenesis in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), whereas data on the CCL2-CCR2 axis are scarce in MS. We studied the expression of CCR2 on leukocytes in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with monosymptomatic optic neuritis and MS, and the concentration of CCL2 in the CSF from these patients. Results were compared with the results in non-inflammatory neurological controls and were correlated with other parameters (magnetic resonance imaging and CSF data). Our findings suggest a limited role for CCL2/CCR2 in early active MS.