Journal of the neurological sciences
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Randomized Controlled Trial
At-home tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves visual short-term memory in mild vascular dementia.
Previous studies have shown that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) led to an improvement of various cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer dementia, early affected by short-term memory deficits. Since this approach has not been evaluated in the context of vascular dementia, which rather affects the velocity of cognitive responses, we aimed at improving these functions by applying repetitive sessions of anodal tDCS. ⋯ In patients with mild vascular dementia, anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC is able to produce additional effects to cognitive training on visual short-term memory, verbal working memory, and executive control.
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Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) is a homotrimeric glycoprotein which modulates a wide range of biological functions. Elevated level of TSP-1 in plasma was reported to be correlated with intracerebral hemorrhage. Our study was designed to investigate the relationship between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) TSP-1 levels and clinical outcomes in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). ⋯ Upregulation of TSP-1 may involve in the pathological process of aSAH and might be a risk factor of future adverse prognosis of aSAH.
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The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism has been proposed to be associated with increased risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) and have a specific impact on dopamine-mediated prefrontal executive function in an inverted-U curve manner. We explored the influence of this genetic polymorphism on prefrontal executive function in a well-established Chinese cohort of early PD patients with no current or past history of motor fluctuations or dyskinesias. ⋯ Our results demonstrate that COMT Val158Met polymorphism is probably not associated with increased risk of PD, but has an effect on prefrontal executive function interacting with gender and dopaminergic medication.
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Orolingual angioedema (OA) is a well known early complication of treatment with alteplase in ischemic stroke patients. Our aim was to study risk factors for OA in these patients, namely insular cortex ischemia. ⋯ Female sex and ACE-I use are independent risk factors for OA occurrence in ischemic stroke patients treated with alteplase. Early signs of insular cortex ischemia on pre-thrombolysis CT were not significantly associated with OA.