Effect of Oral Screen Training After Stroke-A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Objective: To assess the effects of oral screen training in patients with dysphagia post-stroke.

Background: Oral screen training has been identified as an effective method for improving orofacial and oropharyngeal motor functions. However, the evidence supporting a positive transfer effect on swallowing capacity post-primary stroke rehabilitation is still unclear.

Perceptions of digitally supported home exercise for people with Parkinson's disease: A qualitative study.

Background: Digitally supported home exercise offers the potential to expand accessibility to rehabilitation. However, little is known about how people with Parkinson's disease experience performing home exercise programs using digital delivery.

Objective: To explore and describe how people with Parkinson's disease perceive digital home-based exercise that is not supported in real-time, and how it affected their everyday lives.

Health care utilization at the end of life in Parkinson's disease: a population-based register study.

Background: Knowledge of health care utilization at the end of life in Parkinson's disease (PD) is sparse. This study aims to investigate end of life health care utilization, characterized by emergency room (ER) visits, receipt of specialized palliative care (SPC), and acute hospital deaths in a Swedish population-based PD cohort.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on deceased patients (≥ 18 years) with a PD diagnosis during their last year of life (n = 922), based on health care-provider data from Region Stockholm´s data warehouse, for the study period 2015-2021.

Feasibility of a novel eHealth intervention for Parkinson's disease targeting motor-cognitive function in the home.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) drastically affects motor and cognitive function, but evidence shows that motor-cognitive training improves disease symptoms. Motor-cognitive training in the home is scarcely investigated and eHealth methods can provide continual support for PD self-management. Feasibility testing is however required.

Make My Day: primary prevention of stroke using engaging everyday activities as a mediator of sustainable health - a randomised controlled trial and process evaluation protocol.

Introduction: The individual, societal and economic benefits of stroke prevention are high. Even though most risk factors can be reduced by changes to lifestyle habits, maintaining new and healthy activity patterns has been shown to be challenging.The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of an interdisciplinary team-based, mHealth-supported prevention intervention on persons at risk for stroke.

Design of the STEPS trial: a phase II randomized controlled trial evaluating eHealth-supported motor-cognitive home training for Parkinson's disease.

Background: Electronic health (eHealth) technology offers the potential to support and motivate physical activity for symptom management in Parkinson's disease (PD). It is also recommended that motor exercise in PD be complemented with cognitive training aimed at attentional or executive functions. This paper describes the protocol for a double-blind randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of motor-cognitive training in the home environment, supported by eHealth.

Temporal trends in hospitalizations and 30-day mortality in older patients during the COVID pandemic from March 2020 to July 2021.

Background: A reduction in mortality risk of COVID-19 throughout the first wave of the pandemic has been reported, but less is known about later waves. This study aimed to describe changes in hospitalizations and mortality of patients receiving inpatient geriatric care for COVID-19 or other causes during the pandemic.

Methods: Patients 70 years and older hospitalized in geriatric hospitals in Stockholm for COVID-19 or other causes between March 2020-July 2021 were included.

Orofacial dysfunction after stroke-A multidisciplinary approach.

Objective: This paper describes the study protocol in an ongoing clinical trial evaluating oral screen training as part of a post-stroke rehabilitation programme. Baseline data were related to four domains: dysphagia, lip function, masticatory performance and patient-related outcome measures (PROM).

Background: Stroke is one of the most common causes of disability-adjusted life years, and dysphagia is a common remaining problem after stroke.

Profiling spatiotemporal gene expression of the developing human spinal cord and implications for ependymoma origin.

The spatiotemporal regulation of cell fate specification in the human developing spinal cord remains largely unknown. In this study, by performing integrated analysis of single-cell and spatial multi-omics data, we used 16 prenatal human samples to create a comprehensive developmental cell atlas of the spinal cord during post-conceptional weeks 5-12. This revealed how the cell fate commitment of neural progenitor cells and their spatial positioning are spatiotemporally regulated by specific gene sets.

Return to work after COVID-19: Experiences and expectations from the first wave of COVID-19 in Stockholm.

Background: In Stockholm (Sweden) a substantial number of persons who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during spring 2020, and received intensive care followed by rehabilitation due to COVID-19, were of working age. For this group, return to work (RTW) is an important part of the rehabilitation, however this is an area that thus far has received little scholarly attention. The Aim of this study was two-fold.

A genome-wide association study with tissue transcriptomics identifies genetic drivers for classic bladder exstrophy.

Classic bladder exstrophy represents the most severe end of all human congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract and is associated with bladder cancer susceptibility. Previous genetic studies identified one locus to be involved in classic bladder exstrophy, but were limited to a restrict number of cohort. Here we show the largest classic bladder exstrophy genome-wide association analysis to date where we identify eight genome-wide significant loci, seven of which are novel.

Development of an Electronic Frailty Index for Hospitalized Older Adults in Sweden.

Background: Frailty assessment in the Swedish health system relies on the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), but it requires training, in-person evaluation, and is often missing in medical records. We aimed to develop an electronic frailty index (eFI) from routinely collected electronic health records (EHRs) and assess its association with adverse outcomes in hospitalized older adults.

Methods: EHRs were extracted for 18 225 patients with unplanned admissions between 1 March 2020 and 17 June 2021 from 9 geriatric clinics in Stockholm, Sweden.

Self-organising human gonads generated by a Matrigel-based gradient system.

Background: Advances in three-dimensional culture technologies have led to progression in systems used to model the gonadal microenvironment in vitro. Despite demonstrating basic functionality, tissue organisation is often limited. We have previously detailed a three-dimensional culture model termed the three-layer gradient system to generate rat testicular organoids in vitro.

Body mass index and Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form as predictors of in-geriatric hospital mortality in older adults with COVID-19.

Background & Aims: Overweight and obesity have been consistently reported to carry an increased risk for poorer outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults. Existing reports mainly focus on in-hospital and intensive care unit mortality in patient cohorts usually not representative of the population with the highest mortality, i.e.

In Vitro Study of Human Immune Responses to Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels, Recombinant Spidroins and Human Neural Progenitor Cells of Relevance to Spinal Cord Injury Repair.

Scaffolds of recombinant spider silk protein (spidroin) and hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel hold promise in combination with cell therapy for spinal cord injury. However, little is known concerning the human immune response to these biomaterials and grafted human neural stem/progenitor cells (hNPCs). Here, we analyzed short- and long-term in vitro activation of immune cells in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMCs) cultured with/without recombinant spidroins, HA hydrogels, and/or allogeneic hNPCs to assess potential host-donor interactions.

Decreased Mortality Over Time During the First Wave in Patients With COVID-19 in Geriatric Care: Data From the Stockholm GeroCovid Study.

Objective: To describe temporal changes in treatment, care, and short-term mortality outcomes of geriatric patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Observational study.

Setting And Participants: Altogether 1785 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and 6744 hospitalized for non-COVID-19 causes at 7 geriatric clinics in Stockholm from March 6 to July 31, 2020, were included.

'Weaving lifestyle habits': Complex pathways to health for persons at risk for stroke.

Background: It is important to understand how healthy lifestyle habits can be developed as they are essential in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. There is limited knowledge regarding whether, and how, engaging occupations (things that people do and occupy themselves with) can promote and help sustain healthy lifestyle habits for persons at risk for CVDs, including stroke.

Aim: The aim was to develop knowledge of how engaging in occupations can contribute to changes in lifestyle habits among persons at risk for stroke.

Spermatogonia Loss Correlates with LAMA 1 Expression in Human Prepubertal Testes Stored for Fertility Preservation.

Fertility preservation for male childhood cancer survivors not yet capable of producing mature spermatozoa, relies on experimental approaches such as testicular explant culture. Although the first steps in somatic maturation can be observed in human testicular explant cultures, germ cell depletion is a common obstacle. Hence, understanding the spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) niche environment and in particular, specific components such as the seminiferous basement membrane (BM) will allow progression of testicular explant cultures.

Transplantation of Human Neural Precursor Cells Reverses Syrinx Growth in a Rat Model of Post-Traumatic Syringomyelia.

Posttraumatic syringomyelia (PTS) is a serious condition of progressive expansion of spinal cord cysts, affecting patients with spinal cord injury years after injury. To evaluate neural cell therapy to prevent cyst expansion and potentially replace lost neurons, we developed a rat model of PTS. We combined contusive trauma with subarachnoid injections of blood, causing tethering of the spinal cord to the surrounding vertebrae, resulting in chronically expanding cysts.

Correction to: Human ex vivo spinal cord slice culture as a useful model of neural development, lesion, and allogeneic neural cell therapy.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

A qualitative study-Patient experience of tactile massage after stroke.

Aim: The aim was to evaluate emotional experiences of gentle skin massage, combined with regular rehabilitation in patients shortly after being diagnosed with stroke.

Design: A randomized study with two groups: standard individualized rehabilitation and tactile massage for 20 min three times per week (max nine times) or individual standardized rehabilitations.

Methods: This study applied a qualitative approach using semi-structured questions to evaluate experiences of receiving tactile massage among patients with first-time-ever stroke.

Human ex vivo spinal cord slice culture as a useful model of neural development, lesion, and allogeneic neural cell therapy.

Background: There are multiple promising treatment strategies for central nervous system trauma and disease. However, to develop clinically potent and safe treatments, models of human-specific conditions are needed to complement in vitro and in vivo animal model-based studies.

Methods: We established human brain stem and spinal cord (cross- and longitudinal sections) organotypic cultures (hOCs) from first trimester tissues after informed consent by donor and ethical approval by the Regional Human Ethics Committee, Stockholm (lately referred to as Swedish Ethical Review Authority), and The National Board of Health and Welfare, Sweden.