Publications by authors named "Athanasopoulos D"

Endogenous metabolic pathways periodically adjust with fluctuations in day and night, a biological process known as circadian rhythm. Time-restricted eating (TRE) aligns the time of food intake with the circadian rhythm. This study aims to investigate the effects of TRE on body weight, body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors.

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  • This study focuses on the prevalence and impact of pain, fatigue, and depression in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), highlighting that these factors are often overlooked compared to motor dysfunction.
  • Among the 84 patients studied, 62% reported experiencing pain, with neuropathic pain significantly linked to higher levels of fatigue and depression, suggesting that pain is a serious contributor to disability.
  • The findings indicate that managing chronic pain and assessing sensory dysfunction are crucial for improving the quality of life in CIDP patients, underscoring the need for a comprehensive evaluation of all disability factors.
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  • Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) can be difficult to differentiate from non-inflammatory axonal polyneuropathies (NIAPs), especially when secondary axonal damage is present.
  • This study compared nerve ultrasounds of patients with CIDP and NIAP to see if measurements could help distinguish between the two conditions, leading to the creation of a new scoring system called the adjusted Bochum ultrasound score (aBUS).
  • Results showed that nerve ultrasounds can enhance diagnostic accuracy, with aBUS offering improved specificity and sensitivity compared to traditional electrophysiological criteria, making it a valuable tool for diagnosing CIDP.
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  • Monitoring CIDP is complex due to unclear links between disability, subtype, and nerve damage, prompting a study to assess how different electrophysiological variables relate to patient outcomes.
  • The study involved 95 patients undergoing nerve conduction studies and clinical assessments to identify correlations between nerve function indicators and disability scores over time.
  • Results indicated that axonal damage, particularly in typical CIDP cases, strongly correlates with clinical disability, suggesting that focusing on axonal degeneration markers could improve monitoring and understanding of disease progression.
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  • Recent studies have identified inflammatory neuropathies that involve the nodes of Ranvier and are caused by specific autoantibodies, particularly anti-pan-NF-associated neuropathies, which are rare and can be life-threatening.
  • A case of a 52-year-old male with this condition showed rapid progression to a severe "locked-in" syndrome, despite initial treatment, and was characterized by specific antibody presence and non-excitable nerves.
  • A combination of aggressive immunotherapy, including rituximab and bortezomib, led to significant clinical improvement and normalization of nerve function over three months, suggesting this combination may be an effective treatment for these rare neuropathies.*
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  • A 35-year-old woman with autoimmune-mediated neuropathic postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) showed improvement after receiving immunoglobulin therapy.
  • Initial treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) caused some side-effects, but she tolerated subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg) better, leading to significant clinical improvement.
  • The reduction in serum antibody levels over 22 months after the first IVIg infusion suggests that autoimmune-mediated PoTS can be effectively managed with IVIg, while SCIg minimizes side effects.
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The aim of the present study was to investigate combined effects of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) and the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) on murine and human melanoma cells, and normal cells. In addition to free drug, the combination of CAP with a liposomal drug (DOX-LIP) was also studied for the first time. Thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and Trypan Blue exclusion assays were used to evaluate cell viability; the mechanism of cell death was evaluated by flow cytometry.

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Objective: To evaluate the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS)/Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) diagnostic criteria for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in a cohort of patients diagnosed and treated for CIDP in a tertiary university hospital.

Methods: In a monocentric retrospective study of 203 CIDP patients, diagnosed according to expert opinion, we evaluated the EFNS/PNS diagnostic criteria. Clinical course and nerve conduction studies (NCS) over 1 year from first referral were studied.

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Background: Up to 20% of patients with chronic immune-mediated sensorimotor neuropathies (CIN) do not respond adequately to first-line therapies. However, studies on further treatment are scarce.

Methods: We analyzed retrospectively 200 CIN patients regarding disease characteristics and response to therapy with cyclophosphamide (CYP), rituximab (RTX), and bortezomib (BTZ).

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Background And Purpose: We evaluated muscle echointensity as a marker for secondary axonal damage in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) using ultrasonography. Findings were correlated with clinical disability and muscular strength.

Methods: Eighty patients with CIDP (40 with typical and 40 with atypical CIDP) were examined clinically, including assessment of Medical Research Council (MRC) sum score and Inflammatory Neuropathy Cause and Treatment Overall Disability Sum Score (INCAT-ODSS).

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Background And Purpose: Monitoring of the disease course of patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) remains challenging because nerve conduction studies do not adequately correlate with functional disability. The prognostic value of pathological spontaneous activity (PSA) in needle electromyography (EMG) in different CIDP subgroups in a longitudinal context has, to date, not been analysed. We aimed to determine whether PSA was a prognostic marker or a marker of disease activity in a cohort of patients with CIDP.

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We report the case of a 27-year-old patient with subacute anti-neurofascin-155 neuropathy with bifacial palsy, who showed excellent response to rituximab. We provide longitudinal data of established clinical scores, nerve conduction studies, antibody titers, and novel imaging methods (nerve ultrasonography and corneal confocal microscopy). Clinical and electrophysiological improvement followed the reduction of serum antibody titer and correlated with a reduction of corneal inflammatory cellular infiltrates whereas the increase in the cross-sectional area of the peripheral nerves remained 12 months after first manifestation.

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Background: Fluorescent-guided techniques in vascular neurosurgery can be demonstrated via black and white indocyanine green videoangiography (ICG-VA). Multispectral imaging (MFL) is a new method, which overlaps fluorescence with the white light and provides a fluorescent white light augmented reality image to the surgeon.

Objective: To investigate (a) whether MFL can enhance the visualization of the blood-flow with simultaneous visualization of the anatomic structures and (b) if MFL can ergonomically improve the microvascular surgical treatment compared to ICG-VA.

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Human ether-à-go-go-related gene (Kv11.1, or hERG) is a potassium channel that conducts the delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) during the repolarization phase of cardiac action potentials. hERG channels have a larger pore than other K+channels and can trap many unintended drugs, often resulting in acquired LQTS (aLQTS).

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Optimal surgical therapy for brain tumors is the combination of complete resection with minimal invasion and damage to the adjacent normal tissue. To achieve this goal, we need advanced imaging techniques on a scale from macro- to microscopic resolution. In the last decade, the development of fluorescence-guided surgery has been the most influential breakthrough, marginally improving outcomes in brain tumor surgery.

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There are few reports that describe crystal structures of compounds containing cobalt complexed to either dimethyl sulfoxide (MeSO) or quinoline (CHN). The title compound, [Co(CHOS)][CoCl(CHN)], is a cobalt salt in which the metal ion is complexed to both MeSO and quinoline. In particular, we observed that anhydrous cobalt(II) chloride reacts with quinoline in MeSO to form a salt that is to be formulated as [Co(MeSO)]{[CoClquinoline]}.

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Alzheimer disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease with no effective cure so far. The current review focuses on the epigenetic mechanisms of AD and how nutrition can influence the course of this disease through regulation of gene expression, according to the latest scientific findings. The search strategy was the use of scientific databases such as PubMed and Scopus in order to find relative research or review articles published in the years 2012-2015.

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Purpose: To investigate whether a lipid emulsion could counteract the hypotensive effects of amiodarone overdose after an acute intravenous administration and improve 4 h survival in an established model of swine cardiovascular research.

Methods: Twenty pigs were intubated and instrumented to measure aortic pressures and central venous pressures (CVP). After allowing the animals to stabilize for 60 minutes, amiodarone overdose (1 mg/kg/min) was initiated for a maximum of 20 minutes.

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UV-vis absorption spectra of zinc tetraphenylporphine (ZnTPP) on interaction with six organophosphorus (OP) compounds in cyclohexane were compared using ab initio methods and the molecular and solvation ligand descriptors π(*), Vx, and σ. OPs with polarizable hydrocarbon substituents in the homologous series tri-ethyl, -pentyl, -octyl, and -phenyl phosphates and the toxicologically relevant methyl paraoxon (1a-e) each gave a red shift in the Soret band (λsor) of ZnTPP in the range of 8-10 nm. Sensitivity as ΔAsor-b/Δug OP for the spectral band of the ligand bound ZnTPP (λsor-b) decreased with increasing extent of alkyl and aromatic substitution.

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The distribution of the natural radionuclides ((238)U, (232)Th, (226)Ra, (40)K) and the artificial (137)Cs was studied in sediment cores collected from Amvrakikos Gulf, a seasonal anoxic marine basin, using γ-ray spectrometry. The activity of radionuclides, along with the concentrations of Fe and Mn, were also studied in relation to the total organic carbon and the granulometric fractions of the sediments. The results obtained revealed higher (238)U activity concentrations in all the examined sediment samples compared to the world and Greek average values for soil.

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Objective: To investigate the presence of atherogenic factors among preschool children of Crete, Greece.

Materials And Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. The study population included 1189 children, aged four to seven years, examined from January to May 2005, in public kindergartens.

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Introduction: Childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the past few decades both in developed and developing countries. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of increased weight in children and adolescents on a remote Greek island in the Aegean Sea, and to assess the factors influencing this phenomenon.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving children and adolescents aged 8-16 years, resident on the island of Kalymnos, Greece.

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During maximal hypoxic exercise, a reduction in cerebral oxygen delivery may constitute a signal to the central nervous system to terminate exercise. We investigated whether the rate of increase in frontal cerebral cortex oxygen delivery is limited in hypoxic compared to normoxic exercise. We assessed frontal cerebral cortex blood flow using near-infrared spectroscopy and the light-absorbing tracer indocyanine green dye, as well as frontal cortex oxygen saturation (S(tO2)%) in 11 trained cyclists during graded incremental exercise to the limit of tolerance (maximal work rate, WRmax) in normoxia and acute hypoxia (inspired O2 fraction (F(IO2)), 0.

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In this study, we wished to determine whether the observed reduction in quadriceps muscle oxygen availability, reported during repetitive bouts of isometric exercise in simulated sailing efforts (i.e. hiking), is because of restricted muscle blood flow.

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