Publications by authors named "C Torres-Diaz"
Article Synopsis
- Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a potential treatment for psychiatric patients with severe, treatment-resistant symptoms, but its effectiveness has varied and is still in an experimental stage due to lack of objective diagnostic criteria.
- This overview reviews the existing literature on different biomarkers that could enhance the application of DBS in psychosurgery, including clinical, omic, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and neurobiochemical types.
- A deeper understanding of these biomarkers could lead to more objective and effective uses of DBS in psychiatry, making treatments more tailored to individual patients.
Objective: We present our experience in using Gamma knife surgery (GKS) on the posterior part of the central lateral nucleus (CLp) for refractory neuropathic pain, examining its long-term efficacy and safety in patients with one of the longest pretreatment pain duration in the literature. Furthermore, we examined certain factors that might influence the outcome of this technique.
Methods: We conducted a prospective study involving 9 patients who underwent GKS between 2020 and 2023.
Article Synopsis
- Plant-soil biodiversity interactions are crucial for terrestrial ecosystems, yet it's unclear which specific topsoil microbial and small invertebrate organisms consistently associate with land plants.
- A field survey of 150 land plant species across 124 locations revealed that these plants only shared less than 1% of the soil organisms, mostly generalist decomposers and phagotrophs, with their presence linked to important functional genes.
- Environmental factors like aridity, soil pH, and carbon content can significantly disrupt the relationships between land plants and soil organisms, potentially impacting soil ecosystem processes in the face of climate change.
Article Synopsis
- Global biodiversity conservation is constrained by limited resources, necessitating the identification of conservation priorities, particularly for amphibians in Chile.
- A study evaluated 58 amphibian species, classifying them into priority categories based on conservation needs, with findings indicating that 70% of these species are threatened mainly by habitat loss, pollution, and diseases.
- Eight amphibian families were highlighted for conservation, and 14 species were identified as needing further research, emphasizing the importance of informed management strategies to address the threats they face.
Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a highly efficient, evidence-based therapy to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life in movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia, which is also being applied in several psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, when they are otherwise resistant to therapy.
Summary: At present, DBS is clinically applied in the so-called open-loop approach, with fixed stimulation parameters, irrespective of the patients' clinical state(s). This approach ignores the brain states or feedback from the central nervous system or peripheral recordings, thus potentially limiting its efficacy and inducing side effects by stimulation of the targeted networks below or above the therapeutic level.