Facial nerve neurographies in intensive care unit-acquired weakness.

Background: Patients with an intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICU-AW) often present clinically with severe paresis of the limb and trunk muscles while facial muscles appear less affected. To investigate whether the facial nerves are partially spared from this condition, we performed both peripheral and cranial nerve conduction studies in critically ill patients.

Methods: In patients requiring prolonged ICU therapy, the motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities of the peroneal, ulnar and facial nerves and the muscle action potentials of the associated muscles, as well as the orbicularis oculi reflexes were assessed shortly after admission, and on ICU days 7 and 14.

Immunity after COVID-19 vaccination in people with higher risk of compromised immune status: a scoping review.

Background: High efficacy in terms of protection from severe COVID-19 has been demonstrated for several SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. However, patients with compromised immune status develop a weaker and less stable immune response to vaccination. Strong immune response may not always translate into clinical benefit, therefore it is important to synthesise evidence on modified schemes and types of vaccination in these population subgroups for guiding health decisions.

Janus kinase inhibitors for the treatment of COVID-19.

Background: With potential antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors represent a potential treatment for symptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. They may modulate the exuberant immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, a direct antiviral effect has been described.

The role of the TMS parameters for activation of the corticospinal pathway to the diaphragm.

Objective: The influence of the TMS-parameters on the efficacy and reliability to induce diaphragmatic motor-evoked potentials (diMEPs) has not been studied so far. Therefore, the objective of the present research is to probe the role of TMS- waveform (monophasic- [Mo] vs. biphasic-pulses [Bi]) and current direction (posterior-anterior [Pa] vs.

Low Intensity, Transcranial, Alternating Current Stimulation Reduces Migraine Attack Burden in a Home Application Set-Up: A Double-Blinded, Randomized Feasibility Study.

Low intensity, high-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) applied over the motor cortex decreases the amplitude of motor evoked potentials. This double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel group study aimed to test the efficacy of this method for acute management of migraines. The patients received either active (0.

Camostat Mesylate May Reduce Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Sepsis: A First Observation.

Unlabelled: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 cell entry depends on angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and transmembrane serine protease 2 and is blocked in cell culture by camostat mesylate, a clinically proven protease inhibitor. Whether camostat mesylate is able to lower disease burden in coronavirus disease 2019 sepsis is currently unknown.

Design: Retrospective observational case series.

Overlooking the obvious? Influence of electrolyte concentrations on seizure quality parameters in electroconvulsive therapy.

Clinical response to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) depends on eliciting a generalized seizure. Though there are multiple ictal and other parameters to assess seizure quality, factors that influence these parameters have only been identified to a limited extend in antecedent studies (e.g.

Focal visual status epilepticus.

Epileptic visual auras are elementary to complex and sometimes occur as colourful visual phenomena located close to or within the central part of the contralateral hemi-field. They typically last from seconds to a few minutes, which discriminates them from the usually longer-lasting visual auras (5-30 minutes) of patients suffering from migraine. We present an adult patient with occipital lobe epilepsy whose visual aura under epilepsy monitoring lasted for more than 30 minutes with almost no propagation, demonstrating a rare, but remarkable, sustained local epileptic network activity associated with resection of an occipital arterio-venous malformation.

The effect of current flow direction on motor hot spot allocation by transcranial magnetic stimulation.

The objective of this study was to investigate the significance of pulse configurations and current direction for corticospinal activation using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In 11 healthy subjects (8 female), a motor map for the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) recorded from the first dorsal interosseus (FDI), abductor digiti minimi (ADM), extensor carpi radialis, and biceps brachii (BB) muscles of the dominant side was established. Starting from a manually determined hot spot of the FDI representation, we measured MEPs at equal oriented points on an hexagonal grid, with 7 MEPs recorded at each point, using the following pulse configurations: posteriorly directed monophasic (Mo-P), anteriorly directed monophasic (Mo-A), biphasic with the more relevant second cycle oriented posteriorly (Bi-P) as well as a reversed biphasic condition (Bi-A).

A white matter tract mediating awareness of speech.

Objective: To investigate the effects of extraoperative electrical stimulation of fiber tracts connecting the language territories.

Methods: We describe results of extraoperative electrical stimulation of stereotactic electrodes in 3 patients with epilepsy who underwent presurgical evaluation for epilepsy surgery. Contacts of these electrodes sampled, among other structures, the suprainsular white matter of the left hemisphere.

Prophylactic treatment in menstrual migraine: A proof-of-concept study.

The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of repetitive cathodal direct current stimulation (rctDCS) over the visual cortex as a prophylactic treatment in patients with menstrual migraine. 20 female patients were recruited in this double-blind, placebo-controlled study and were assigned to receive either cathodal or sham stimulation. Over 3 menstrual cycles, tDCS with 2mA intensity and 20 min duration was applied to the visual cortex of the patients, in 5 consecutive sessions 1-5 days prior to the first day of their menstruation.

Cord blood cell therapy alters LV remodeling and cytokine expression but does not improve heart function after myocardial infarction in rats.

Objective: In this study the ability of unrestricted somatic stem cells (USSC) and mononuclear cord blood cells (MN-CBC) was tested to improve heart function and left ventricular (LV) remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI).

Methods: The cells were delivered by i.v.