High prevalence of major neurological disorders in two Albanian communities: results of a door-to-door survey.

Background: There are few epidemiological studies on neurological disorders in Albania.

Methods: A door-to-door survey was undertaken in two geographical areas (Tirana and Saranda) with different socioeconomic backgrounds. Two random samples of the local population underwent a structured interview to ascertain headache, epilepsy, dementia, parkinsonism, multiple sclerosis, polyneuropathy, stroke and cerebral palsy.

Spinal subarachnoid bleeding of unknown etiology. Case reports.

Spinal subarachnoid bleeding of unknown etiology is extremely rare. It has been suggested that these lesions have to be divided into two subtypes with different behaviour and prognosis according to their location around the spinal cord. The dorsally located bleeding would invariably cause severe spinal cord compression while the ventral lesions would have a very benign course in the absence of remarkable neurological deficit.

Local versus central assessment of venographies in a multicenter trial on the prevention of deep vein thrombosis in neurosurgery.

Venography is the diagnostic method of choice for end-point measurement in multicenter trials on the prevention of postoperative deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The aim of the study was to determine the inter-observer agreement between the local and central assessment of venographies in a multicenter trial comparing enoxaparin and placebo in the prevention of DVT after elective neurosurgery. The study was run in seven centers experienced in venography trials on DVT prevention.

High prevalence of antiphosphatidylinositol antibodies in young patients with cerebral ischemia of undetermined cause.

Background And Purpose: Anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) are associated with thrombotic phenomena including cerebral ischemia in young adults. Although aCL are directed to a neoepitope formed by phospholipid and beta2-glycoprotein I (beta2-GPI), immunoassays based on cardiolipin as target antigen are widely used. We previously demonstrated that 47% of aCL-negative systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients had antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) to epitopes other than cardiolipin, and we found an association between aPL to noncardiolipin antigens and thrombosis.