Validating accelerometry as a measure of physical activity and energy expenditure in chronic stroke.

Background: Accelerometers can objectively measure steps taken per day in individuals without gait deficits, but accelerometers also have the ability to estimate frequency, intensity, and duration of physical activity. However, thresholds to distinguish varying levels of activity intensity using the Actical brand accelerometer are standardized only for the general population and may underestimate intensity in stroke.

Objective: To derive Actical activity count thresholds specific to stroke disability for use in more accurately gauging time spent at differing activity levels.

Autonomic dysreflexia and sudden death in people with traumatic spinal cord injury.

Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is an uncommon but potentially life-threatening clinical syndrome consisting of acute episodes of excessive, uncontrolled sympathetic output that may occur in quadriplegics and in paraplegics whose spinal cord lesions are above the level of T6. These uncontrolled bouts of sympathetic output can cause transient and pronounced elevations of blood pressure that on occasion can lead to serious sequela such as the precipitation of a hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. The episodes of AD are often triggered by some type of noxious stimulus such as a distended urinary bladder or a fecal impaction.

Indices of metabolic dysfunction and oxidative stress.

Metabolic alterations are a key player involved in the onset of Alzheimer disease pathophysiology and, in this review, we focus on diet, metabolic rate, and neuronal size differences that have all been shown to play etiological and pathological roles in Alzheimer disease. Specifically, one of the earliest manifestations of brain metabolic depression in these patients is a sustained high caloric intake meaning that general diet is an important factor to take in account. Moreover, atrophy in the vasculature and a reduced glucose transporter activity for the vessels is also a common feature in Alzheimer disease.

Homicidal ethylene glycol intoxication: a report of a case.

We report a case of a 75-year-old hypertensive, diabetic man who presented to the emergency room with symptoms and signs of nausea, acute intoxication, significant alteration in mental status with rapid neurologic deterioration, and blunt impact injuries sustained during a recent altercation with a 36-year-old female companion-caretaker. He denied a history of ethanol abuse or other recent toxic ingestion and had not been diagnosed with or treated for depression. Hospital laboratory tests revealed a metabolic acidosis and a negative urine toxicology screen.

Drug prevalence in drowning deaths in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: a ten-year retrospective study.

Previous studies have shown that up to 50% of adult drownings are related to the consumption of alcohol. Little information is available in the literature regarding the possible contribution of ethanol and other drugs to drownings. All records of deaths occurring in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, from 1994-2003, in which drowning was listed as the cause of death, were reviewed.