Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stroke Epidemiology and Clinical Stroke Practice in the US.

Introduction: To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stroke, the number of stroke patients, time since last known well (LKW), morbidity, and mortality of stroke patients in Southwest Healthcare System (SHS), California (CA) and the United States (US) were analyzed during 2019 and compared to 2020. Our hypothesis is that there are regional differences in stroke outcome depending on location during the COVID-19 study period which influences stroke epidemiology and clinical stroke practice.

Methods: The American Heart Association's 'Get with the Guidelines' (GWTG) database was used to evaluate the following categories: code stroke, diagnosis of stroke upon discharge, inpatient mortality, modified Rankin Score (mRS) upon discharge (morbidity), and time since last known well (LKW).

Surgonomics of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Background/aims: A comparison of reimbursement for endovascular coil embolization and surgical clipping of unruptured aneurysms has not been previously reported. The aim of this study is to assess the reimbursement to physicians and hospitals for each of these two unruptured aneurysm treatments with long-term follow-up.

Methods: Hospital and physician payents were determined for 14 patients treated with coil embolization or surgical clipping of a single unruptured aneurysm per patient from 2004 to 2005, retrospectively.

Retrospective analysis of parenteral magnesium sulfate administration in decreased incidence of clinical and neuroradiological cerebral vasospasm: a single center experience.

Objective: Experimental work suggests a neuroprotective role for magnesium sulfate in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. We retrospectively review the incidence of clinically relevant vasospasm in patients treated or not with continuous magnesium infusion after onset of subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Methods: All patient records in Albany Medical Center with the diagnosis of SAH between January 1999 and June 2004 were reviewed.

Intracranial endoscopy.

The authors' intention is to reduce the invasiveness of intracranial procedures while avoiding traumatization of brain tissue, to decrease the risk of neurological and mental deficits. Intracranial endoscopy is a minimally invasive technique that provides rapid access to the target via small burr holes without the need for brain retraction. Craniotomy as well as microsurgical brain splitting and dissection can often be avoided.

Androgens regulate the mammalian homologues of invertebrate sex determination genes tra-2 and fox-1.

Androgens, like other steroid hormones, exert profound effects on cell growth and survival by modulating the expression of target genes. In vertebrates, androgens play a critical role downstream of the testis determination pathway, influencing the expression of sexually dimorphic traits. Among cells of the nervous system, motor neurons respond to trophic effects of androgen stimulation, with a subpopulation of spinal motor neurons exhibiting sexually dimorphic survival.

Cloning and genomic organization of the mouse gene slc23a1 encoding a vitamin C transporter.

Vitamin C is known to exist in particularly high concentrations in brain tissue, and its free radical scavenging function is thought to represent a major antioxidative defense system. We have cloned, sequenced and analyzed the genomic structure of a mouse sodium-dependent vitamin C transporter gene, Slc23a1 (also known as Svct2). The mouse Slc23a1 cDNA is 6.

Workforce demand for neurosurgeons in the United States of America: a 13-year retrospective study.

Object: The workforce demand for neurosurgeons was quantified by a review and an analysis of journal recruitment advertisements published over the past 13 years.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of recruitment advertisements from July 1985 through June 1998 was performed by examining issues of the Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery. Advertisement information that appeared in each journal during the last 3 years was collected from alternating months (July to May); information that appeared prior to that time was collected from alternating recruitment years back to 1985.

Autosomal dominant distal spinal muscular atrophy type V (dSMA-V) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2D (CMT2D) segregate within a single large kindred and map to a refined region on chromosome 7p15.

Two separate disorders, autosomal dominant distal spinal muscular atrophy type V (dSMA-V) characterized by marked bilateral weakness in the hands and atrophy of thenar eminence and the first interosseous muscle, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2D (CMT2D) characterized by sensory deficits in addition to the upper limb weakness and wasting, have been independently linked to chromosome 7p. We identified a multigenerational Mongolian kindred with 17 members affected with either dSMA-V or CMT2D and mapped both syndromes to the same region on chromosome 7p15. A maximum two-point lod score of 4.