Dysphagia Affecting Quality of Life in Cerebellar Ataxia-a Large Survey.

Dysphagia is a common symptom in neurodegenerative disorders and is generally associated with increased mortality. In the clinical care setting of ataxia patients, no systematical and standardized assessment of dysphagia is employed. Its impact on patients' health-related quality of life is not well understood.

Low availability of carnitine precursors as a possible reason for the diminished plasma carnitine concentrations in pregnant women.

Background: It has been shown that plasma carnitine concentrations decrease markedly during gestation. A recent study performed with a low number of subjects suggested that this effect could be due to a low iron status which leads to an impairment of carnitine synthesis. The present study aimed to confirm this finding in a greater number of subjects.