Early Forms of -Synuclein Pathology Are Associated with Neuronal Complex I Deficiency in the Substantia Nigra of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease.

Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (iPD) is characterized by degeneration of the dopaminergic substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), typically in the presence of Lewy pathology (LP) and mitochondrial respiratory complex I (CI) deficiency. LP is driven by α-synuclein aggregation, morphologically evolving from early punctate inclusions to Lewy bodies (LBs). The relationship between α-synuclein aggregation and CI deficiency in iPD is poorly understood.

Investigating post-stroke fatigue: An individual participant data meta-analysis.

Objective: The prevalence of post-stroke fatigue differs widely across studies, and reasons for such divergence are unclear. We aimed to collate individual data on post-stroke fatigue from multiple studies to facilitate high-powered meta-analysis, thus increasing our understanding of this complex phenomenon.

Methods: We conducted an Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis on post-stroke fatigue and its associated factors.

The influence of coping styles on long-term employment in multiple sclerosis: A prospective study.

Background: The aim was to investigate predictive values of coping styles, clinical and demographic factors on time to unemployment in patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) during 1998-2002 in Norway.

Method: All patients ( N = 108) diagnosed with MS 1998-2002 in Hordaland and Rogaland counties, Western Norway, were invited to participate in the long-term follow-up study in 2002. Baseline recordings included disability scoring (Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS)), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS)), depression (Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)), and questionnaire assessing coping (the Dispositional Coping Styles Scale (COPE)).

Longitudinal follow-up of employment status in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome after mononucleosis.

Objective: To examine the effect of early clinical and demographic factors on occupational outcome, return to work or awarded permanent disability pension in young patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Intervention: A written self-management programme including a description of active coping strategies for daily life was provided.

Brain atrophy and disability progression in multiple sclerosis patients: a 10-year follow-up study.

Objectives: To identify MRI biomarkers associated with long-term disability progression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to define the rate of evolution of global, tissue-specific and regional atrophy in patients with MS over long-term.

Methods: MRI of the brain and clinical neurological assessment was performed in 81 patients at time of first visit and after 5 and 10 years of follow-up. MRI was acquired on 1.

C-reactive protein and homocysteine predict long-term mortality in young ischemic stroke patients.

Background: We investigated the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and homocysteine on follow-up and subsequent mortality in young ischemic stroke patients in a population-based study.

Methods: Young ischemic stroke patients were followed-up on average 6 years after the index stroke. CRP and homocysteine levels were measured and risk factors were recorded, including myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, alcoholism, and cancer.

Poststroke fatigue and depression are related to mortality in young adults: a cohort study.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between poststroke fatigue and depression and subsequent mortality in young ischaemic stroke patients in a population-based study.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: All surviving young ischaemic stroke patients living in Hordaland County.

Poor health-related quality of life is associated with long-term mortality in young adults with cerebral infarction.

Background: Our aim was to investigate the effect of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) on subsequent mortality in young ischemic stroke patients in a population-based study.

Methods: Young ischemic stroke patients were invited to a follow-up on average 6 years after their index stroke. HRQOL was measured by Short-Form 36 (SF-36) and the Nottingham Health Profile (NPH).

Chronic fatigue syndrome after Giardia enteritis: clinical characteristics, disability and long-term sickness absence.

Background: A waterborne outbreak of Giardia lamblia gastroenteritis led to a high prevalance of long-lasting fatigue and abdominal symptoms. The aim was to describe the clinical characteristics, disability and employmentloss in a case series of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) after the infection.

Methods: Patients who reported persistent fatigue, lowered functional capacity and sickness leave or delayed education after a large community outbreak of giardiasis enteritis in the city of Bergen, Norway were evaluated with the established Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for CFS.

Benefit from B-lymphocyte depletion using the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab in chronic fatigue syndrome. A double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disease of unknown aetiology. Major CFS symptom relief during cancer chemotherapy in a patient with synchronous CFS and lymphoma spurred a pilot study of B-lymphocyte depletion using the anti-CD20 antibody Rituximab, which demonstrated significant clinical response in three CFS patients.

Methods And Findings: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study (NCT00848692), 30 CFS patients were randomised to either Rituximab 500 mg/m(2) or saline, given twice two weeks apart, with follow-up for 12 months.

Prevalence and incidence of multiple sclerosis in Oppland County: a cross-sectional population-based study in a landlocked county of Eastern Norway.

OBJECTIVES - We report the prevalence and incidence rates of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Oppland County, Norway. METHODS - Records from all patients diagnosed with MS at the two Oppland County hospitals, Gjøvik and Lillehammer during 1989-2001 were evaluated. In addition, all general practitioners in Oppland County reported their patients into the study.

How long can you keep working with benign multiple sclerosis?

Objective: To study employment in benign multiple sclerosis (MS), the frequency of employment was analysed and the effect of early clinical and demographic factors on time to disability pension was evaluated in a population based MS cohort. The frequency of depression, cognitive function, fatigue and pain between benign and non-benign MS patients was compared, and their impact on employment in benign MS was studied.

Methods: All 188 patients alive, including 60 benign patients with onset of MS during 1976-1986 in Hordaland County, Western Norway, were interviewed and clinically examined in 2003.

Postinfectious and chronic fatigue syndromes: clinical experience from a tertiary-referral centre in Norway.

Background: We aimed to compare patients reporting acute infection with those reporting no infection at onset of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Patients And Methods: This study includes 873 patients with CFS referred to a tertiary centre on average 4.8 years after symptom onset.

Vaccination as teenagers against meningococcal disease and the risk of the chronic fatigue syndrome.

The etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is unknown. In Norway, a vaccine against Neisseria meningitides group B was administered to teenagers in 1988--1989 in a protection trial. In order to estimate the relative risk of CFS/ME according to vaccine history, we conducted a case-control study in 2007, with 201 cases diagnosed at one of two hospitals and 389 controls.

Vitamin D-dependent rickets as a possible risk factor for multiple sclerosis.

Background: Vitamin D-dependent rickets type I (VDDR I) (OMIM 264700) is a rare hereditary condition caused by a mutation in CYP27B1. Vitamin D is emerging as an important risk factor for susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS), but there have been no studies on the possible association between hereditary rickets and this disease.

Objective: To investigate the association between VDDR I and MS.

mtDNA nt13708A variant increases the risk of multiple sclerosis.

Background: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphism is a possible factor contributing to the maternal parent-of-origin effect in multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility.

Methods And Findings: In order to investigate the role of mtDNA variations in MS, we investigated six European MS case-control cohorts comprising >5,000 individuals. Three well matched cohorts were genotyped with seven common, potentially functional mtDNA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Reduced health-related quality of life in former North Sea divers is associated with decompression sickness.

Background: Diving is associated with long-term effects on several organ systems.

Aim: The objective was to investigate the impact of decompression sickness (DCS) and diving exposure on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in former Norwegian North Sea divers.

Methods: HRQL was recorded by a questionnaire in the cohort of 375 Norwegian North Sea divers registered before 1990.

Health-related quality of life among young adults with ischemic stroke on long-term follow-up.

Background And Purpose: We sought to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in young adults with ischemic stroke on long-term follow-up with controls and to evaluate HRQoL in clinically relevant patient subgroups.

Methods: HRQoL was determined with the use of the 8 subscales of the Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-36). Subgroups of patients were defined by sex, age, functional status (modified Rankin Scale), marital status, education, depression (Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale), and fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale).

Fatigue at long-term follow-up in young adults with cerebral infarction.

Background: To study the impact of fatigue in young ischaemic stroke patients.

Methods: The Fatigue Severity Scale score was obtained in 192 patients (mean time 6.0 years after the stroke) and 212 controls.

Concordance for disease course and age of onset in Scandinavian multiple sclerosis coaffected sib pairs.

Background: Investigation of coaffected sib pairs is one method to determine the genetic influence on the clinical presentation of many complex diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Investigation of the clinical concordance in coaffected sib pairs may be a prerequisite to identify genes that modify the clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible genetic influence on selected demographic and clinical variables among familial Scandinavian MS cases.

Subpial demyelination in the cerebral cortex of multiple sclerosis patients.

The extent and pattern of demyelination in the cerebral cortex was determined in 78 tissue blocks from the brains of 20 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 28 tissue blocks from 7 patients without neurological disease. Tissue blocks from 4 predetermined areas (cingulate gyrus, frontal, parietal, and temporal lobe) were studied, irrespective of macroscopically evident MS plaques. All tissue blocks contained cerebral cortex and periventricular and/or subcortical white matter.

TNF-alpha and -beta gene polymorphisms in multiple sclerosis: a highly significant role for determinants in the first intron of the TNF-beta gene.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and TNF-beta are proinflammatory cytokines that have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases. The aim of this investigation was to determine whether a determinant in the first intron of the TNF-beta gene (TNF-beta(+252)) and two promoter-region polymorphisms of the TNF-alpha gene (TNF-alpha(-308) and TNF-alpha(-238)) affect susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS). DNA samples from 133 Caucasian MS patients and 148 healthy controls from Norway were genotyped for several polymorphic determinants, using polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP) methods.