Stroke remains a leading cause of mortality and long-term disability worldwide, with variable recovery trajectories posing substantial challenges in anticipating post-event care and rehabilitation planning. To address these challenges, we established the NeuralCup consortium to benchmark predictive models of stroke outcome through a collaborative, data-driven approach. This study presents findings from 15 international teams who used a comprehensive dataset including clinical and imaging data, to identify and compare predictors of motor, cognitive, and emotional outcomes one year post-stroke.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) constitutes approximately 25% of pediatric cancers, and with contemporary protocols, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%. Despite improved survival, neurocognitive impairments from treatment raise concerns. This registry study aimed to explore the impact of ALL treatment on educational outcomes from school year nine in Swedish children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections have been the standard of care for the wet/neovascular variant since 2004. Currently, there are conflicting reports regarding its effect on the choroid, which supplies outer retina with oxygen and other nutrients. We synthesize available information of anti-VEGF on choroidal thickness (CT) in treatment-naïve typical neovascular AMD patients during the initial 12-week loading phase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Struct Funct
September 2024
The arcuate fasciculus may be subdivided into a tract directly connecting frontal and temporal lobes and a pair of indirect subtracts in which the fronto-temporal connection is mediated by connections to the inferior parietal lobe. This tripartition has been advanced as an improvement over the centuries-old consensus that the lateral dorsal association fibers form a continuous system with no discernible discrete parts. Moreover, it has been used as the anatomical basis for functional hypotheses regarding linguistic abilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Parents given a diagnosis of cancer must balance the demands of their illness and caregiving responsibilities. This can result in parental stress and have a negative impact on the well-being of the whole family. A greater understanding of the experiences of parents with cancer is necessary to provide adequate support.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Balancing having cancer and parenting a major stressor, and may result in parenting distress, negatively affecting the whole family. To provide adequate support, knowledge of existing psychosocial interventions are crucial to guide future interventions. This study aimed to describe available psychosocial interventions for parents with cancer and dependent children (<18 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Sexual Function and Satisfaction (SexFS) version 2.0 measurement tool was developed to assess sexual functioning and satisfaction in the general population regardless of health condition and sexual orientation.
Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the PROMIS SexFS measure in clinical and nonclinical populations of young adults (aged <40 years).
Purpose: To investigate the short- and long-term risk of psychotropic medication use in parents who lose a child to cancer diagnosed in adolescence.
Methods: This is a Swedish nationwide register-based study including 184 bereaved mothers and 184 bereaved fathers of 184 children diagnosed with cancer in adolescence. Logistic regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and history of mental health problems, were performed to estimate risk of a prescription of psychotropic medication (anxiolytics, hypnotics/sedatives, antidepressants) in cancer-bereaved parents from 1 year before to 5 years after the child's death, with a general population sample of non-bereaved parents (n = 3291) as referents.
Background: The aim was to investigate psychotropic medication use in parents of survivors of adolescent cancer from the acute post-diagnostic phase and up to 2 years following the cancer diagnosis.
Methods: This study had a nationwide register-based cohort design comparing psychotropic medication use in parents of adolescent survivors of cancer (n = 2323) to use in parents of cancer-free controls (n = 20,868). Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for cancer diagnostic group, parents' age, country of birth, education level, marital status and previous mental health problems estimated the risk of use from the time of the cancer diagnosis up to 2 years later.
Properdin, the only known positive regulator of the complement system, stabilizes the C3 convertase, thereby increasing its half-life. In contrast to most other complement factors, properdin is mainly produced extrahepatically by myeloid cells. Recent data suggest a role for properdin as a pattern recognition molecule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Importance: Although aging societies in Western Europe use presenting complaints (PCs) in emergency departments (EDs) triage systems to determine the urgency and severity of the care demand, it is unclear whether their prognostic value is age-dependent.
Objective: To assess the frequency and association of PCs with hospitalization and mortality across age categories.
Methods: An observational multicenter study using all consecutive visits of three EDs in the Netherlands Emergency department Evaluation Database.
Background: The aim of this study was to explore what facilitators and barriers parents of children with cancer identify for their ability to return to work and meet financial needs.
Procedure: Nine focus groups (21 mothers; 11 fathers) were performed across Sweden in 2015 and 2019. A deductive content analysis approach was used.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of sexual dysfunction and to identify the factors associated with sexual dysfunction in young adult childhood cancer survivors.
Methods: All survivors of childhood cancer (aged 19-40 years) in Sweden were invited to this population-based study, and 2546 men and women (59%) participated. Sexual function was examined with the PROMIS Sexual Function and Satisfaction Measure.
Usage-based theories assume that all aspects of language processing are shaped by the distributional properties of the language. The frequency not only of words but also of larger chunks plays a major role in language processing. These theories predict that the frequency of phrases influences the time needed to prepare these phrases for production and their acoustic duration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Little is known of the cognitive functions, employment, and social status in adult survivors of childhood brain tumor (BT). We aimed to determine the long-term neurocognitive profile of radiotherapy-treated adult survivors of childhood BT and the relationship between cognitive functions and employment and social status.
Methods: Neurocognitive profiles of survivors were assessed in a Finnish national cohort of 71 radiotherapy-treated survivors of childhood BT (median follow-up time: 21 years [range: 5-33 years]) using a cross-sectional design.
Purpose: Young women diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer face the risk of significant physical and mental health problems after end of treatment. Still, there is a lack of knowledge regarding specific support needs in this population, and supportive care services provided to young women with a gynecologic cancer have been reported to be insufficient. The aim of this study was therefore to identify support needs experienced by women diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer before the age of 40.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople often acquire souvenirs and photographs to facilitate remembering, but possessions and memories can relate to each other in a variety of ways. This review paper presents four different connection types found between meaningful things in our everyday lives and our personal memories. Each connection type either focuses on possessions or memories and the connection between the two is either active or lost.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Exchanging experiences of patient and public involvement (PPI) can bring insights into why, how and when PPI is most effective. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of patient research partners (PRPs) and researchers engaged in a co-creative long-term collaboration in cancer research.
Methods: The aim and procedures of this study were jointly decided upon by PRPs and researchers.
In this nationwide, register-based study, we estimated the risk of mental health problems in 2822 individuals diagnosed with cancer in adolescence (13-19 years). Mental health problems were assessed by psychiatric diagnoses and/or prescribed psychotropic drugs. Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratio (HR) for a psychiatric diagnosis and prescription of psychotropic drug compared to a matched comparison group (n = 28 220).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParents' needs of support following the loss of a child to cancer and whether these needs are met are not fully known. This study aimed to describe parents' needs, opportunity, and benefit of support from healthcare professionals and significant others from shortly after, up to five years after bereavement. Data were collected at nine months (T5, = 20), eighteen months (T6, = 37), and five years after the child's death (T7, = 38).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To explore experiences related to interpersonal relationships following a cancer diagnosis in a sibling.
Methods: Respondents (n = 7 females) were recruited by means of convenience sampling during a camp for children affected by childhood cancer and their siblings. Data from children and adolescents with a sibling diagnosed with cancer was collected through individual face-to-face interviews and analyzed using systematic text condensation.
Objective: To explore psychological distress experienced by parents who express a need for psychotherapy after curative treatment for their child's cancer.
Methods: 15 parents (eight mothers and seven fathers) of children treated for cancer (median time since end of curative treatment: two years) were recruited via a pediatric oncology center. Each parent was interviewed twice and data was analyzed with inductive latent qualitative content analysis.
Objective: In this qualitative study, we aimed to provide an in-depth exploration of cancer-related psychological distress experienced by young survivors of cancer during adolescence reporting a need for psychological support.
Methods: Two individual interviews were held with ten young survivors of cancer diagnosed in adolescence. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.
Background: Symptoms of anxiety and depression and their comorbidity in parents of children diagnosed with cancer, particularly later in the cancer trajectory, need further study. The aim was to investigate the prevalence and predictors of symptoms of anxiety and depression in parents of childhood cancer survivors and bereaved parents, five years after end of treatment or a child's death and to investigate comorbidity between symptoms of anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress.
Material And Methods: Participants were 132 parents (68 mothers, 64 fathers) of survivors and 37 bereaved parents (20 mothers, 17 fathers).