Hand Grip Strength Predicts Mortality and Quality of Life in Heart Failure: Insights From the Singapore Cohort of Patients With Advanced Heart Failure.

Background: Frailty is prevalent among patients with heart failure (HF) and is associated with increased mortality rates and worse patient-centered outcomes. Hand grip strength (GS) has been proposed as a single-item marker of frailty and a potential screening tool to identify patients most likely to benefit from therapies that target frailty so as to improve quality of life (QoL) and clinical outcomes. We assessed the association of longitudinal decline in GS with all-cause mortality and QoL.

Dopamine D2 receptors bidirectionally regulate striatal enkephalin expression: Implications for cocaine reward.

Low dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) availability in the striatum can predispose for cocaine abuse; though how low striatal D2Rs facilitate cocaine reward is unclear. Overexpression of D2Rs in striatal neurons or activation of D2Rs by acute cocaine suppresses striatal Penk mRNA. Conversely, low D2Rs in D2-striatal neurons increases striatal Penk mRNA and enkephalin peptide tone, an endogenous mu-opioid agonist.

Assessing the Success and Sustainability of Global Neurosurgery Collaborations: Systematic Review and Adaptation of the Framework for Assessment of InteRNational Surgical Success Criteria.

Background: The high unmet neurosurgical burden in low- and middle-income countries has necessitated multiple global neurosurgical collaborations. We identified these collaborations and their peer-reviewed journal publications and evaluated them using a modified version of the Framework for Assessment of InteRNational Surgical Success (FAIRNeSS).

Methods: A systematic literature review yielded 265 articles describing neurosurgery-focused collaborations.

Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Variation in the Posterior Communicating Collaterals of the Circle of Willis.

Variation in blood flow mediated by the posterior communicating collateral arteries (PComs) contributes to variation in the severity of tissue injury in obstructive disease. Evidence in animals and humans indicates that differences in the extent of PComs, i.e.