Review of Neurologic Comorbidities in Hospitalized Patients With Opioid Abuse.

Purpose Of Review: To determine the prevalence and burden of neurologic comorbidities in hospitalized patients with opioid abuse.

Recent Findings: From 1 year of hospital discharges, 2,182 patients with opioid abuse were identified (prevalence 6.3%), with abuse greater among younger patients ( < 0.

Myotonia permanens with Nav1.4-G1306E displays varied phenotypes during course of life.

Introduction: Myotonia permanens due to Nav1.4-G1306E is a rare sodium channelopathy with potentially life-threatening respiratory complications. Our goal was to study phenotypic variability throughout life.

Near-death experience: arising from the borderlands of consciousness in crisis.

Brain activity explains the essential features of near-death experience, including the perceptions of envelopment by light, out-of-body, and meeting deceased loved ones or spiritual beings. To achieve their fullest expression, such near-death experiences require a confluence of events and draw upon more than a single physiological or biochemical system, or one anatomical structure. During impaired cerebral blood flow from syncope or cardiac arrest that commonly precedes near-death, the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness is often indistinct and a person may enter a borderland and be far more aware than is appreciated by others.

Blood pressure regulation in diabetic patients with and without peripheral neuropathy.

Cardiac and vascular dysfunctions resulting from autonomic neuropathy (AN) are complications of diabetes, often undiagnosed. Our objectives were to: 1) determine sympathetic and parasympathetic components of compromised blood pressure (BP) regulation in patients with peripheral neuropathy and 2) rank noninvasive indexes for their sensitivity in diagnosing AN. We continuously measured electrocardiogram, arterial BP, and respiration during supine rest and 70° head-up tilt in 12 able-bodied subjects, 7 diabetics without, 7 diabetics with possible, and 8 diabetics with definite, sensory, and/or motor neuropathy (D2).

Does the arousal system contribute to near death experience?

The neurophysiologic basis of near death experience (NDE) is unknown. Clinical observations suggest that REM state intrusion contributes to NDE. Support for the hypothesis follows five lines of evidence: REM intrusion during wakefulness is a frequent normal occurrence, REM intrusion underlies other clinical conditions, NDE elements can be explained by REM intrusion, cardiorespiratory afferents evoke REM intrusion, and persons with an NDE may have an arousal system predisposing to REM intrusion.