Age-Related Differences in Non-Persistence with Statin Treatment in Patients after a Transient Ischaemic Attack.

Background And Objective: Non-persistence with secondary preventive measures, including medications such as statins, adversely affects the prospects of successful outcomes. This study was aimed at evaluating non-persistence with statin therapy in cohorts of young and elderly patients after a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and identifying patient-associated characteristics that influence the risk for non-persistence.

Methods: The study cohorts included 797 adult patients who were initiated on statin therapy following a TIA diagnosis between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2010.

Non-persistence with antiplatelet therapy in elderly patients after a transient ischemic attack.

Background: Antiplatelet therapy following a transient ischemic attack (TIA) constitutes an important secondary prevention measure.

Aims: The study was aimed at evaluating the development of non-persistence with antiplatelet therapy in elderly patients after a TIA and identifying patient-related characteristics associated with the probability of non-persistence during the follow-up period.

Methods: The study cohort (n = 854) was selected from the database of the largest health insurance provider of the Slovak Republic.

Patient-related characteristics associated with non-persistence with statin therapy in elderly patients following an ischemic stroke.

Purpose: This study was aimed at evaluating the extent of non-persistence with statin therapy in elderly patients after an ischemic stroke and identifying patient-related characteristics that are risk factors for non-persistence.

Methods: The evaluable study cohort (n = 2748) was derived from the database of the largest health insurance provider in the Slovak Republic. Patients aged ≥65 years who were initiated on statin therapy following the diagnosis of an ischemic stroke during one full year (1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010) constituted this cohort.

Long-term effect of rituximab in a case with late-onset Rasmussen´s encephalitis with anti-ganglioside IgGQ1b and anti-GAD antibodies positivity. Case Report.

Rasmussen's encephalitis is a rare autoimmune encephalitis usually involving one brain hemisphere, presenting with refractory epileptic seizures, and neurological and cognitive decline. Only 10% of cases start later in adolescence/adulthood. The only effective treatment for refractory seizures in childhood is hemispherectomy.

Factors Influencing Non-Persistence with Antiplatelet Medications in Elderly Patients After Ischaemic Stroke.

Objectives: This study investigated the extent of, and patient-related characteristics for, non-persistence with antiplatelet therapy during follow-up in elderly patients after their first ischaemic non-cardioembolic stroke.

Methods: A database of the largest health insurance provider in the Slovak Republic was used to assemble the study cohort of 4319 patients (56.8% were women) aged ≥65 years in whom antiplatelet therapy was initiated following a hospital-based diagnosis of stroke during the period 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension: a retrospective clinical study.

Background: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension is a disorder characterized by an increased intracranial pressure, without deformity and obstruction of the ventricular system. There is a predilection of occurrence in obese women of childbearing age. The pathogenesis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension is likely related to abnormalities in the balance between production and drainage of cerebrospinal fluid.

Attenuated neuroendocrine response to hypoglycemic stress in patients with panic disorder.

Background/aims: There is a lack of information on the effects of metabolic stress exposure on hormone release in patients with panic disorder. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that neuroendocrine activation during hypoglycemic stress is altered in panic disorder patients compared to healthy subjects.

Methods: Hormone responses to an intravenous bolus of insulin (0.

Sweat: a potential marker of clinical activity in panic disorder.

Objective: Panic disorder (PD) is a paroxysmal neuropsychiatric disorder with unclear etiology and obscure pathophysiology. Despite the frequency of its occurrence, PD still has no reliable laboratory markers. The sweat is a neglected human secrete reacting immediately to various neurovegetative challenges including psychic imupulses.

Chaotic EEG patterns during recall of stressful memory related to panic attack.

Chaotic transitions likely emerge in a wide variety of cognitive phenomena and may be linked to specific changes during the development of mental disorders. They represent relatively short periods in the behavior of a system, which are extremely sensitive to very small changes. This increased sensitivity has been suggested to occur also during retrieval of stressful emotional experiences because of their fragmentary, temporally and spatially disorganized character.

Reduced plasma homocysteine levels in levodopa/entacapone treated Parkinson patients.

Hyperhomocysteinemia is not only a major risk factor for atherothrombotic disease, but is also strongly associated with an increased risk of dementia and cognitive impairment, both of which are common in the course of Parkinson's disease (PD). Previous work has found that levodopa increases plasma homocysteine concentrations. Animal studies have indicated that the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitors can prevent levodopa-induced elevation of homocysteine concentrations by reducing the O-methylation of levodopa.

[Somatosensory evoked potentials in panic disorders].

Background: Panic disorders are at present the most intensely studied psychiatric entity calling for a multidisciplinary approach. After promising results following the use of evoked auditory potentials for the first time in panic disorders the somatosensory evoked potential was tested.

Methods And Results: Fifteen patients with panic disorders or agoraphobias or without the latter (12 women, 3 men, average age 33.

Changes of motor evoked potential amplitudes following magnetic stimulation after hyperventilation.

The influence of hyperventilation on amplitudes of motor evoked potentials (MEP) following cortical and root magnetic stimulations was tested in ten healthy volunteers. Hyperventilation significantly increased MEP amplitude following cortical stimulation (p < 0.01) but failed to change MEP amplitude following root stimulation.

[Conceptual aspects of panic disorders].

Pathophysiological mechanisms of panic disorder, which is at present the most frequently investigated psychiatric affection have been elaborated at the level of neurotransmitter systems of the central nervous system and belong into intermedical disciplines (psychopharmacology, neuroradiology, neurophysiology etc.) On this basis neurobiological pathogenetic concepts of panic disorder were postulated: the neuroanatomical hypothesis (1989) and theorem on the hypersensitivity of respiratory centres of the brain stem (false alarm of suffocation) with the corresponding syndrome of hyposensitivity of respiratory centres (syndrome of primary central apnoea - 1993). A special though rather labile interpretation of the genesis of panic disorder is provided by the cognitive concept.

[Panic disorder: psychoneurologic nexus].

The author demonstrates on panic disorders which are at present the most frequently investigated mental affection, problems of mutual psychiatric and neurological associations ensuing from the pathophysiology of the disorder. Panic disorders are a neurobiological process which develops on pathogenetically defined coordinates of a system formed by the locus coeruleus--the limbic apparatus--the cortex. The authors reminded of the debts of psychiatry (in particular neurology) in our regions as regards the medical identification and exploration of this exceptional disease.

[Overview of tetanic syndrome occurrence].

The clinical material of the EMG laboratory was analyzed to establish the annual incidence rate (approx. 1 per 1000) of tetanic syndrome as well as the age and sex of the patients affected. In inpatients of the Hospital's Department of Neurology the occurrence rate of neurogenic tetanic syndrome over a period of 5 years was evaluated and compared with that of multiple sclerosis.

[Carbamazepine in the treatment of tetanic syndrome].

Neurogenic tetanic syndrome (synonyms: spasmophilia, chronic, larved, latent, hyperventilation tetany) causes problems due to its high incidence and torpid course. The aetiology is obscure. Sometimes mild disorders of the Ca and Mg metabolism are found.

[Occurrence of spontaneous electromyographic repetitive activity].

Spontaneous repetitive activity of different types reflects the reduced threshold of excitability of the peripheral motor neuron under different conditions of its irritation. In addition to tetanic syndrome it is found in rare instances also in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, polyneuropathy, myositis, traumatic nerve damage, Isaacs syndrome. Probably it develops in distant portions of the motor neuron as a result of changes of the accommodating ability of nerve fibres.