Epidemiology, patient characteristics, and treatment patterns of patients with narcolepsy in Sweden: a non-interventional study using secondary data.

Study Objectives: To estimate the prevalence and incidence and evaluate the treatment patterns of patients diagnosed with narcolepsy in specialist care in Sweden.

Methods: This non-interventional retrospective longitudinal study used Swedish register data from 2010 to 2020 and included patients diagnosed with narcolepsy (either type 1 or type 2), recorded in specialist outpatient and inpatient care from January 2015 to December 2019. All patients received an index date corresponding to the date of the first narcolepsy diagnosis.

Brain health: Pathway to primary prevention of neurodegenerative disorders of environmental origin.

While rising global rates of neurodegenerative disease encourage early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention to block clinical expression (secondary prevention), a more powerful approach is to identify and remove environmental factors that trigger long-latencybrain disease (primary prevention) by acting on a susceptible genotype or acting alone. The latter is illustrated by the post-World War II decline and disappearance of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Parkinsonism-Dementia Complex (ALS/PDC), a prototypical often-familial neurodegenerative disease formerly present in very high incidence on the island of Guam. Lessons learned from 75 years of investigation on the etiology of ALS/PDC include: the importance of focusing field research on the disease epicenter and patients with early-onset disease; soliciting exposure history from patients, family, and community to guide multidisciplinary biomedical investigation; recognition that disease phenotype may vary with exposure history, and that familial brain disease may have a primarily environmental origin.

Patient experiences of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia in the Nordics: a patient journey map.

Central disorders of hypersomnolence (CDH) are chronic diseases that significantly impact the lives of affected individuals. We aimed to explore the perspectives of individuals with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1), narcolepsy type 2 (NT2), and idiopathic hypersomnia (IH), and the challenges they encounter in their daily lives and within the healthcare systems in the Nordics. Interviews with patients (N = 41) and healthcare professionals (n = 14) and a patient survey (n = 70) were conducted in 2022 in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway to develop a patient journey map that visualises the patient with CDH journey and provides insights into the difficulties faced by these individuals.

Decrease of excessive daytime sleepiness after shunt treatment for normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Sleepiness and apathy are often reported in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. However, research on outcomes after shunt surgery has mainly focused on the classical triad symptoms, that is, gait, cognition, and bladder dysfunction. This study aimed to describe the effects of shunt treatment on excessive daytime sleepiness and whether there was a relation to changes in ventricular volume.

Developing education in environmental health and medicine focusing on neurology: Initiatives in Sweden (the UPRISE model), France, and Turkey.

Background: The role of environmental factors in neurological disorders constitutes a topic of increasing importance. Teaching in European universities should expand and update this field gaining future health professionals including adjacent disciplines.

Aim: To describe recent efforts to create courses that cover crucial interdisciplinary content that we believe should be included in modern education, and to adapt modern pedagogic strategies.

Associations between obesity, a composite risk score for probable long COVID, and sleep problems in SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated individuals.

Background: Preliminary data suggests that obesity might hasten the decline in mRNA vaccine-induced immunity against SARS-CoV-2. However, whether this renders individuals with obesity more susceptible to long COVID symptoms post-vaccination remains uncertain. Given sleep's critical role in immunity, exploring the associations between obesity, probable long COVID symptoms, and sleep disturbances is essential.

Experiences of being treated with autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for aggressive multiple sclerosis: A qualitative interview study.

Background: Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) is increasingly used as a treatment for aggressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and has the potential to induce long-term remission and resolution of disease activity. Despite the extensive research on treatment outcome after AHSCT, the experience of living with MS after AHSCT has not been previously described in the scientific literature. The aim of this study was to explore long-term lived experience of people with MS treated with AHSCT.

Exploring biomarkers in trigeminal neuralgia patients operated with microvascular decompression: A comparison with multiple sclerosis patients and non-neurological controls.

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe facial pain condition often associated with a neurovascular conflict. However, neuroinflammation has also been implicated in TN, as it frequently co-occurs with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: We analysed protein expression levels of TN patients compared to MS patients and controls.

The association of insomnia with long COVID: An international collaborative study (ICOSS-II).

Objective: There is evidence of a strong association between insomnia and COVID-19, yet few studies have examined the relationship between insomnia and long COVID. This study aimed to investigate whether COVID-19 patients with pre-pandemic insomnia have a greater risk of developing long COVID and whether long COVID is in turn associated with higher incident rates of insomnia symptoms after infection.

Methods: Data were collected cross-sectionally (May-Dec 2021) as part of an international collaborative study involving participants from 16 countries.

Habitual short sleepers with pre-existing medical conditions are at higher risk of Long COVID.

Study Objectives: Preliminary evidence suggests that the risk of Long COVID is higher among people with pre-existing medical conditions. Based on its proven adjuvant role in immunity, habitual sleep duration may alter the risk of developing Long COVID. The objective of this study was to determine whether the odds of Long COVID are higher among those with pre-existing medical conditions, and whether the strength of this association varies by habitual sleep duration.

Case report: a novel deep intronic splice-altering variant in as a cause of Becker muscular dystrophy.

We present the case of a male patient who was ultimately diagnosed with Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD; MIM# 300376) after the onset of muscle weakness in his teens progressively led to significant walking difficulties in his twenties. A genetic diagnosis was pursued but initial investigation revealed no aberrations in the dystrophin gene (), although immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis suggested the diagnosis of dystrophinopathy. Eventually, after more than 10 years, an RNA analysis captured abnormal splicing where 154 nucleotides from intron 43 were inserted between exon 43 and 44 resulting in a frameshift and a premature stop codon.

Absence of Oligoclonal Bands in Multiple Sclerosis: A Call for Differential Diagnosis.

Immunoglobulin gamma (IgG) oligoclonal bands (OCB) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are absent in a small group of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. According to previous research, OCB-negative MS patients differ genetically but not clinically from OCB-positive MS patients. However, whether OCB-negative MS is a unique immunological and clinical entity remains unclear.

A comprehensive diagnostic approach in suspected neurosarcoidosis.

Neurosarcoidosis presents a diagnostic challenge in clinical settings, as it has no pathognomonic symptoms or signs and a wide range of differential diagnoses. The aim of this report is to present the pathological features of our group of patients, obtained through a systematic diagnostic approach. This retrospective cohort study enrolled all adult patients primarily diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis at the neurology department of a tertiary center in Sweden over a period of 30 years, from 1990 to 2021.

The Importance of Optical Coherence Tomography in the Diagnosis of Atypical or Subclinical Optic Neuritis: A Case Series Study.

Optic neuritis (ON) is an inflammatory condition of the optic nerve. ON is associated with development of demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). CNS lesions visualized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the finding of oligoclonal IgG bands (OB) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are used to stratify the risk of MS after a "first" episode of ON.

Persistent short nighttime sleep duration is associated with a greater post-COVID risk in fully mRNA-vaccinated individuals.

Short nighttime sleep duration impairs the immune response to virus vaccination, and long nighttime sleep duration is associated with poor health status. Thus, we hypothesized that short (<6 h) and long (>9 h) nighttime sleepers have a higher post-COVID risk than normal nighttime sleepers, despite two doses of mRNA vaccine (which has previously been linked to lower odds of long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms). Post-COVID was defined as experiencing at least one core COVID-19 symptom for at least three months (e.

Inventory study of an early pandemic COVID-19 cohort in South-Eastern Sweden, focusing on neurological manifestations.

Background: Neurological manifestations in patients with COVID-19 have been reported previously as outcomes of the infection. The purpose of current study was to investigate the occurrence of neurological signs and symptoms in COVID-19 patients, in the county of Östergötland in southeastern Sweden.

Methods: This is a retrospective, observational cohort study.

Shift workers are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 compared with day workers: Results from the international COVID sleep study (ICOSS) of 7141 workers.

The present study had two main aims. First, to investigate whether shift/night workers had a higher prevalence and severity of COVID-19 compared with day workers. Second, to investigate whether people regularly working in face-to-face settings during the pandemic exhibited a higher prevalence and severity of COVID-19 compared with those having no need to be in close contact with others at work.