Effectiveness and safety of erenumab in chronic migraine: A Croatian real-world experience.

Objective: To determine the real-world effectiveness and safety of erenumab after 6 months of treatment in chronic migraine patients with therapeutic resistance to multiple classes of prophylactic medication.

Methods: The patients were recruited from the Headache Outpatient Clinic of the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia between March 2019 and November 2019. All participants received erenumab 70 mg for 6 months.

Heterophile antibodies, false-positive troponin, and acute coronary syndrome: a case report indicating a pitfall in clinical practice.

Background: Heterophile antibodies are one of the most common causes of false-positive troponin.

Case Summary: We report a case of a 53-year-old woman with false-positive troponin elevation and a clinical presentation understood and treated as non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome. Because of chronic basal elevation of troponin (at a 'plateau' level) and chest pain, the patient underwent several invasive coronary angiograms until false-positive increase of troponin due to heterophile antibodies was suspected.

Idiopathic Trigeminal Neuralgia (ITN): Facts and Fiction.

In this paper the authors present neuroanatomical and neurophysiological arguments against the microvascular compression in the root entry zone of trigeminal nerve nerve as an ethiopathogenetic factor of ITN. Clinical experience has proven that compression of mixed sensorymotor nerve (peripheral or central one), cannot provoke paroxysmal neuralgic pain. The authors conclude that the well known fact that dental pulp has only pain sensory modality brings up the question what might be consequence of tooth extraction where neural fibers are broken in the innervation areas of maxillar and mandibular nerve.

Acupuncture as a Complementary Method of Traditional Psoriasis Treatment: Myth or Reality?

Dear Editor, the practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine described psoriasis some 2000 years ago (1). Psoriasis vulgaris is a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease whose worldwide prevalence ranges from 0.1-3% (2,3).

Epidemiology of Primary Headaches Among 1,876 Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Background: The main goal of our research was to perform an epidemiological study of migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) among high school students in the Republic of Croatia.

Methods: The authors surveyed 1,876 students attending high schools in the Republic of Croatia using a self-administered 36-item questionnaire.

Results: Among 1,876 students who completed the questionnaire, prevalence of migraine was 12.

Changes in Heart Rate Variability after Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting and Clinical Importance of These Findings.

Heart rate variability is a physiological feature indicating the influence of the autonomic nervous system on the heart rate. Association of the reduced heart rate variability due to myocardial infarction and the increased postinfarction mortality was first described more than thirty years ago. Many studies have unequivocally demonstrated that coronary artery bypass grafting surgery generally leads to significant reduction in heart rate variability, which is even more pronounced than after myocardial infarction.

Left ventricular diastolic function in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients: correlation with heart rate and its variability.

Aims: To assess the prevalence of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in a population of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus; to determine correlation of diastolic dysfunction with heart rate and its variability.

Methods: The study included 202 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Echocardiography was performed with special reference to diastolic function, and heart rate variability was analysed using standard deviation of normal RR intervals, root mean square of successive differences and percentage of successive R-R intervals greater than 50 ms (pNN 50 %) in a 24-h electrocardiogram recording.

Pregnancy-related severe pelvic girdle pain caused by unilateral noninfectious sacroiliitis. A case report and literature review.

Pelvic girdle pain during and after pregnancy is the clinical syndrome of persistent musculoskeletal pain localized in the posterior and/or anterior aspect of the pelvis originating from sacroiliac joints and/or pubic symphysis due to dynamic instability. We report the case of severe and disabling postpartum pelvic girdle pain caused by unilateral noninfectious sacroiliitis which resolved after 2 months by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug and physical therapy. A short literature review is given on epidemiology, etiology, clinical presentation, therapy, and prognosis of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain.

The dynamics of soluble Fas/APO 1 apoptotic biochemical marker in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Purpose: Until recently, neuronal death in ischemic stroke infarction was ascribed exclusively to necrotic process. However, experimental animal models of cerebral ischemia suggest apoptosis to play a role in the pathogenesis of cerebral infarction. The aim of this study was to determine the level and monitor the dynamics of soluble Fas/APO 1 (sFas/APO 1) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of acute ischemic stroke patients.

Outcome of patients with normal and decreased heart rate variability after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.

Background: Previous studies have shown that after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), heart rate variability (HRV) becomes decreased, even more significantly than in patients after myocardial infarction (MI). According to some reports, unlike in patients after MI, decreased postoperative HRV does not increase mortality in CABG patients. The aim of this study was to compare differences in mortality rate in CABG patients with normal vs.

Parkinson's disease--challenges in new drug development.

Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. Treatment aims in IPD include the provision of symptomatic relief reduction of functional disability, halting or slowing of the neurodegenerative process, and the prevention of long-term complications by proper initiation of therapy. At present, pharmacotherapeutic strategies allow the amelioration of motor symptoms of IPD only, whereas non-motor manifestations are not helped by dopamine replacement strategies.

Characteristics of heart rate variability in war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder after myocardial infarction.

Objective: The goal of the study was to evaluate differences in heart rate variability (HRV) among post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients, depending on their participation in the Croatian war and on established diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Methods: The study included 34 male war veterans with diagnosed PTSD who had suffered a first MI and 34 age-matched post-MI patients without PTSD. Cardiac autonomic balance was evaluated through HRV analysis.

Heart rate variability differences in post-myocardial infarction patients based on initial treatment during acute phase of disease.

The aim of study was to asses the heart rate variability (HRV) differences in 128 post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients based on initial treatment during acute phase of disease. The patients were divided into groups: group 1 patients who underwent primary PCI, group 2 patients who received fibrinolysis and group 3 patients who were treated conservatively. In comparison with groups 2 and 3, group 1 patients had all HRV analyzed parameters higher except for LF/HF ratio.

Progressive impairment of autonomic control of heart rate in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Background: Data regarding the autonomic control of heart rate in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients depending on the disease duration are lacking in the literature. The goal of this study was to evaluate differences in heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with MS according to the duration of the disease.

Methods: The study included 39 patients (23 female and 16 male; median age 42 years, range 34-53 years) with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) in stable phase and 39 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.

[Current concept of diagnostic procedure in Alzheimer's disease: an evidence based approach].

The aim of this article is to provide evidence-based recommendations for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and hereby to give clinician the guidelines for optimal detection of patients with AD. Our intention is also to unify diagnostic schemes in accordance with our objective and specific possibilities. Basic diagnostic procedures primaruly are anamnesis and clinical examination with rational usage of neuroimaging, electrophysiological and laboratory procedures.

[Functional capacity in patients after myocardial infarction dependent on treatment strategy in acute phase of disease].

Background And Aim: Recently published studies suggest that percutaneous coronary inetrvention (PCI) is superior to fibrinolysis in terms of early and late mortality in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) with ST-elevation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of treatment strategy in the acute phase of MI on postinfarction functional capacity.

Patients And Methods: This prospective study included 128 consecutive patients with MI, with ST-elevation over 12 weeks from the disease onset.

Association of refractory complex partial seizures with a polymorphism of ApoE genotype.

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a constituent of many types of lipoproteins that play a role in metabolism of cholesterol and lipids in the body as well as in the brain. ApoE is synthesised in astrocytes and microglia and enter to neurons through LDL, LRP and VLDL receptors. Recently it was shown that ApoE is also produced in neurons.

Gradual recovery of impaired cardiac autonomic balance within first six months after ischemic cerebral stroke.

Background: The level of autonomic dysbalance in the first months after acute ischemic cerebral stroke has not been thoroughly investigated, and the available data are uncomplete. The aim of this research is to establish the degree and dynamics of impaired cardiac autonomic balance recovery within the first six months following the acute ischemic cerebral stroke.

Methods: This prospective study included 78 patients who had suffered the first ischemic cerebral stroke and 78 sex and age-matched healthy subjects.

The effect of 3-weeks stationary cardiac rehabilitation on plasma lipids level in 444 patients with coronary heart disease.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 3-weeks stationary cardiac rehabilitation on plasma lipids level in patients with CHD. The study included 444 consecutive patients (364 male and 80 female, mean age 58 +/- 9 year) with CHD who underwent 3-weeks stationary cardiac rehabilitation. Patients were divided into groups depending on their baseline levels of cholesterol and medication therapy: patients with normal (< 5 mmol/L, group I, 129 patients) and elevate plasma level of Total cholesterol (> 5 mmol/L, group II, 315 patients) and subgroups Ia and IIa (with statin in therapy), Ib and IIb (without statin in therapy).