Pairwise and higher-order measures of brain-heart interactions in children with temporal lobe epilepsy.

While it is well-known that epilepsy has a clear impact on the activity of both the central nervous system (CNS) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS), its role on the complex interplay between CNS and ANS has not been fully elucidated yet. In this work, pairwise and higher-order predictability measures based on the concepts of Granger Causality (GC) and partial information decomposition (PID) were applied on time series of electroencephalographic (EEG) brain wave amplitude and heart rate variability (HRV) in order to investigate directed brain-heart interactions associated with the occurrence of focal epilepsy.HRV and the envelopes ofandEEG activity recorded from ipsilateral (ipsi-EEG) and contralateral (contra-EEG) scalp regions were analyzed in 18 children suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy monitored during pre-ictal, ictal and post-ictal periods.

The observation of art and the art of observing individuals with physical differences.

Astute observation is a fundamental skill in medical care because not only it is crucial for the detection of patients' emotions (which is a prerequisite for empathy) but also it can often yield diagnoses at first sight. The Germans call this technique "augenblickdiagnose," and indeed, gestalt diagnosis together with systematic review is used by dysmorphologists to identify syndromes. Artists have traditionally excelled at skilled observation since it is necessary for realistic portrayal of the human form.

Mazzini at 150: the Italian death of a London exile.

The year 2022 will mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Mazzini, the spiritual father of the Italian Republic and one of the best political minds of the nineteenth century. In this review, we revisit the events surrounding Mazzini's death, based on a report published in 1872 by Dr. Giovanni Rossini, the Italian physician who cared for him during his last days in Pisa.

The Moral Lessons of Covid-19: A Call for Renewal.

The Covid-19 pandemic struck physicians at a time of unprecedented dissatisfaction and burnout, providing a stress test whose lessons might guide structural changes in healthcare. While selflessly rescuing patients from death, many doctors were exposed to unacceptable risk, with little protection for themselves, and, by extension, for their families and patients. This essay examines the basis and limits of duty to treat in a time of crisis and explores how these experiences could leave doctors morally stressed and even compromised.

When Disease Strikes Leaders: What Should We Know?

Diseases of heads of state can affect national policy. Yet, cases of cover-up are numerous and involve not only dictatorships but also open and democratic societies. No system of full disclosure is currently in place to ensure that the public has access to all the information needed to establish whether a candidate to the presidency or an elected leader can discharge the powers and duties of the office.

The Archetypes of Medicine: A Job Description for the 21st Century.

Medicine is facing an identity crisis, one that might find resolution by revisiting a past rich in multifaceted individuals who transcended the strict definition of 'doctor', excelled in other fields of human endeavor, and showed us different ways of being physicians. This paper reviews 12 archetypes that have been part of the profession since its inception, but that, as of late, might have been forgotten. Our goal is to elicit discussion and introspection, with the premise that being a physician ought to be something larger than being a mere technician.

A fully automated method for accurate measurement of geometrical distortion in magnetic resonance imaging of a 3D-lattice phantom.

This paper describes an automated method for extracting the apparent positions of fiducial points from 2D or 3D images of a phantom. We consider a 3D-lattice phantom for two main reasons: first, ease of manufacture and isotropy of its structure with respect to coordinate projections; second, a connected structure allowing to uniquely assess the adjacency relationship between fiducial points even if geometric distortions arising from main magnet inhomogeneity and gradient fields non-linearity is severe as observed in open-bore systems. In order to validate our proposed method and compare different choices for the parameters of our phantom (i.

The Art of Observation and the Observation of Art: Zadig in the Twenty-first Century.

Astute observation is a fundamental component of the art of medicine. Yet most schools and residencies offer little formal teaching of this skill, with some outsourcing the entire subject matter to art museums and instructors. Curiously, it was nineteenth century medicine that may have provided the conceptual framework for what is now known as Visual Thinking Strategy, the technique used by many art-based programs in order to teach observation.

Medical Students' Exposure to the Humanities Correlates with Positive Personal Qualities and Reduced Burnout: A Multi-Institutional U.S. Survey.

Background: Literature, music, theater, and visual arts play an uncertain and limited role in medical education. One of the arguments often advanced in favor of teaching the humanities refers to their capacity to foster traits that not only improve practice, but might also reduce physician burnout-an increasing scourge in today's medicine. Yet, research remains limited.

Image-based MRI gradient estimation.

In order to reduce geometric distortion phenomena in MR images, every MRI system main magnet undergoes a shimming process. Since this process aims at optimizing magnetic field homogeneity within a so-called uniformity sphere, image quality outside this sphere is neglected. Since the fields vary smoothly in space, MR signal-to-noise ratio is still non-zero just outside the uniformity region, but correction of MR image distortion fails due to lack of magnetic field knowledge outside it.