Risk factor analysis of persistent low back pain after microdiscectomy: A retrospective study.

Objective: Microdiscectomy is an effective and safe treatment for patients with symptomatic lumbar disc herniation (LDH) that is refractory to conservative interventions. However, some patients experience persistent low back pain (PLBP) after microdiscectomy that is secondary to progressive disc degeneration and segmental instability. This study aimed to clarify the definition of PLBP and analyze its prevalence and associated risk factors.

Vision-based gait impairment analysis for aided diagnosis.

Gait is a firsthand reflection of health condition. This belief has inspired recent research efforts to automate the analysis of pathological gait, in order to assist physicians in decision-making. However, most of these efforts rely on gait descriptions which are difficult to understand by humans, or on sensing technologies hardly available in ambulatory services.

Effects of pharmacological agents, sleep deprivation, hypoxia and transcranial magnetic stimulation on electroencephalographic rhythms in rodents: towards translational challenge models for drug discovery in Alzheimer's disease.

Different kinds of challenge can alter spontaneous ongoing electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms in animal models, thus providing paradigms to evaluate treatment effects in drug discovery. The effects of challenges represented by pharmacological agents, hypoxia, sleep deprivation and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on EEG rhythms are here reviewed to build a knowledge platform for innovative translational models for drug discovery in Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been reported that antagonists of cholinergic neurotransmission cause synchronisation of spontaneous ongoing EEG rhythms in terms of enhanced power of EEG low frequencies and decreased power of EEG high frequencies.