Potential drug-drug interactions in acute poisonings managed in the intensive care unit: Occurrence, risk factors and relationship to patient severity on admission.

Beyond the direct toxicity resulting from each drug in the poisoned patient, additional toxicities may result from drug-drug interactions (DDIs). We aimed to determine the frequency of potential DDIs in the poisoned patient and investigate whether DDIs are associated with severity. We conducted a 1-year cohort study in a toxicological ICU.

COVID-19 fatality rates in hospitalized patients: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Although general and local public health report deathly cases, case fatality rates are still largely unknown. Thus, we sought to evaluate the mortality of COVID-19.

Analysis of clinical and methodological characteristics of early COVID-19 treatment clinical trials: so much work, so many lost opportunities.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on, and clinical research has been promoted worldwide. We aimed to assess the clinical and methodological characteristics of treatment clinical trials that have been set forth as an early response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: First, we reviewed all registered clinical trials on COVID-19.

Patients and Health Professional's Perspective of Functional Mobility in Parkinson's Disease.

Functional mobility (FM) is the person's ability to move to accomplish daily living tasks and activities. FM limitations are common in Parkinson's disease, increase with disease progression, and can be highly disabling. Although several studies in Parkinson's disease (PD) field use this concept, only recently, a formal definition has been proposed.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Swallowing Disturbance Questionnaire and the Sialorrhea Clinical Scale in Portuguese patients with Parkinson's disease.

Introduction: To date, no valid outcome measure has been developed in European Portuguese (EP) to evaluate the Parkinsons' Disease (PD) patients' (PwP) reports regarding their swallowing disturbances.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Swallowing Disturbance Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Sialorrhea Clinical Scale for PD (SCS-PD) into EP and to determine its clinimetric properties in PwP.

Materials And Methods: The original English SDQ and SCS-PD versions were cross-culturally adapted following recommendations established in international guidelines.

Circulating Inflammatory miRNAs Associated with Parkinson's Disease Pathophysiology.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, being largely characterized by motor features. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, whose deregulation has been associated with neurodegeneration in PD. In this study, miRNAs targeting cell death and/or inflammation pathways were selected and their expression compared in the serum of PD patients and healthy controls.

Outcome Measures for Evaluating the Effect of a Multidisciplinary Intervention on Axial Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.

The satisfactory symptomatic control of the axial symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) remains challenging. As these symptoms are an important cause of disability, new therapeutic strategies should be developed and evaluated. To do this, it is necessary to select the outcomes to be measured and reported in a clinical trial.

Neuromelanin Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Substantia Nigra in Huntington's Disease.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant neurodegenerative disorder inducing motor, psychiatric changes and cognitive decline, characterized pathologically by striatal atrophy. Pathological changes in the extra-striatal structures, such as the substantia nigra (SN), and abnormalities in pre-synaptic striatal dopamine neurotransmission are also known to occur. Neuromelanin (NM)-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI) is an innovative technique that was recently developed allowing the in vivo study of pathological changes in the dopaminergic neurons of the SN.

Should the Energy Contribution of Commercial Thickeners Be Considered in the Nutrition Plan of Patients With Dysphagia?

Background: Clinical management options for dysphagia include the use of thickeners to increase the consistency of liquids. Health professionals may not be aware of the nutrition value of these products, since there are no such recommendation in clinical guidelines. Our aim was to estimate the added nutrition value of the 2 types of commercial thickeners (starch and xanthan gum) to daily nutrition intake and compare their nutrition value for nectar, honey, and pudding consistencies.

Psychosocial impact of Parkinson's disease-associated dysarthria: Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Dysarthria Impact Profile into European Portuguese.

Aim: The present study sought to make a cross-cultural adaptation of the Dysarthria Impact Profile (DIP) for European Portuguese (EP) and validate it for use in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

Methods: The cross-cultural adaptation was carried out in accordance with the guidelines. The EP version of the DIP was administered to 80 people with PD, and 30 sex- and age-matched control participants.

Correction: Gene Expression Differences in Peripheral Blood of Parkinson's Disease Patients with Distinct Progression Profiles.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Speech and Voice Response to a Levodopa Challenge in Late-Stage Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are affected by hypokinetic dysarthria, characterized by hypophonia and dysprosody, which worsens with disease progression. Levodopa's (l-dopa) effect on quality of speech is inconclusive; no data are currently available for late-stage PD (LSPD).

Objective: To assess the modifications of speech and voice in LSPD following an acute l-dopa challenge.

Cardiac Harms of Sofosbuvir: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Sofosbuvir is a new direct-acting pyrimidine nucleotide analogue antiviral drug that has shown remarkable efficacy in the treatment of hepatitis C in clinical trials. However, observational anecdotal data have recently suggested an increased risk of serious bradycardia among patients treated with sofosbuvir and amiodarone.

Objective: We aimed to estimate and characterize the cardiac safety of sofosbuvir by performing a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Substantia Nigra Neuromelanin as an Imaging Biomarker of Disease Progression in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: A specific T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence has been shown to detect substantia nigra (SN) neuromelanin (NM) signal changes that accurately discriminate Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from controls, even in early disease stages. However, it is unclear what happens to these SN changes in later disease stages and if they can be a marker of disease progression.

Objective: to investigate the pattern of SN-NM area loss and contrast ratio (CR) intensity changes in late-stage PD (LSPD) compared to earlier disease stages.

Survival, Mortality, Causes and Places of Death in a European Huntington's Disease Prospective Cohort.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare and fatal inherited genetic disorder characterized by progressive motor, cognitive, and behavioral impairment. It leads to premature death, but data regarding advanced-stage disease are scarce. We sought to determine HD-associated survival, mortality, and causes and places of death.

Acute response of non-motor symptoms to subthalamic deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is an established treatment for the motor complications of Parkinson's disease (PD) and may have beneficial effects on non-motor symptoms (NMS). However, the acute effect of STN stimulation on NMS has only been explored in small PD cohorts with short post-surgical follow-up.

Objective: To study NMS response to an acute stimulation challenge in an STN-DBS PD population with a medium/long-term post-surgical follow-up.

Frenchay dysarthria assessment (FDA-2) in Parkinson's disease: cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the European Portuguese version.

Hypokinetic dysarthria is a common symptom in those with Parkinson's disease (PD); there is currently no standardized or validated tool for assessing speech in this population. To translate into European Portuguese (EP) the FDA-2 and perform a cultural adaptation followed by an evaluation of its psychometric properties in PD in a sample of people with PD in different stages of disease progression. Translation, back-translation, experts' analysis, pre-test and final version test were performed.

Data Analytics from Enroll-HD, a Global Clinical Research Platform for Huntington's Disease.

Background: The study of complex neurodegenerative diseases is moving away from hypothesis-driven biological methods toward large scale multimodal approaches, requiring standardized collaborative efforts. Enroll-HD exemplifies such an integrated clinical research platform, designed and implemented to meet the research and clinical needs of Huntington's disease (HD). The aim of this study was to describe the unique organization of Enroll-HD and report baseline data analyses of its core study.

Gene Expression Differences in Peripheral Blood of Parkinson's Disease Patients with Distinct Progression Profiles.

The prognosis of neurodegenerative disorders is clinically challenging due to the inexistence of established biomarkers for predicting disease progression. Here, we performed an exploratory cross-sectional, case-control study aimed at determining whether gene expression differences in peripheral blood may be used as a signature of Parkinson's disease (PD) progression, thereby shedding light into potential molecular mechanisms underlying disease development. We compared transcriptional profiles in the blood from 34 PD patients who developed postural instability within ten years with those of 33 patients who did not develop postural instability within this time frame.

A systematic review of the characteristics and validity of monitoring technologies to assess Parkinson's disease.

Background: There is growing interest in having objective assessment of health-related outcomes using technology-based devices that provide unbiased measurements which can be used in clinical practice and scientific research. Many studies have investigated the clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease using such devices. However, clinimetric properties and clinical validation vary among the different devices.

Quantitative Analysis Versus Visual Assessment of Neuromelanin MR Imaging for the Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Background: Specific MR sequences have been able to identify the loss of neuromelanin in the substantia nigra (SN) of early stage Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Since this technique may have a significant impact in clinical patient management, easy and widely available imaging analysis is needed for routine use.

Objective: In this study we compared a quantitative analysis with a visual assessment of SN neuromelanin-sensitive MR images in early stage PD patients, in terms of pattern changes recognition and diagnostic accuracy.