Simvastatin and Simvastatin-Ezetimibe Improve the Neurological Function and Attenuate the Endothelial Inflammatory Response after Spinal Cord Injury in Rat.

During a spinal cord injury (SCI), mechanical trauma rapidly leads to a blood-spinal cord barrier (BSB) disruption, neural cell damage, axonal damage, and demyelination, followed by a cascade of secondary inflammatory reactions. These inflammatory responses spread the damage to the neural cells and impair the recovery of neurological functions. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of simvastatin and a simvastatin-ezetimibe combination therapy in managing the endothelial inflammatory response in an SCI rat model.

Fluoroscopically-Guided Superior Hypogastric Plexus Neurolysis Using a Single Needle: A Modified Technique for a Posterolateral Transdiscal Approach.

Background: A superior hypogastric plexus block is difficult to perform and hampered by bony structures of the iliac crest and transverse process of L5.

Objective: We report on a fluoroscopically guided posterolateral transdiscal technique for superior hypogastric plexus neurolysis using a single needle.

Study Design: A technical note describing interventional procedures.

Comparative Cost Analysis for the Surgical and Endovascular Treatment of Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms in Taiwan: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.

Objective: Using a database that enabled longitudinal follow-up, we assessed the cost, outcome, complications, and readmission rate of ruptured cerebral aneurysms repaired by surgical clipping and endovascular coiling.

Methods: This study was a retrospective review of data from a series of patients who underwent surgical clipping or endovascular coiling of ruptured cerebral aneurysms between 1996 and 2013. The medical records and hospital cost data were all examined.

Risk of dementia in patients with primary insomnia: a nationwide population-based case-control study.

Background: To investigate the association between primary insomnia and dementia using a Taiwanese population-based database.

Methods: This case-control study involved a subset of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database of reimbursement claims. We included 51,734 patients who were diagnosed with primary insomnia from 2002 to 2004 as the test group and 258,715 nonprimary insomnia participants aged 20 years or older as the reference group.

Population-based study suggests an increased risk of Alzheimer'sdisease in Sjögren's syndrome.

This population-based study was designed to estimate and compare the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) between patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and non-SS patients during a 10-year follow-up period. This is a retrospective cohort study. Data were obtained from the Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.