Mirtazapine decreases the pain feeling in healthy participants.

Objectives: The treatment of neuropathic pain is mainly based on antiepileptics, tricyclic antidepressants, and opiates. These drugs have important side effects disturbing the patient's quality of life. Mirtazapine (MTZ) is a new and well-tolerated tricyclic antidepressants with both monoaminergic and opioid properties that might favorably influence pain.

Controlled contrast transcranial Doppler and arterial blood gas analysis to quantify shunt through patent foramen ovale.

Background And Purpose: A right-to-left shunt can be identified by contrast transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (c-TCD) at rest and/or after a Valsalva maneuver (VM) or by arterial blood gas (ABG) measurement. We assessed the influence of controlled strain pressures and durations during VM on the right-to-left passage of microbubbles, on which depends the shunt classification by c-TCD, and correlated it with the right-to-left shunt evaluation by ABG measurements in stroke patients with patent foramen ovale (PFO).

Methods: We evaluated 40 stroke patients with transesophageal echocardiography-documented PFO.