Safety and efficacy of eculizumab in Guillain-Barré syndrome: a multicentre, double-blind, randomised phase 2 trial.

Background: Despite the introduction of plasmapheresis and immunoglobulin therapy, many patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome still have an incomplete recovery. Evidence from pathogenesis studies suggests the involvement of complement-mediated peripheral nerve damage. We aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of eculizumab, a humanised monoclonal antibody against the complement protein C5, in patients with severe Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Correction of collimator-dependent differences in the heart-to-mediastinum ratio in I-metaiodobenzylguanidine cardiac sympathetic imaging: Determination of conversion equations using point-source imaging.

Background: Septal penetration causes collimator-dependent differences in the heart-to-mediastinum (H/M) ratio in I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) cardiac imaging. We investigated generally applicable methods to correct such differences.

Methods And Results: Four hours after I-MIBG injection, 40 patients underwent anterior chest imaging successively with medium-energy (ME) and various non-ME collimators.

Association of Progressive Cerebellar Atrophy With Long-term Outcome in Patients With Anti-N-Methyl-d-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis.

Importance: Anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is an immune-mediated disorder that occurs with IgG antibodies against the GluN1 subunit of NMDAR. Some patients develop reversible diffuse cerebral atrophy (DCA), but the long-term clinical significance of progressive brain and cerebellar atrophy is unknown.

Objective: To report the long-term clinical implications of DCA and cerebellar atrophy in anti-NMDAR encephalitis.

Cardioprotective effects of sarcolemmal and mitochondrial K-ATP channel openers in an experimental model of autoimmune myocarditis. Role of the reduction in calcium overload during acute heart failure.

It has been reported that K-ATP channel openers have a cardioprotective effect in acute ischemia as a pharmacological preconditioning effect. In the present study, the chronic effects of clinical K-ATP channel openers, ie, nicorandil (Nic) and mexiletine (Mex), on cardiac function were evaluated in a rat model of experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM). Nicorandil (3 or 10 mg/kg/day) or Mex (10 or 25 mg/kg/day) was administered to the EAM rats, and the effects were compared with those in untreated EAM rats (control EAM) and sham rats without EAM on day 21 (acute phase) or day 60 (chronic phase).

The effect of orexin-A on the pathological mechanism in the rat focal cerebral ischemia.

Orexin-A is a neuropeptide involved in the control feeding, arousal or sleep behavior in the hypothalamus. In the present study, the cortex and lateral hypothalamus of rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-reperfusion brain injury were examined by double immunofluorescence staining. The number of orexin-A-expressing neurons in the non-ischemic side was significantly lower than the ischemic side.