Depression and anxiety symptoms are associated to disruption of default mode network in subacute ischemic stroke.

Depression and anxiety symptoms are common after stroke and associated to reduction in quality of life and poor physical and social outcomes. The Default Mode Network (DMN) plays an important role in the emotional processing. We investigated whether these symptoms are associated to a disruption of DMN functional connectivity in the first month after stroke.

Brain Connectivity and Functional Recovery in Patients With Ischemic Stroke.

Background: Brain mapping studies have demonstrated that functional poststroke brain reorganization is associated with recovery of motor function. Nonetheless, the specific mechanisms associated with functional reorganization leading to motor recovery are still partly unknown. In this study, we performed a cross-sectional evaluation of poststroke subjects with the following goals: (1) To assess intra- and interhemispheric functional brain activation patterns associated with motor function in poststroke patients with variable degrees of recovery; (2) to investigate the involvement of other nonmotor functional networks in relationship with recovery.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: prospective study on respiratory parameters.

Objective: To verify how efficient respiratory parameters are in the follow-up of subjects with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to observe possible correlations between respiratory and nutritional functions.

Method: Sixteen patients with probable or defined ALS were selected and evaluated over eight months using the following respiratory parameters: spirometry, maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP), maximum expiratory pressure (MEP), arterial gasometry and pulse oximetry; and nutritional parameters such as body mass index (BMI) and percentage weight loss.

Results: P(a)CO(2) was a significant parameter to follow up disease evolution (p=0.