Prediction of long-term clinical outcome in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Purpose: The natural course of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) fluctuates and is not necessarily progressive. The aim of this study was to explore the predictors of clinical outcome in patients with LSS that might eventually help to optimise the therapeutic choices.

Methods: A group of 56 patients (27 men, 29 women, median age 55; range 31-72 years) with clinically symptomatic mild-to-moderate LSS were re-examined after a median period of 88 months and their clinical outcomes classified as satisfactory (34 patients, 60.

Paliperidon mediated modification of cortical inhibition.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a neurophysiological method which enables direct quantitative in vivo assessment of cortical excitability and inhibition. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of paliperidone on the motor threshold and cortical silent period, in a drug-naive patient, with first episode schizophrenia using this technique. Paliperidone monotherapy caused a significant reduction of severity of schizophrenic symptomatology in the patient.

A standardization study of the Czech version of the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MASTcz) in stroke patients and control subjects.

Primary Objective: To assess the criterion and construct validity and inter-rater reliability of the Czech version of the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MASTcz).

Research Design: Prospective evaluation of consecutive inpatients admitted to the stroke unit of a university hospital within 60 days of onset of a unilateral left hemispheric ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke with documented aphasia (LHA + ; n = 149). As control groups, unilateral right hemisphere stroke patients without aphasia (RHA-; n = 45) and healthy volunteers recruited from the community to comprise a non-patient control group (CG; n = 243) were examined.

Clinical and molecular-genetic markers of ADHD in children.

Objectives: The objective was to make a contribution to deepening the knowledge of the etiopathogenesis of ADHD.

Design: In an association study design, an analysis of polymorphisms of selected genes was conducted in 119 hyperkinetic boys and a control group of boys, aged 7-13. Furthermore several psychologically determined subgroups were identified.