Impact of COVID-19 pandemic and diabetes on mechanical reperfusion in patients with STEMI: insights from the ISACS STEMI COVID 19 Registry.

Background: It has been suggested the COVID pandemic may have indirectly affected the treatment and outcome of STEMI patients, by avoidance or significant delays in contacting the emergency system. No data have been reported on the impact of diabetes on treatment and outcome of STEMI patients, that was therefore the aim of the current subanalysis conducted in patients included in the International Study on Acute Coronary Syndromes-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (ISACS-STEMI) COVID-19.

Methods: The ISACS-STEMI COVID-19 is a retrospective registry performed in European centers with an annual volume of > 120 primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and assessed STEMI patients, treated with primary PCI during the same periods of the years 2019 versus 2020 (March and April).

Factors influencing therapy choice and clinical outcome in cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

We aimed was to assess the factors influencing therapy choice and clinical outcome after 3-4 months in patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). In a retrospective, bi-centric study, the set consisted of 82 consecutive CVST patients (61 females; mean age 33.5 ± 15.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mechanical Reperfusion for Patients With STEMI.

Background: The fear of contagion during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have potentially refrained patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) from accessing the emergency system, with subsequent impact on mortality.

Objectives: The ISACS-STEMI COVID-19 registry aims to estimate the true impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment and outcome of patients with STEMI treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), with identification of "at-risk" patient cohorts for failure to present or delays to treatment.

Methods: This retrospective registry was performed in European high-volume PPCI centers and assessed patients with STEMI treated with PPPCI in March/April 2019 and 2020.

High frequency oscillations in epileptic and non-epileptic human hippocampus during a cognitive task.

Hippocampal high-frequency electrographic activity (HFOs) represents one of the major discoveries not only in epilepsy research but also in cognitive science over the past few decades. A fundamental challenge, however, has been the fact that physiological HFOs associated with normal brain function overlap in frequency with pathological HFOs. We investigated the impact of a cognitive task on HFOs with the aim of improving differentiation between epileptic and non-epileptic hippocampi in humans.

Epilepsy miRNA Profile Depends on the Age of Onset in Humans and Rats.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a severe neurological disorder accompanied by recurrent spontaneous seizures. Although the knowledge of TLE onset is still incomplete, TLE pathogenesis most likely involves the aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs play an essential role in organism homeostasis and are widely studied in TLE as potential therapeutics and biomarkers.

Suboptimal response to STN-DBS in Parkinson's disease can be identified via reaction times in a motor cognitive paradigm.

Although deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is generally a successful therapy, adverse events and insufficient clinical effect can complicate the treatment in some patients. We studied clinical parameters and cortical oscillations related to STN-DBS to identify patients with suboptimal responses. High-density EEG was recorded during a visual oddball three-stimuli paradigm in DBS "off" and "on" conditions in 32 PD patients with STN-DBS.

The effect of intracoronary infusion of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells on all-cause mortality in acute myocardial infarction: the BAMI trial.

Aims: Bone marrow-derived mononuclear cell (BM-MNC) therapy may improve myocardial recovery in patients following acute myocardial infarction (AMI), though existing trial results are inconsistent.

Methods And Results: Originally an open-label, multicentre Phase III trial, BAMI was designed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of intracoronary infusion of BM-MNCs in reducing the time to all-cause mortality in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF, ≤45%) after primary angioplasty (PPCI) for ST-elevation AMI. Unexpectedly low recruitment means the trial no longer qualifies as a hypothesis-testing trial, but is instead an observational study with no definitive conclusions possible from statistical analysis.

Enhancing and accelerating stroke treatment in Eastern European region: Methods and achievement of the ESO EAST program.

Introduction: Despite the availability of prevention and therapies of stroke, their implementation in clinical practice, even of low-cost ones, remains poor. In 2015, the European Stroke Organisation (ESO) initiated the ESO Enhancing and Accelerating Stroke Treatment (EAST) program, which aims to improve stroke care quality, primarily in Eastern Europe. Here, we describe its methods and milestones.

Cerebrocerebellar structural covariance in temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate cerebral morphological changes in temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (TLE-HS) and their relationship to the cerebellum.

Methods: The study cohort included 21 patients with intractable TLE-HS (14 left-sided, 7 right-sided) and 38 healthy controls (HC). All patients later underwent anteromedial temporal lobe resection.

Multicenter intracranial EEG dataset for classification of graphoelements and artifactual signals.

EEG signal processing is a fundamental method for neurophysiology research and clinical neurology practice. Historically the classification of EEG into physiological, pathological, or artifacts has been performed by expert visual review of the recordings. However, the size of EEG data recordings is rapidly increasing with a trend for higher channel counts, greater sampling frequency, and longer recording duration and complete reliance on visual data review is not sustainable.

Circulating tumour-derived KRAS mutations in pancreatic cancer cases are predominantly carried by very short fragments of cell-free DNA.

Background: The DNA released into the bloodstream by malignant tumours· called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), is often a small fraction of total cell-free DNA shed predominantly by hematopoietic cells and is therefore challenging to detect. Understanding the biological properties of ctDNA is key to the investigation of its clinical relevance as a non-invasive marker for cancer detection and monitoring.

Methods: We selected 40 plasma DNA samples of pancreatic cancer cases previously reported to carry a KRAS mutation at the 'hotspot' codon 12 and re-screened the cell-free DNA using a 4-size amplicons strategy (57 bp, 79 bp, 167 bp and 218 bp) combined with ultra-deep sequencing in order to investigate whether amplicon lengths could impact on the capacity of detection of ctDNA, which in turn could provide inference of ctDNA and non-malignant cell-free DNA size distribution.

CD20 is dispensable for B-cell receptor signaling but is required for proper actin polymerization, adhesion and migration of malignant B cells.

Surface protein CD20 serves as the critical target of immunotherapy in various B-cell malignancies for decades, however its biological function and regulation remain largely elusive. Better understanding of CD20 function may help to design improved rational therapies to prevent development of resistance. Using CRISPR/Cas9 technique, we have abrogated CD20 expression in five different malignant B-cell lines.

Frontline treatment with the combination obinutuzumab ± chlorambucil for chronic lymphocytic leukemia outside clinical trials: Results of a multinational, multicenter study by ERIC and the Israeli CLL study group.

In recent years, considerable progress has been made in frontline therapy for elderly/physically unfit patients with CLL. The combination of obinutuzumab and chlorambucil (O-Clb) has been shown to prolong progression free survival (PFS, median PFS-31.5 months) and overall survival (OS) compared to chlorambucil alone.

N-Glycan profiling of lung adenocarcinoma in patients at different stages of disease.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LAC) is the most common form of lung cancer that increases in non-smokers at younger age. Altered protein glycosylation is one of the hallmarks of malignancy, its role in cancer progression is still poorly understood. In this study, we report mass spectrometric (MS) analysis of N-glycans released from fresh or defrosted tissue specimens from 24 patients with LAC.

DNA methylation profiles in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients treated with chemoimmunotherapy.

Background: In order to gain insight into the contribution of DNA methylation to disease progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), using 450K Illumina arrays, we determined the DNA methylation profiles in paired pre-treatment/relapse samples from 34 CLL patients treated with chemoimmunotherapy, mostly (n = 31) with the fludarabine-cyclophosphamide-rituximab (FCR) regimen.

Results: The extent of identified changes in CLL cells versus memory B cells from healthy donors was termed "epigenetic burden" (EB) whereas the number of changes between the pre-treatment versus the relapse sample was termed "relapse changes" (RC). Significant (p < 0.

Coronary artery aneurysms, insights from the international coronary artery aneurysm registry (CAAR).

Background: Coronary Aneurysms are a focal dilatation of an artery segment >1.5-fold the normal size of adjacent segments. Although some series have suggested a prevalence of 0.

Structural and Functional Impact of Seven Missense Variants of Phenylalanine Hydroxylase.

The molecular genetics of well-characterized inherited diseases, such as phenylketonuria (PKU) and hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) predominantly caused by mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase () gene, is often complicated by the identification of many novel variants, often with no obvious impact on the associated disorder. To date, more than 1100 PAH variants have been identified of which a substantial portion have unknown clinical significance. In this work, we study the functionality of seven yet uncharacterized PAH missense variants p.

EEG Reactivity Predicts Individual Efficacy of Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Intractable Epileptics.

Chronic vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) is a well-established non-pharmacological treatment option for drug-resistant epilepsy. This study sought to develop a statistical model for prediction of VNS efficacy. We hypothesized that reactivity of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to external stimuli measured during routine preoperative evaluation differs between VNS responders and non-responders.

Perampanel as monotherapy and adjunctive therapy for focal onset seizures, focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures and as adjunctive therapy of generalized onset tonic-clonic seizures.

: Perampanel is an antiepileptic drug approved in the USA and Europe as monotherapy and adjunctive therapy for focal onset seizures and as adjunctive therapy for generalized tonic-clonic seizures. : This an overview of animal data, pharmacokinetics, and clinical data published on Perampanel indexed in PubMed. : Pharmacological studies suggest that perampanel acts via noncompetitive antagonism of the ionotropic AMPA receptor of glutamate.

Real-life LDL-C treatment goals achievement in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Results of the PLANET registry.

Background And Aims: Despite the high prevalence of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and available effective lipid-lowering therapy, most of the individuals with this disorder remain undiagnosed and undertreated. The aim of the PLANET registry was to assess the real-life attainment of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) therapeutic target level in patients with heterozygous FH, to characterize prescribed lipid-lowering therapy with assessment of its efficiency according to the attainment of the target LDL-C level, and to characterize cardiovascular events observed in this patient population again in relation to LDL-C target level attainment.

Methods: PLANET registry was designed as a non-interventional, retrospective, cross-sectional, multicentre disease registry for adult patients with heterozygous FH in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Complement activation is associated with more severe course of diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome, a preliminary study.

Diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome is characterized by hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute kidney injury secondary to enteric infection, typically Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. Shiga toxin 2 is able to activate alternative complement pathways; therefore, the aim of the study was to analyze C3 as a predictor of clinical courses in patients with diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome. We hypothesized that the patients with increased complement activation at admission suffered from a more severe course.