[Diseased brain, diseased nerves, diseased mind 2013;66(05-06)]

[We have read several publications of great authority on the neurological profession in the last two years in which were expressed assessments of the current situation combined with opinions about neurology and the necessity to reorganize neurological patient care. These articles took up the question of neurorehabilitation too. The authors, who on a daily basis, deal with the rehabilitation of people with disabilities as a consequence of neurological conditions, summarize some important definitions of rehabilitation medicine and the present system of neurological rehabilitation, as it is defined by the rehabilitation profession.]

[The incidence of neurological diseases increases. The up to date diagnostics and therapeutics approaches require the cost-effective and personalized solutions. The nanomedicine now, - and likely more in the future - opens a new horizon in the treatment of neurological diseases. The nano-size materials have several advantages that make it their use as drug delivery systems, and imaging agent. Very important aspect is that these materials can transfer across the bloodbrain barrier. The functionalization and surface modification of nanomaterials enhances this effect. The authors summarize of neurological application of nanoparticles according to the current data. They provide an overview about the most common used nanomedical materials, targeted drug delivery mechanisms and nano-imaging opportunities.]

[Non-valvular AF is the most common cardiac arrhytmia. Its incidence increases with age. AF is an independent risk factor for ischaemic stroke, representing a five times higher risk for it, associated with a high mortality rate. Beside AF, there are several other risk factors which influence the risk of stroke. Stroke risk calculator can be used to assess the risk of patient having a stroke. The most endangered group of patients with AF are those who have already suffered from cerebrovascular event. The only effective medication for prevention of stroke due to AF had been the application of vitamin K antagonists (VKA) which considerably decrease the rate of ischaemic event in a patient with AF providing that the INR is in the therapeutic range. VKA have several limitations of use in clinical practice and the fear of bleeding complications results an underusing of these drugs. Only 50% of all patients treated with VKA reaches the therapeutic range of INR. The breakthrough of prevention of stroke in recent years is undisputedly the coming out of novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs, thrombin and Xa-factor inhibitors). Recent studies suggest that these novel drugs prove the same efficacy as VKA drugs, furthermore dabigatran in a dose of 2×150 mg or apixaban in 2×5mg was statistically superior to warfarin in the prevention of stroke. NOACs have shown a large reduction in intracranial hemorrhage compared with warfarin. They are given as a fixed dose and do not require persistent monitoring making them much more convenient. NOACs at guidelines of European Society of Cardiology act as a preferable drugs in case of ischaemic stroke with AF. Probably the extended use of NOACs in clinical practice will be the mainstream of stroke prevention in the future.]

[During mental arithmetic operations working memory playsan important role, but there are only few studies in which anattempt was made to separate this effect from the process ofarithmetics per se. In this study the effects of arithmetic onthe EEG of young adults (14 participants, six of themwomen, mean age 21.57 years, SD: 2.62) was investigatedduring a subtraction task in the θ(4-8 Hz) frequency band.Besides the power density spectrum analysis phasesynchrony based on recently developed graph theoreticalmethods were used and strength of local connections (clustercoefficient; C) and global interconnectedness of network(characteristic path length; L) were determined. Before thearithmetic task passive viewing (control situation) and anumber recognition paradigms were used. During the arith-metic task compared to the control situation significantlyincreasing phase synchrony and C values were found. L wassignificantly shorter (F(2, 26)=818.77, p<0.0001) only dur-ing the arithmetic task: this fact and the former two resultsimply that the network topology shifted towards the “smallworld” direction. Our findings concerning regionaldifferences confirm those reported earlier in the literature:compared to the control condition significant task-relatedincrease was found in C values in the parietal areas [moreexplicitly in the left side, (F(1, 13)=7.2020, p=0.0188)],which probably corresponds to stronger local connectionsand more synchronized (sub)networks. During the task con-dition significantly increased θband power; (F(1,13)=7.9708, p=0.0144) and decreased L values werefound in the left frontal region compared to the right side(F(1, 13)=6.0734, p=0.0284), which can also be interpret-ed as an indicator of optimized network topology ofinformation processing.]