[In different directions? – Cholesterol-lowering strategies in Europe and overseas]
REINHARDT István
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
Lege Artis Medicinae - 2020;30(08-09)
REINHARDT István
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
Lege Artis Medicinae - 2020;30(08-09)
Lege Artis Medicinae
[After kidney transplantation, the administration of immunosuppressive therapy not only renders the patient susceptible to infections, but it may also damage the function of tumor cell recognition and elimination. Our study was performed at the Department of Surgery, University of Szeged. After establishing the inclusion criteria, 570 patients were involved in the study. We examined the age, sex, immunosuppressive therapy of the patients, and searched for the relationship between the different immunosuppressive agents and the type of the tumor. In 81 cases, de novo cancer was diagnosed. Among patients treated with cyclosporin and tacrolimus there was no significant difference in the mean age (p = 0.734) and body mass index (p = 0.543). There was no significant difference in graft function between the two groups of patients (Tac vs Cyc; 44 vs 20). Related to the time passed since the transplantation to diagnosing the tumors the earliest were prostate and cervix cancers however without significant difference. Skin cancers are the most frequent followed by post-transplant lymphoproliferative diseases. The increasing risk of developing tumors is mainly due to immunosuppressive therapy. ]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Thyroid disorders are very frequent not only among endocrine diseases but also the general conditions. Every clinician, regardless of their specialty, meet patients with thyroid disorders during their everyday practice. While diagnostic and therapeutic options remained almost unchanged in the past decade, there are several intensively researched topics in the patient’s care, advances of which we ought to familiarize ourselves with. In this present paper we sought out to cover three of these fiercly discussed topics. ]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Nociceptive, neuropathic and central mechanisms are involved in the perception, transmission and processing of chronic pain and shaping of cerebral pain image. Alarmins – molecules alarming defence and signing the presence of pathogens and tissue damage - trigger a series of pathogenic events resulting in inflammatory pain stimuli. Proinflammatory cytokines play a determining role in the pain perception at the level of the nervous system. Continuous inflammatory stimuli while sensitizing the periferic and central neurons activate the pain-related cerebral areas and develop the complex pain image, the pain matrix. Cerebral functional connections are operating in networks and can be visualized by functional MRI. Cytokines activate the neurons directly or indirectly by other neuromediators. Cytokine receptors are expressed on nociceptors and even on higher-level neurons and on various non-neural cells, such as microglia and astrocytes. The most ubiquitous cytokines are the Tumour Necrosis Factor and Interleukin 6 in the nervous system. The signaling pathways are the Nuclear Factor κB and the Janus-kinase enzyme system. The proinflammatory cytokines and the Janus-kinase are therefore primary therapeutic targets. Anti-cytokine biologicals and small molecular kinase inhibitors decrease the pain and improve functional activity in rheumatoid arthritis. Decrease of pain was more pronounced than expected only from the decrease of the clinical biomarkers of inflammation. The early and rapid painkiller effect of targeted biological and chemical-biological response modifiers is attributed to their direct analgesic effect on the brain.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[During the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, elderly people in long-term nursing homes were especially risks exposed. In this study, the authors analyse the causes of local outbreak at the Olajág Elderly Home Vezér street facility in Budapest and the means and ways to curb the spreading of infection. They summarise the measures, which proved to be effective in isolation and treating the patients. The number of infected residents as well as the course of the disease are demonstrated by statistical data. The authors consider as pre-eminently important to identify asymptomatic but infected residents, further the rapid introduction of screening tests, strict compliance with protocols, patient path regulation and the use of enhanced, supportive communication.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Our research group, has studied psychiatric and psychotherapeutic teams since 2015. The aim of the present research was to identify the Hungarian characteristics of team composition and operation. Qualitative focus group survey has been conducted on the operation of multidisciplinary teams at the annual conferences of the Hungarian Psychiatric Society in 2017, 2018 and 2019. These three groups focused on the issues of leadership, communication within the team, and competencies. The groups of an average of 17 people formed spontaneously by participation of professionals with different qualifications. The main results of the focus groups were as follows: 1. The various types of leadership within the team require the distribution and allocation of responsibilities and roles and stop the destructions. 2. Within the teams there are prevailing the informal channels of communication. 3. It is important to clarify competencies and responsibilities. 'Actually, psychiatric specialists' list of competencies there is not available in Hungary. It seems necessary to define more precisely and reconsider the professional competences of the specialized training in psychiatry and integrating these in the education, further promote the development of „list of competences in psychiatric specialization” by the legislators. The second phase of the research continues as a quantitative study based on the foregoing results gained by questionnaires. ]
Clinical Neuroscience
We aimed to investigate the association between fluoxetine use and the survival of hospitalised coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pneumonia patients. This retrospective case-control study used data extracted from the medical records of adult patients hospitalised with moderate or severe COVID-19 pneumonia at the Uzsoki Teaching Hospital of the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary between 17 March and 22 April 2021. As a part of standard medical treatment, patients received anti-COVID-19 therapies as favipiravir, remdesivir, baricitinib or a combination of these drugs; and 110 of them received 20 mg fluoxetine capsules once daily as an adjuvant medication. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between fluoxetine use and mortality. For excluding a fluoxetine-selection bias potentially influencing our results, we compared baseline prognostic markers in the two groups treated versus not treated with fluoxetine. Out of the 269 participants, 205 (76.2%) survived and 64 (23.8%) died between days 2 and 28 after hospitalisation. Greater age (OR [95% CI] 1.08 [1.05–1.11], p<0.001), radiographic severity based on chest X-ray (OR [95% CI] 2.03 [1.27–3.25], p=0.003) and higher score of shortened National Early Warning Score (sNEWS) (OR [95% CI] 1.20 [1.01-1.43], p=0.04) were associated with higher mortality. Fluoxetine use was associated with an important (70%) decrease of mortality (OR [95% CI] 0.33 [0.16–0.68], p=0.002) compared to the non-fluoxetine group. Age, gender, LDH, CRP, and D-dimer levels, sNEWS, Chest X-ray score did not show statistical difference between the fluoxetine and non-fluoxetine groups supporting the reliability of our finding. Provisional to confirmation in randomised controlled studies, fluoxetine may be a potent treatment increasing the survival for COVID-19 pneumonia.
Clinical Neuroscience
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a heterogeneous presentation, the etiology of which is not clearly elucidated. In recent years, comorbidity has become more evident with the increase in the frequency of autism and diagnostic possibilities of inborn errors of metabolism. One hundred and seventy-nine patients with diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder who presented to the Pediatric Metabolism outpatient clinic between 01/September/2018-29/February/2020 constituted the study population. The personal information, routine and specific metabolic tests of the patients were analyzed retrospectively. Out of the 3261 patients who presented to our outpatient clinic, 179 (5.48%) were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and were included in the study. As a result of specific metabolic examinations performed, 6 (3.3%) patients were diagnosed with inborn errors of metabolism. Two of our patients were diagnosed with classical phenylketonuria, two with classical homocystinuria, one with mucopolysaccharidosis type 3D (Sanfilippo syndrome) and one with 3-methylchrotonyl Co-A carboxylase deficiency. Inborn errors of metabolism may rarely present with autism spectrum disorder symptoms. Careful evaluation of the history, physical examination and additional findings in patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder will guide the clinician in the decision-making process and chose the appropriate specific metabolic investigation. An underlying inborn errors of metabolism may be a treatable cause of autism.
Although vertigo is one of the most common complaints, intracranial malignant tumors rarely cause sudden asymmetry between the tone of the vestibular peripheries masquerading as a peripheral-like disorder. Here we report a case of simultaneous temporal bone infiltrating macro-metastasis and disseminated multi-organ micro-metastases presenting as acute unilateral vestibular syndrome, due to the reawakening of a primary gastric signet ring cell carcinoma. Purpose – Our objective was to identify those pathophysiological steps that may explain the complex process of tumor reawakening, dissemination. The possible causes of vestibular asymmetry were also traced. A 56-year-old male patient’s interdisciplinary medical data had been retrospectively analyzed. Original clinical and pathological results have been collected and thoroughly reevaluated, then new histological staining and immunohistochemistry methods have been added to the diagnostic pool. During the autopsy the cerebrum and cerebellum was edematous. The apex of the left petrous bone was infiltrated and destructed by a tumor mass of 2x2 cm in size. Histological reexamination of the original gastric resection specimen slides revealed focal submucosal tumorous infiltration with a vascular invasion. By immunohistochemistry mainly single infiltrating tumor cells were observed with Cytokeratin 7 and Vimentin positivity and partial loss of E-cadherin staining. The subsequent histological examination of necropsy tissue specimens confirmed the disseminated, multi-organ microscopic tumorous invasion. Discussion – It has been recently reported that the expression of Vimentin and the loss of E-cadherin is significantly associated with advanced stage, lymph node metastasis, vascular and neural invasion and undifferentiated type with p<0.05 significance. As our patient was middle aged and had no immune-deficiency, the promoting factor of the reawakening of the primary GC malignant disease after a 9-year-long period of dormancy remained undiscovered. The organ-specific tropism explained by the “seed and soil” theory was unexpected, due to rare occurrence of gastric cancer to metastasize in the meninges given that only a minority of these cells would be capable of crossing the blood brain barrier. Patients with past malignancies and new onset of neurological symptoms should alert the physician to central nervous system involvement, and the appropriate, targeted diagnostic and therapeutic work-up should be established immediately. Targeted staining with specific antibodies is recommended. Recent studies on cell lines indicate that metformin strongly inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition of gastric cancer cells. Therefore, further studies need to be performed on cases positive for epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
Clinical Neuroscience
[A growing body of evidence suggests that sleep plays an essential role in the consolidation of different memory systems, but less is known about the beneficial effect of sleep on relational memory processes and the recognition of emotional facial expressions, however, it is a fundamental cognitive skill in human everyday life. Thus, the study aims to investigate the effect of timing of learning and the role of sleep in relational memory processes. 84 young adults (average age: 22.36 (SD: 3.22), 21 male/63 female) participated in our study, divided into two groups: evening group and morning group indicating the time of learning. We used the face-name task to measure relational memory and facial expression recognition. There were two sessions for both groups: the immediate testing phase and the delayed retesting phase, separated by 24 hours. 84 young adults (average age: 22.36 (SD: 3.22), 21 male/63 female) participated in our study, divided into two groups: evening group and morning group indicating the time of learning. We used the face-name task to measure relational memory and facial expression recognition. There were two sessions for both groups: the immediate testing phase and the delayed retesting phase, separated by 24 hours. Our results suggest that the timing of learning and sleep plays an important role in the stabilizing process of memory representation to resist against forgetting.]
Clinical Neuroscience
Cognitive dysfunction (CD) is a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Alexithymia is a still poorly understood neuropsychiatric feature of PD. Cognitive impairment (especially visuospatial dysfunction and executive dysfunction) and alexithymia share common pathology of neuroanatomical structures. We hypothesized that there must be a correlation between CD and alexithymia levels considering this relationship of neuroanatomy. Objective – The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between alexithymia and neurocognitive function in patients with PD. Thirty-five patients with PD were included in this study. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale–20 (TAS-20), Geriatric Depression Inventory (GDI) and a detailed neuropsychological evaluation were performed. Higher TAS-20 scores were negatively correlated with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) similarities test score (r =-0.71, p value 0.02), clock drawing test (CDT) scores (r=-0.72, p=0.02) and verbal fluency (VF) (r=-0.77, p<0.01). Difficulty identifying feelings subscale score was negatively correlated with CDT scores (r=-0.74, p=0.02), VF scores (r=-0.66, p=0.04), visual memory immediate recall (r=-0.74, p=0.01). VF scores were also correlated with difficulty describing feelings (DDF) scores (r=-0.66, p=0.04). There was a reverse relationship between WAIS similarities and DDF scores (r=-0.70, p=0.02), and externally oriented-thinking (r=-0.77,p<0.01). Executive function Z score was correlated with the mean TAS-20 score (r=-62, p=0.03) and DDF subscale score (r=-0.70, p=0.01) Alexithymia was found to be associated with poorer performance on visuospatial and executive function test results. We also found that alexithymia was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms. Presence of alexithymia should therefore warn the clinicians for co-existing CD.
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Journal of Nursing Theory and Practice
[Correlations Between Burnout and Socio-demographic and Workplace Related Factors Among Health-care Workers During The Covid-19 Pandemics]5.
Journal of Nursing Theory and Practice
[Operational Efficiency Investigation from APN Perioperative Perspective]1.
Clinical Neuroscience
[COVID-19 with strange hallucinations and focal EEG abnormalities: Two case reports]2.
Clinical Neuroscience
[The peak latency prolongation of the blink reflex in a patient with trigeminal neuralgia of Meckel’s cave mass ]3.
Clinical Neuroscience
A case study of acute oropharyngeal palsy concomitant with diabetic ketoacidosis4.
Clinical Neuroscience
[Telecare in Parkinson’s disease: A nationwide survey among Hungarian neurologists ]
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