How do somatosensory deficits in the arm and hand relate to upper limb impairment, activity, and participation problems after stroke? A systematic review.

Background The association between somatosensory impairments and outcome after stroke remains unclear. Purpose The aim of this study was to systematically review the available literature on the relationship between somatosensory impairments in the upper limb and outcome after stroke. Data Sources The electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were systematically searched from inception until July 2013. Study Selection Studies were included if adult patients with stroke (minimum n=10) were examined with reliable and valid measures of somatosensation in the upper limb to investigate the relationship with upper limb impairment, activity, and pa…

Common variation in PHACTR1 is associated with susceptibility to cervical artery dissection

Item does not contain fulltext Cervical artery dissection (CeAD), a mural hematoma in a carotid or vertebral artery, is a major cause of ischemic stroke in young adults although relatively uncommon in the general population (incidence of 2.6/100,000 per year). Minor cervical traumas, infection, migraine and hypertension are putative risk factors, and inverse associations with obesity and hypercholesterolemia are described. No confirmed genetic susceptibility factors have been identified using candidate gene approaches. We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 1,393 CeAD cases and 14,416 controls. The rs9349379[G] allele (PHACTR1) was associated with lower CeAD risk (odds ratio…

How do somatosensory deficits relate to upper limb impairment, activity and participation problems after stroke? A systematic review

Analysis of immune-related loci identifies 48 new susceptibility variants for multiple sclerosis.

International audience; Using the ImmunoChip custom genotyping array, we analyzed 14,498 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 24,091 healthy controls for 161,311 autosomal variants and identified 135 potentially associated regions (P < 1.0 × 10(-4)). In a replication phase, we combined these data with previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from an independent 14,802 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 26,703 healthy controls. In these 80,094 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 48 new susceptibility variants (P < 5.0 × 10(-8)), 3 of which we found after conditioning on previously identified variants. Thus, there are now 110 established multiple sclerosis risk variant…

Association of vascular risk factors with cervical artery dissection and ischemic stroke in young adults.

Background— Little is known about the risk factors for cervical artery dissection (CEAD), a major cause of ischemic stroke (IS) in young adults. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity are important risk factors for IS. However, their specific role in CEAD is poorly investigated. Our aim was to compare the prevalence of vascular risk factors in CEAD patients versus referents and patients who suffered an IS of a cause other than CEAD (non-CEAD IS) in the multicenter Cervical Artery Dissection and Ischemic Stroke Patients (CADISP) study. Methods and Results— The study sample comprised 690 CEAD patients (mean age, 44.2±9.9 years; 43.9% women), 556 patients …