Search results for "HALO"

Modulation of GABAA receptors by neurosteroids. A new concept to improve cognitive and motor alterations in hepatic encephalopathy

2016

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome affecting patients with liver diseases, mainly those with liver cirrhosis. The mildest form of HE is minimal HE (MHE), with mild cognitive impairment, attention deficit, psychomotor slowing and impaired visuo-motor and bimanual coordination. MHE may progress to clinical HE with worsening of the neurological alterations which may lead to reduced consciousness and, in the worse cases, may progress to coma and death. HE affects several million people in the world and is a serious health, social and economic problem. There are no specific treatments for the neurological alterations in HE. The mechanisms underlying the cognitive …

2020

The brain ventricles are part of the fluid compartments bridging the CNS with the periphery. Using MRI, we previously observed a pronounced increase in ventricle volume (VV) in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we examined VV changes in EAE and MS patients in longitudinal studies with frequent serial MRI scans. EAE mice underwent serial MRI for up to 2 months, with gadolinium contrast as a proxy of inflammation, confirmed by histopathology. We performed a time-series analysis of clinical and MRI data from a prior clinical trial in which RRMS patients underwent monthly MRI scans over 1 year. VV increased dramatically during preonset E…

Minimal hepatic encephalopathy is associated with expansion and activation of CD4+CD28−, Th22 and Tfh and B lymphocytes

2017

AbstractPeripheral inflammation acts synergistically with hyperammonemia in inducing neurological alterations in cirrhotic patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). We hypothesized that appearance of MHE would be associated to some specific qualitative change in peripheral inflammation. The aim of this work was to characterize the changes in peripheral inflammation associated to appearance of MHE. We analyzed it by immunophenotyping and cytokine profile analysis, in cirrhotic patients without or with MHE and controls. The main alterations associated specifically with MHE are: 1) increased activation of all subtypes of CD4+ T-lymphocytes, with the increased expression of CD69; 2) i…

Reducing Peripheral Inflammation with Infliximab Reduces Neuroinflammation and Improves Cognition in Rats with Hepatic Encephalopathy

2016

Inflammation contributes to cognitive impairment in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE). However, the process by which peripheral inflammation results in cognitive impairment remains unclear. In animal models, neuroinflammation and altered neurotransmission mediate cognitive impairment. Taking into account these data, we hypothesized that in rats with HE: (1) peripheral inflammation is a main contributor to neuroinflammation; (2) neuroinflammation in hippocampus impairs spatial learning by altering AMPA and/or NMDA receptors membrane expression; (3) reducing peripheral inflammation with infliximab (anti-TNF-a) would improve spatial learning; (4) this would be associated with reduced n…

Complete locked-in and locked-in patients: Command following assessment and communication with vibro-tactile P300 and motor imagery brain-computer in…

2017

Many patients with locked-in syndrome (LIS) or complete locked-in syndrome (CLIS) also need brain-computer interface (BCI) platforms that do not rely on visual stimuli and are easy to use. We investigate command following and communication functions of mindBEAGLE with 9 LIS, 3 CLIS patients and three healthy controls. This tests were done with vibro-tactile stimulation with 2 or 3 stimulators (VT2 and VT3 mode) and with motor imagery (MI) paradigms. In VT2 the stimulators are fixed on the left and right wrist and the participant has the task to count the stimuli on the target hand in order to elicit a P300 response. In VT3 mode an additional stimulator is placed as a distractor on the shoul…

Assessing Command-Following and Communication With Vibro-Tactile P300 Brain-Computer Interface Tools in Patients With Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndro…

2018

Persons diagnosed with disorders of consciousness (DOC) typically suffer from motor disablities, and thus assessing their spared cognitive abilities can be difficult. Recent research from several groups has shown that non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology can provide assessments of these patients' cognitive function that can supplement information provided through conventional behavioral assessment methods. In rare cases, BCIs may provide a binary communication mechanism. Here, we present results from a vibrotactile BCI assessment aiming at detecting command-following and communication in 12 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) patients. Two different paradigms were admi…

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae Endogenous Endophthalmitis—A Global Emerging Disease

2021

The review aims to document the new emerging hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) endogenous endophthalmitis (EKE) in terms of incidence, microbiological characterization of the pathogenic agent, associated risk factors, management, and outcomes. Hypervirulent (hv) strains of KP (hvKp) induce invasive liver abscesses (LA) with specific clinical features. Up to 80–90% of cases have hepatic liver abscess as a primary focus of infection, followed by renal or lung hvKp infections. However, the incidence of EKE in patients with KPLA varied between 3.4% (19) and 12.6% (13), with a total of 95 cases of endophthalmitis in 1455 cases of KPLA (6.5%). Severe visual loss was encountered in 75% of c…

Methods for assessing the severity of perinatal asphyxia and early prognostic tools in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treated with the…

2020

Despite the progress in perinatal care, perinatal asphyxia (PA) remains a significant problem in neonatology. The development of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has improved the prognosis, but it still remains uncertain in hypoxic neonates. The evaluation of the severity of ischemia/hypoxia after birth is crucial to the choice of treatment, and with accurate long-term prognosis, appropriate further patient care can be planned. This article presents various methods for the preliminary assessment of brain damage and prognosis in newborns with PA treated with TH. The importance of assessing the neurological condition and the usefulness of laboratory and electrophysiological testing and imaging ar…

New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (November 2020)

2019

This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria : new records of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus ; Spain : further spread and establishment of the sea slug Lamprohaminoea ovalis in continental shores; Tunisia : first record of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Gabes; Italy : a new occurrence of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in Northern Ionian waters; first record of Cephalopholis taeniops in t…

2019

The treatment of enteric bacterial infections using oral bacteriophage therapy can be challenging since the harsh acidic stomach environment renders phages inactive during transit through the gastrointestinal tract. Solid oral dosage forms allowing site-specific gastrointestinal delivery of high doses of phages, e.g., using a pH or enzymatic trigger, would be a game changer for the nascent industry trying to demonstrate the efficacy of phages, including engineered phages for gut microbiome modulation in expensive clinical trials. Spray-drying is a scalable, low-cost process for producing pharmaceutical agents in dry powder form. Encapsulation of a model Salmonella-specific phage (Myoviridae…