Search results for "Persistent Vegetative State"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Preserved somatosensory discrimination predicts consciousness recovery in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome
2017
Objective: To assess somatosensory discrimination and command following using a vibrotactile P300-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS), and investigate the predictive role of this cognitive process on the clinical outcomes.Methods: Thirteen UWS patients and six healthy controls each participated in two experimental runs in which they were instructed to count vibrotactile stimuli delivered to the left or right wrist. A BCI determined each subject's task performance based on EEG measures. All of the patients were followed up six months after the BCI assessment, and correlations analysis between accuracy rates and clinical outcome were investigated.Re…
A multidisciplinary approach to assess recovery of consciousness in a patient with moyamoya disease
2019
Abstract Introduction Moyamoya disease (MMD) meaning “hazy puff of smoke” in Japanese is a rare chronic cerebrovascular syndrome characterized by progressive stenosis and occlusion of the internal carotid arteries (ICAs) anterior cerebral arteries (ACAs), and middle cerebral arteries (MCAs). Methods Our moyamoya patient with severely impaired cognitive and motor functions underwent a specific motor and neuropsychological rehabilitative treatments to assess the recovery of consciousness. Results Results obtained showed an improvement of clinical and neuropsychological examination. These findings highlighted the importance of an intensive rehabilitation techniques used in the care of disorder…
Impact of a stay in the intensive care unit on the preparation of Advance Directives: Descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study.
2017
Abstract Background Our objective was to assess, through a qualitative, exploratory study, the thought processes of patients regarding the formulation of advance directives (AD) after a stay in the ICU. Methods The study was conducted from May to July 2016 using telephone interviews performed by four senior ICU physicians. Inclusion criteria were: patients discharged from ICU to home > 3 months earlier. Semi-directive interviews with patients focused on 5 main points surrounding AD. Results In total, among 159 eligible patients, data from 94 (59%) were available for analysis. Among all those interviewed, 83.5% had never heard of “advance directives”. Only 2% had executed AD before ICU admis…
Recovery from chronic diseases of consciousness: State of the art in neuromodulation for persistent vegetative state and minimally conscious state
2017
Chronic diseases of consciousness (CDC) can still be considered a challenging frontier for modern medicine, probably because of their not completely understood physiopathological mechanisms. Following encouraging evidence on cerebral hemodynamics, some authors have hypothesized a role for neuromodulation in the treatment of CDC patients. In the past 40 years, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) have been used experimentally for the treatment of patients in a severe altered state of consciousness, with some interesting but not conclusive results. The present review summarizes the data currently available in the literature on this particular and debated topic. On th…
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Val66Met) polymorphism does not influence recovery from a post-traumatic vegetative state: a blinded retrospective…
2012
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin that influences neuronal plasticity throughout life. Emergence from a vegetative state (VS) after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) implies that the brain undergoes plastic changes. A common polymorphism in the BDNF gene—BDNF Val66Met (referred to herein as BDNFMet)—impairs cognitive function in healthy subjects. The aim of this study was to determine whether the BDNFMet polymorphism plays a role in the recovery of consciousness and cognitive functions in patients in a VS after a TBI. Fifty-three patients in a VS 1 month after a TBI were included in the study and genotyped for the BDNFMet polymorphism. Scores of levels of cognitive fun…