Levofloxacin and Intracranial Hypertension in a Patient with Spondylodiscitis

Pseudotumor cerebri or benign intracranial hypertension is characterized by increased intracranial hypertension without evidence of a mass lesion or ventricular obstruction.

Symptoms are mainly headache and papilledema. If untreated, papilledema can cause progressive irreversible visual loss and optic atrophy. Usually occurs in obese women and in the childbearing years.

It is a diagnosis of exclusion and, therefore, other causes of increased intracranial pressure must be sought with history, imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid examination before the diagnosis can be made.

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Acute Primidone-induced Suicidality: A Case Report Running Head: Acute Primidoneinduced Suicidality

Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have been previously linked to suicidality. Primidone, an anticonvulsant commonly used to treat essential tremor (ET), has been associated with increased suicide risk in patients with seizures, which themselves increase suicide risk.

However, an association with acute suicidality in subjects without any predisposition has not been documented. We present a case of acute suicidality following initiation of primidone for erroneously diagnosed ET in a patient with Parkinson’s disease but no past psychiatric history or risk factors.

Suicidal ideation quickly resolved after primidone was discontinued. Patients receiving primidone should, therefore, be carefully monitored after treatment initiation.

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Classification of Minimally Invasive Techniques for Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion

Several techniques have been described for minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF), offering varying degrees ofdirect visualization versus reliance on fluoroscopy.

Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion

In addition, the techniques differ with respect to the extent of neural decompression, choice of fusion substrates, and methods for pedicle screw insertion. Here we classify and contrast these techniques and highlight the features of a recently-described technique known as modified miniopen TLIF (MOTLIF).Minimally-invasive techniques for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion have been shown to reduce intra-operative blood loss, muscle injury, post-operative pain and length-ofstay and expedite recovery compared to the open technique . The main drawback has been increased intra-operative radiation exposure due to reliance on bi-planar fluoroscopy that is required to compensate for diminished surgical exposure and visualization. There are several surgical techniques for MIS-TLIF that provides a spectrum of exposures, ranging from minimal to moderate. Read more>>>>>>> 

Classification of Minimally Invasive Techniques for Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion

Several techniques have been described for minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF), offering varying degrees of direct visualization versus reliance on fluoroscopy.

In addition, the techniques differ with respect to the extent of neural decompression, choice of fusion substrates, and methods for pedicle screw insertion. Here we classify and contrast these techniques and highlight the features of a recently-described technique known as modified miniopen TLIF (MOTLIF).

Minimally-invasive techniques for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion have been shown to reduce intra-operative blood loss, muscle injury, post-operative pain and length-ofstay and expedite recovery compared to the open technique.

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Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Chronic Pain in Spinal Cord Injured Patients

Pain is a common secondary complication following spinal cord injury (SCI) affecting the bio-psycho-social aspect of patient’s life. In addition to loss of mobility, chronic pain is oneof the most serious consequences of SCI, and the most persistent symptom associated with spinal cord injury.

Chronic Pain

Pain also directly contributes to disability by limiting participation in rehabilitation and return to work. Pain may be continuous or it can worsen following SCI, it has also been observed that patients reporting neuropathic pain 3-6 month following SCI are likely to continue experiencing it at 3-5 years; in addition, pain has a broad impact on physical, emotional, cognitive and social functioning that needs to be evaluated and addressed in any management plan. Achieving optimal pain reliefs reliant on an accurate identification of the type of pain present as it has been increasingly recognized that pain following SCI may be due to a complex combination of changes at a various nervous system levels. Read more>>>>>>>

Effect of Medicinal Cannabis Therapy (MCT) on Severity of Chronic Low Back Pain, Sciatica and Lumbar Range of Motion

Medical cannabis use has been gaining momentum recently in some countries. There is still a paucity of knowledge about the use of medical cannabis in chronic low back pain. Low backpain is a common indication for MCT in North America.

Chronic Low Back Pain

Preclinical studies have shown that endocannabinoids are involved in low back pain and are affected by certain treatments such as osteopathic manipulation. Data has shown that activation of the cannabinoid CB receptor by synthetic agonists, and pharmacological elevation of endocannabinoid levels, suppress hyperalgesia and allodynia in animal models of neuropathic pain. In fact endocannabinoids were shown to act as anti-allodynia agents through a peripheral and possibly a central mechanism. The current study was undertaken in order to assess what is the effect of addition of MCT to the treatment of chronic low back pain with a minimal 12 months follow- up of MCT therapy. Read more>>>>>>>

Role of Practice and Mental Imagery on Hand Function Improvement in Stroke Survivors

Up to 85% stroke survivors experience hemi paresis resulting in impaired movement of the arm, and hand as reported by Nakayama et al. Loss of arm function adversely affects quality oflife and functional motor recovery in affected upper extremity.

Stroke Survivors

Sensorimotor deficits in the upper limb, such as weakness, decreased speed of movement, decreased angular excursion and impaired temporal coordination of the joints impaired upper-limb and trunk coordination .Treatment interventions such as materials-based occupations constraint-induced movement therapy modified constraint-induced movement therapy and task-related or task-specific training are common training methods for remediating impairments and restoring function in the upper limb. For the improvement of upper and lower functions, physical therapy provides training for functional improvement and fine motor. For most patients such rehabilitation training has many constraints of time, place and expense, accordingly in recent studies, clinical methods such as mental practice for improvement of the upper and lower functions have been suggested. Read more>>>>>>>

The uncertain Texture of Discourse on the Dangerous Psychopath

The topic tackled by this work concerns the links between two sense-making practices–the medical-psychiatric one and the legal one–in which the relationships between language, cognition and society are traced by discursive modulation of the “certainty/ uncertainty” axis, which characterises the processes of sense-making activated in representing reality and in the socially shared aspiration of truth.

The binding nature of this system is even more evident when, like in this work, two totally different epistemological worlds and communicative registers meet with particular reference to the “mentally ill” perpetrators and victims of crimes.

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Skin Manifestations of Hepatitis C in Chronic Renal Disease Patient

Hepatitis C virus is a single stranded RNA virus. It is a major cause of acute and chronic hepatitis. The mode of infection is usually through intravenous drug abuse or transfusion of infected blood or blood products.

Health care workers are at risk for needle stick and other with high-risk sexual behavior is also considered a major risk factor for HCV infection. The incidence of new cases of acute HCV infection has sharply decreased in the United States during the past decade, but the prevalence remains high with approximately 2.7 million Americans infected with the virus.

Chronic HCV infection progresses in roughly 75% of patients after acute infection by the virus. Chronic HCV infection is slowly progressive disease and results in severe morbidity in 20-30% of infected persons.

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Examinations of Cognitive Processing of Science Writing Tasks

As neuroscience and neuropsychology gain attention in the wider popular imagination, one has to ask about the impact and influence of these domains on fields such as education andspecifically science education.

Cognitive Processing

Many educators argue that the foundational partner in education is cognitive psychology or perhaps social psychology, however we posit a blending of cognitive psychology and neuroscience would provide greater utility for research and understanding human learning and that education is one of the largest untapped areas of research in neuroscience. This is because ultimately all educational research is constrained by the lack of understanding of structure and function of the human brain. Despite this obvious link between neuroscience, neuropsychology, and education, there is considerable consternation in education as to the practical application of these fields to educational practice. Educational academics claim there are disconnects between education and neuroscience at a fundamental level.

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Shift Work and Neurological Disease

Non-standard work shifts are common in many occupations and until recently were not addressed as a potential occupational hazard. Recent studies have shown workers undertakingnon-standard work periods experience “negative health effects”.

Neurological Disease

These health effects can be categorized as either acute or chronic impacts from a neurological prospective. Acute effects, as examples, include sleep disturbances, postural performance, memory impairment, reduced response, behavioral changes, and dysfunction in thermoregulation. These acute responses can be extended to chronic conditions and also include, as examples, cardiac dysfunction, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, overall increased mortality, increased cancer rates, and peripheral resistance disease. Many of these issues have been suggested to be a result of disturbance in circadian rhythms, including changes in melatonin levels.

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Depressive Symptoms in Japan

Author has explained a brief review about the people in Japan, adults affected by depression. Suicideand depression are believed to be among the most important mental health issues currently facing the youth of Japan.

Depresson

Because suicide usually involves significant depression, early intervention for depressive symptoms is an urgent need. As per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5, Depressive Disorder has more than five symptoms: Mood disorder, Loss of pleasure, Decrease in body weight, Insomnia, Psychomotor retardation, Loss of energy, Guilty, Loss of concentration and Constant thoughts of death.

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Stress, Burnout and Coping in Health Professionals: A Literature Review

Stress is a theme that has been the target of the most varied studies. It is known that the first research dating back to the beginning of the 20th century and that is a term which hasbeen suffering evolution.

Burnout 

It is considered that the adaptive responses to the agent of stress may be classified as specific or general. The constant progression of fear, was giving origin to the other: Occupational stress, Burnout and Coping. Work is currently one of the main means of survival of individuals as it is with this that occupy a large part of his time. It is also through the work that the individual can achieve self-realization and establish interpersonal relationships. Even so, the evolution of labor markets has increased the competitiveness that adversely affects economic pressure and in the demands that are made to workers.

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The Elephant in the Room: The Case of Re-Categorization of Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury

Traditionally traumatic brain injury based on Glasgow comma scale is classified into mild, moderate and severe category. According to estimate by USA CDC, annually about 5 million persons suffer with traumatic brain injuries, out of which 230,000 gethospitalized and further 50,000 also dies.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Initial evaluation and resuscitation of traumatic brain injury cases on arrival at the hospital and further management is critical for survival and disability reduction as well as initial Glasgow comma score is an important entity for early categorization and further planning of management. One of the limitations in the management of traumatic brain injury is its heterogeneity, becoming a barrier to optimal management. The management and categorization of severe and mild injury categories are well established.

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Neuroimaging in Headache Disorders

The differential diagnosis for headache is one of the longest in all of medicine, with more than 300 types. Most headaches can be diagnosed correctly without any investigations or testing at all.

Headache Disorders

Utilizing a detailed history mostly based on ICHD 3 Beta diagnostic criteria (14 groups and Appendix/Research criteria) and physical and neurological examinations are all that is necessary in daily practice for diagnosis. In some cases, however diagnostic testing is necessary to distinguish primary headaches like migraine or tension from those secondary headaches that have similar features.

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Can Dementia and Creativity coexist?

Regarding creativity in old artists, like Renoir, we can see how creativity stays unscathed and, moreover helps the artists to fight their physical impairments. In the ancienttimes Sophocles used to say: I am growing old and I keep learning.

Dementia

What happens on the other hand if your cognitive capabilities? Is it still possible to speak of creativity in dementia? Dementia is so destabilizing that in his "Satire" Governable writes: "The worst of damages is dementia that makes the old forget the name of his servants, the face of his friend who ate with him the night before and not even that of his children who he gave birth to and who he grew up".

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Thrombolysis in Very Minor Ischemic Stroke (NIHSS=0 or 1)

Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) in minor ischemic stroke is controversial and often a minimum score of National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)is recommended for thrombolysis. Clinical characteristics, safety and outcome of very minor ischemic stroke (VMIS) treated by IVT were assessed.

Thrombolysis

Data of all patients treated with IVT during the last 5 years were extracted from a prospectively collected database. VMIS was defined as NIHSS=0 or 1 on admission. Baseline demographic data, symptoms, clinical and imaging findings, and outcome of VMIS patients were analyzed. From 2010 to 2014, in total 477 patients were treated with IVT which included 12 VMIS (2.5%) patients. No complication or intracerebral hemorrhage occurred in the VMIS group.

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Behavioral Dysexecutive Syndrome after Stroke

Dysexecutive syndrome (DES) is defined as an impairment of executive functions constituting of two domains: behavioral dysexecutive syndrome (BDES) and cognitive dysexcutive syndrome (CDES) which are not accompanied always. A growing body of studies demonstrated that BDES is a common post-stroke neuropsychiatric comorbidity. The prevalence of BDES instroke survivors varies ranging from 3% to 25% possibly attributed to the lackof standardized diagnosis methods and variances in study sample and study mode.

Stroke

Post-stroke BDES comprises varieties of clinical presentations, the most prevalent of which are anosognosia and hypo activity with apathy-abulia. The clinical course of BDES in stroke population has not yet fully elucidated. Some studies showed that there was only a minor decrease of prevalence of BDES several months after stroke, suggesting the possible chronicity of BDES. Possible clinical correlates of behavioral symptoms in stroke are global cognitive impairment, executive dysfunction, premorbid personality and psychopathology and stroke severity.

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Nanomaterials for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery

Nanotechnology and nanomaterials have had a significant positive impact within the biomedical field for quite some time, and have included cardiovascular, cartilage, and neural tissue engineering applications. Due to its potential for treating neural tissue, current research is investigating the use of nanomaterials forspinal cord injury (SCI), an injury characterized by tissue damage and the disruption of communication between the brain and the body.

Spinal Cord Injury Recovery

To treat such an injury, cell-based therapy has shown promising results, and the following papers are recommended. This communication will focus on nanoparticle, carbon nanotubes, and self-assembling peptide approaches for treating SCI and will also address toxicity concerns. Nanoparticles are popularly used as a drug delivery system, because they are capable of crossing the cell membrane due to their size. Wu et al. have shown that by using nanoparticles composed of ferulic acid modified glycol chitosan, there is an improved circulation time of the particles, and can arrive at both gray and white matter. 

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Estrogen Regulation of Gonadotropin Subunit(GPα, FSHβ, LHβ) mRNA Expression duringSexually Quiescent and Breeding Phases in the Female Catfish Heteropneustes fossilis

Estrogens exert a feedback control on gonadotropin (GtH) secretion at the level of the hypothalamus and pituitary.

In the present study, female catfish were ovariectomized (OVX) for 5 weeks in resting (December-January) and preparatory (March-April) phases and supplemented with estradiol-17β (E2, 0.05 and 0.5 µg/g body mass)

 in 3-week ovariectomized fish to demonstrate the nature of feedback control on expression of pituitary GtH subunit (glycoprotein α - GPα, follicle- stimulating hormone - FSHβ and luteinizing hormone - LHβ) genes.

Plasma steroid hormone (E2, testosterone, P4 and cortisol) levels were monitored concurrently. Plasma levels of E2, testosterone and P4 decreased after OVX but cortisol increased initially but later decreased.

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Role of Practice And Mental Imagery on Hand Function Improvement in Stroke Survivors

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Role of Practice and Mental Imagery on Hand function improvement in stroke survivors.

We conducted systematic review of the previous studies and searched electronic databases for the years 1995 to 2016, studies were selected according to inclusion criteria, and critical appraisal was done for each study and summarized the use of mental practice for the improvement in hand function in stroke survivors.

Studies differed in the various aspects like intervention protocols, outcome measures, design, and patient’s characteristics.

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Discography for Preoperative Evaluation of Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Degeneration of intervertebral discs can sometimes cause chronic pain known as degenerative disc disease (DDD), and this condition is primarily treated conservatively.

If this fails, surgery can be considered; these patients are often assessed through medical history, clinical findings, and radiology. In some patients uncertainty prevails, therefore additional examinations might be beneficial.

One such examination is provocative discography, but its reliability is disputed. No studies have been performed on the impact of discography on clinical outcome after surgery.

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The Elephant in the Room: The Case of Re-Categorization of Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury

Traditionally traumatic brain injury based on Glasgow comma scale is classified into mild, moderate and severe category.

According to estimate by USA CDC, annually about 5 million persons suffer with traumatic brain injuries, out of which 230,000 get hospitalized and further 50,000 also dies.

Initial evaluation and resuscitation of traumatic brain injury cases on arrival at the hospital and further management is critical for survival and disability reduction as well as initial Glasgow comma score is an important entity for early categorization and further planning of management.

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Epidural Spinal Cord Stimulation for Neuropathic Pain: Algology Unit in Bagcilar Training and Research Hospital Data Collection and Analysis

Neuropathic pain is a chronic condition, challenging to treat and deeply correlated with psychological aspect it can be codetermined by emotional and behavioural factors, and it can play an important role in determining depression or in decreasing quality of life.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a therapeutic option in patients with chronic/neuropathic pain with different aetiologies (i.e. failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), chronic spine pathologies and neuropathic diseases) not eligible for surgery and refractory to any pharmacological and other conservative treatment.

SCS is theoretically based on the Gate Control Theory developed by Melzack and Wall, which explains physiopathology of such conditions as hyperalgesia, painful anaesthesia and spontaneous pain.

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Do We Need to Recognize Intracranial Aneurysms into Aneurysmsome and Aneurysmatic Complex: Need for New Concepts in Pathobiology of Intracranial Aneurysms

Intracranial aneurysms are balloon-shaped widening of the wall of an intracranial artery, resulting from weakening of the arterial wall. Aneurysms can involve any of the blood vessels in the in the body.

Cerebral arteries are most commonly involved and these lesions are called cerebral aneurysms or cerebral aneurysms. Intracranial aneurysms are considered the main surgically correctable cerebrovascular abnormality and are a major cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in adult population.

This condition has been described with a prevalence of 0.2% to 9.9% in the general population, with an annual incidence of 1-2%.Many aneurysms continue to increase in size and are at risk of rupture and because their intracranial location, intracranial aneurysms are a potentially life threatening condition.

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Cannabis, Mental Disorders and the Precautionary Principle a Reason to Sustain Prohibition?

We are lately witnessing an increasing awareness that the War on Drugs has failed, exemplified among others by the work of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and of recent position statements of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

As a result, an increasing number of countries and states/regions are abandoning their prohibitionist legislation and jurisprudence to pass over to various types of regulated cannabis markets. For example, several Swiss cities have e.g. launched a working group to consider pilot projects of regulated cannabis access.

In the light of these recent developments, the issue of harmfulness of cannabis, and particularly its potential effects on mental health, has once again become a passionately debated issue.

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Deranged Mental Homeostasis in Medical Students: Evaluation of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Home and Hostel Students

Aim of this study was to evaluate and compare psychological depression, anxiety and stress among the medical students living with family and those living in dormitory to find out whether psychological state of mind of a student was affected by their residential conditions.

A comparative cross sectional study was done on 211 students from 3 medical colleges of Pakistan following curriculum of Dow University of Health Sciences. Students were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire developed on DASS-42 scale.

A total of 211 medical students participated in the study. Students living with family were 122 (57.81%) and those living in hostels were 89 (42.18%).

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