5 Feb 2021

Conducting composite films based on chitosan or sodium hyaluronate. Properties and cytocompatibility with human induced pluripotent stem cells

Novel composite films combining biocompatible polysaccharides with conducting polyaniline (PANI) were prepared via the in-situ polymerization of aniline hydrochloride in the presence of sodium hyaluronate (SH) or chitosan (CH). The composite films possess very good cytocompatibility in terms of adhesion and proliferation of two lines of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). Moreover, the cardiomyogenesis and even formation of beating clusters were successfully induced on the films. The proportion of formed cardiomyocytes demonstrated excellent properties of composites for tissue engineering of stimuli-responsive tissues. The testing also demonstrated antibacterial activity of the films against E. coli and PANI-SH was able to reduce bacterial growth from 2 × 10⁵ to < 1 cfu cm^-2. Physicochemical characterization revealed that the presence of polysaccharides did not notably influence conductivities of the composites being ∼1 and ∼2 S cm^-1 for PANI-SH and PANI-CH respectively; however, in comparison with neat PANI, it modified their topography making the films smoother with mean surface roughness of 4 (PANI-SH) and 14 nm (PANI-CH).

1 Feb 2021

Dimensions of Impulsivity in Healthy People, Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder, and Patients with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: Impulsivity, observed in patients with various psychiatric disorders, is a heterogeneous construct with different behavioral manifestations. Through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), this study tests hypotheses about relationships between dimensions of impulsivity measured using personality questionnaires and behavioral tests. Method: The study included 200 healthy people, 40 patients with borderline personality disorder, and 26 patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who underwent a comprehensive impulsivity test battery including the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale, a Go-NoGo task, a stop-signal task, and a delay discounting task. Results: A CFA model comprising three self-reported and three behavioral latent variables reached a good fit. Both patient groups scored higher in the self-reported dimensions and impulsive choice; only the ADHD patients displayed impaired waiting and stopping impulsivity.

1 Feb 2021

Blood pressure excursions in acute ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis

Objective: To investigate the association of blood pressure BP excursions, defined as greater than 185 SBP or greater than 105 DBP, with the probability of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) and worse functional outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) treated with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).

Methods: We performed a post hoc analysis of the CLOTBUST-ER trial. Serial BP measurements were conducted using automated cuff recording according to the recommended BP protocol guidelines for tPA administration. The outcomes were prespecified efficacy and safety endpoints of CLOTBUST-ER.

Results: The mean number of serial BP recordings per patient was 37. Of the 674 patients, 227 (34%) had at least one BP excursion (>185/105 mmHg) during the first 24 h following tPA-bolus. The majority of BP excursions (46%) occurred within the first 75 min from tPA-bolus.

1 Feb 2021

The Direct Costs of Dravet's Syndrome before and after Diagnosis Assessment

The objective of this study was to estimate the direct cost before and after diagnosis assessment in patients with Dravet's syndrome (DS). The basis of the economic study was to calculate the costs of health care before and after diagnosis of DS. We retrospectively evaluated all SCN1A positive patients with phenotype of DS treated in our hospital. Statistical analyses were performed by IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0 software. After the diagnosis of DS, there was a significant decline of health care costs (-85.6%) an average of €29.4 ± 26.1 monthly per patient. We estimated the monthly costs at €204.5 ± 167 (median: €193.9, range: €35.5-534.4) per patient before DS diagnosis. The major cost was for hospitalization in neurological department: €43.3 ± 52 (median: €21.9, range: €9.5-179.4) per patient. Minimal cost per patient per months before DS diagnosis was cost of psychological testing/care and complementary rehabilitation (0.13 and 0.6% of total cost). After DS diagnosis, the major cost was focused on nonhospitalization care of patients (64.8%), minimal (€0) for genetic testing and major for outpatient care (18%, mean: €5.3, median: €7).

1 Feb 2021

Resting-State Phase-Amplitude Coupling Between the Human Subthalamic Nucleus and Cortical Activity: A Simultaneous Intracranial and Scalp EEG Study

It has been suggested that slow oscillations in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) reflect top-down inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex, thus implementing behavior control. It is unclear, however, whether the STN oscillations are related to cortical activity in a bottom-up manner. To assess resting-state subcortico-cortical interactions, we recorded simultaneous scalp electroencephalographic activity and local field potentials in the STN (LFP-STN) in 11 patients with Parkinson's disease implanted with deep brain stimulation electrodes in the on-medication state during rest. We assessed the cross-structural phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) between the STN and cortical activity within a wide frequency range of 1 to 100 Hz. The PAC was dominant between the δ/θ STN phase and β/γ cortical amplitude in most investigated scalp regions and between the δ cortical phase and θ/α STN amplitude in the frontal and temporal regions. The cross-frequency linkage between the slow oscillations of the LFP-STN activity and the amplitude of the scalp-recorded cortical activity at rest was demonstrated, and similar involvement of the left and right STNs in the coupling was observed.

22 Jan 2021

Successful asymmetrical deep brain stimulation using right subthalamic and left pallidal electrodes in a patient with Parkinson's disease

Purpose: Despite the best efforts of neurologists, the results of pharmacotherapy in the late stages of Parkinson's disease are often disappointing and accompanied by debilitating side effects. Under these circumstances, deep brain stimulation is a viable treatment option. The aim of the meticulous pre-surgical planning is not only precise electrode implantation, but also the avoidance of intraoperative vascular conflicts potentially causing intracerebral bleeding.

Material and methods: In this report, we present a patient with early-onset Parkinson's disease whose cerebral vascular anatomy precluded standard bilateral subthalamic nucleus electrode implantation. Initially, right subthalamic stimulation alone provided a very mild clinical benefit that was not reflected in the patient's quality of life. In this patient, an unusual configuration of intracerebral electrodes with right subthalamic and left pallidal stimulation electrodes was applied 15 months after the initial subthalamic electrode implantation.

15 Jan 2021

Imitation or Polarity Correspondence? Behavioural and Neurophysiological Evidence for the Confounding Influence of Orthogonal Spatial Compatibility on Measures of Automatic Imitation

During social interactions, humans tend to imitate one another involuntarily. To investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms driving this tendency, researchers often employ stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) tasks to assess the influence that action observation has on action execution. This is referred to as automatic imitation (AI). The stimuli used frequently in SRC procedures to elicit AI often confound action-related with other nonsocial influences on behaviour; however, in response to the rotated hand-action stimuli employed increasingly, AI partly reflects unspecific up-right/down-left biases in stimulus-response mapping. Despite an emerging awareness of this confounding orthogonal spatial-compatibility effect, psychological and neuroscientific research into social behaviour continues to employ these stimuli to investigate AI. To increase recognition of this methodological issue, the present study measured the systematic influence of orthogonal spatial effects on behavioural and neurophysiological measures of AI acquired with rotated hand-action stimuli in SRC tasks.

15 Jan 2021

Sex differences in the association of childhood socioeconomic position and later-life depressive symptoms in Europe: the mediating effect of education

Purpose: We aimed to study sex differences in the association of childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) with later-life depressive symptoms, the mediating effect of education and explore regional differences across Europe.

Methods: The study included 58,851 participants (55% women, mean age 65 years) from the multicentre, population-based Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Interviews were conducted in six waves and included measurements of childhood SEP (household characteristics at the age of 10) and depressive symptoms (EURO-D scale). Linear regression was used to study the association of childhood SEP with depressive symptoms, adjusting for covariates, and structural equation modelling assessed the mediating effect of education.

Results: In the fully adjusted model, higher childhood SEP was associated with lower depressive symptoms with a greater magnitude in women (B = - 0.07; 95% CI - 0.08, - 0.05) than in men (B = - 0.02; 95% CI - 0.03, - 0.00).