Treatment with rituximab in patients with polyneuropathy with anti-MAG antibodies

Journal of Neurology -     

Factors associated with satisfaction with care among patients with epilepsy

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the work described here was to determine those variables associated with satisfaction with care among patients with epilepsy. METHODS: We interviewed patients followed at a tertiary epilepsy center. Predictor variables included age, gender, race, education, income, insurance, seizure frequency, and Quality of Life in Epilepsy-10 inventory (QOLIE-10) results. Target variables were the subscales of the Short Form Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18). We used univariate analysis to identify those variables significantly associated with the subscales and multiple linear regression to determine those independently significant. RESULTS: The study population comprised 193 patients. Lower education and better QOLIE-10 scores were independently associated with general satisfaction with care. The mental health scale was associated with general satisfaction with care. Lower educational level was the only variable independently associated with patient satisfaction with communication, the financial aspect of care, and time spent with physician. CONCLUSION: Lower educational level and better quality of life are the main variables associated with higher general satisfaction with care among patients with epilepsy.     

Children with ADHD and motor dysfunction compared with children with ADHD only

The purpose of this study was to identify group differences in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder and motor dysfunction (ADHD-MD) and ADHD only, and to evaluate the medication responsiveness of ADHD-MD. Sixty-three children (49 males and 14 females; mean age 9 years 10 months, SD 2 years 10 months) underwent a triple blind, placebo-controlled crossover study evaluating two dose levels of methylphenidate (0.3 mg/kg and 0.5 mg/kg [corrected], twice daily) and placebo. Forty-nine trials were completed. Nineteen were children with ADHD-MD, 44 had ADHD only. Behavior and functioning were assessed at home and at school. Treatment effects were assessed using the Abbreviated Symptom Questionnaire for Parents and Teachers. Children with ADHD-MD were more likely to have severe ADHD-combined type and other neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems. Both groups of children had a linear dose response to medication (placebo, low, high) and there was no evidence of a group by dose interaction or an overall group effect at home or school. The lack of group effect suggests that these children responded to medication like the other subgroups.     

Chronic headache with vasospasm treated with nimodipine

Journal of Neurology -     

Surgical Outcome in Patients with Epilepsy with Occult Vascular Malformations Treated with Lesionectomy

Summary: Purpose: This retrospective study reports the long-term surgical outcome of patients with medically refractory epilepsy and vascular malformations who were treated with lesionectomy. A detailed analysis of surgical failures had been performed in an attempt to define predictors of surgical success and failure.
Methods: Fifteen patients with medically intractable epilepsy and angiographically occult vascular malformations (AOVMs) were treated surgically with lesionectomy at Duke University Medical Center. Lesionectomy consisted of removal of the AOVM and surrounding hemosiderin-stained brain only, without the use of electrocorticography (ECoG) to guide resection.
Results: Eleven (73%) patients are seizure free after lesionectomy. Three showed no significant improvement, and one patient died, presumably after a seizure. Age of onset, duration of seizures, age at resection, and gender did not affect outcome. All patients with neocortical AOVMs in whom EEG findings correlated with the site of the lesion were seizure free after lesional resection. Treatment failures were associated with the presence of multiple intracranial lesions, poorly localized or diffuse EEG findings, discordant positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, or with a lesion in close proximity to the limbic system.
Conclusions: Lesionectomy, with removal of surrounding hemosiderin-stained brain, can be considered the procedure of choice in carefully selected patients with epilepsy with occult vascular malformations.     

Satisfaction with quality of life varies with temperament types of patients with schizophrenia

We sought to explore the relationships of three temperament factors with domain-specific subjective quality of life (QOL) of patients with schizophrenia. Ninety patients with schizophrenia were evaluated using the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, the Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale, the Distress Scale for Adverse Symptoms, the Insight and Treatment Attitudes Questionnaire, the Insight Self-Report Scale, and standardized questionnaires for self-reported emotional distress and stress process-related variables. Predictors of domain-specific QOL were identified using multiple regression techniques. Temperament factors explain 6% to 16% of variability in QOL domain scores among patients with schizophrenia after controlling for the remaining variables (emotional distress, social support, self-esteem, avoidance coping, age, side effects, and depression). We found that higher levels of novelty seeking are associated with better general QOL, physical health, and more positive subjective feelings, whereas higher levels of reward dependence are related to better satisfaction from social relationships. Higher levels of harm avoidance are associated with poorer satisfaction with general activities, and medication. Thus, temperament factors, as assessed by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, substantially influence satisfaction with life quality in schizophrenia. Novelty seeking, reward dependence, and harm avoidance are associated with different domains of QOL.     

Factors associated with survival for patients with glioblastoma with poor pre-operative functional status

Patients with glioblastoma (GB) are known to have poor prognoses, and among these patients, those with poor neurological function have an even poorer prognosis. Consequently, aggressive surgeries and adjuvant therapies are often withheld because of this dismal outlook. The effects of aggressive therapies in this small subset of patients remain unknown. The goal of this study was to evaluate outcomes and factors associated with survival for poor functioning patients who underwent aggressive resection of their GB. Adult patients who underwent surgical resection of an intracranial primary GB at an academic tertiary-care institution between 1997 and 2007 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with a Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score of ?60 were included. A total of 100 patients with primary GB met the inclusion criteria. The average age (±standard deviation) and KPS score of this cohort were 54 ± 15 years and 53 ± 12, respectively. No patient (0%) experienced perioperative mortality, and 0 (0%), 10 (10%), and 3 (3%) of patients incurred a new or increasing language, motor, and visual deficit, respectively. At last follow-up, 88 (88%) patients died with a median survival of 6.6 months. The factors associated with improved survival were age <65 year (p = 0.005), tumor size >2 cm (p = 0.01), radical tumor resection (p = 0.01), and temozolomide (p = 0.001). This study identifies a subset of patients with poor functional status who may benefit from aggressive surgical resection.