Recall of emotional and neutral words and paragraphs in traumatic brain injury

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in verbal recall deficits and impaired processing of emotion encoded in facial appearance, prosody and the linguistic content of messages. Emotion facilitates memory (emotional memory advantage) for non-brain injured (NBI) individuals but the impact of emotion on verbal recall for linguistically encoded stimuli in TBI has not been explored.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of stimulus emotional content on verbal recall of words and paragraphs in TBI compared to NBI individuals.

Methods and procedures: Six 10-item lists, each with five emotional and five neutral words, and six paragraphs (three emotional, three neutral) were counterbalanced and presented in random order to 20 individuals with TBI and 44 NBI. The number of words from lists and the number of content units from paragraphs were compared for the two groups.

Outcomes and results: The NBI participants recalled more words from the lists and content units from the paragraphs than the individuals with TBI. Both groups recalled significantly more emotional than neutral words. NBI but not TBI participants had significantly greater recall for information in paragraphs with emotional content.

Conclusions: Participants with TBI showed impaired recall of words and paragraph content. Emotion facilitated word and paragraph content recall for neurotypical individuals but emotional memory advantage was limited to words for the TBI participants.     

Measured and predicted resting energy expenditure in wheelchair rugby athletes

Objective: Report measured resting energy expenditure (REE) in wheelchair rugby athletes and evaluate agreement between REE and the prediction models of Chun, Cunningham, Harris-Benedict, Mifflin, Nightingale and Gorgey, and Owen.

Design: Cohort-based validation study.

Setting. Paralympic team training camp.

Participants: Fourteen internationally competitive athletes who play wheelchair rugby, 13 of whom had cervical spinal cord injuries (SCI).

Outcome Measures: A portable metabolic analyzer was used to measure REE following an overnight fast and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to assess lean body mass for the prediction equations.

Results: REE in the current sample was 1735?±?257?kcal?×?day^?1 ranging from 1324 to 2068?kcal?×?day^{?1 Bhambhani Y. Physiology of wheelchair racing in athletes with spinal cord injury. Sports Med 2002;32(1):23–51.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]}. Bland–Altman analyses revealed negative mean bias but similar limits of agreement between measured REE and scores predicted by Chun, Cunningham, Mifflin, Nightingale and Gorgey, and Owen models in elite athletes who play wheelchair rugby.

Conclusion: Prediction models regressed on persons with and without SCI under-predicted REE of competitive wheelchair rugby athletes. This outcome may be explained by the higher REE/fat-free mass (FFM) ratio of current athletes compared to less active samples. Findings from the current study will help practitioners to determine nutrient intake needs on training days of varied intensity.     

前列地尔联合长春西汀治疗急性脑梗死的疗效观察

目的探讨前列地尔联合长春西汀治疗急性脑梗死的疗效。方法选取2015年3-12月在我科接受治疗的90例急性脑梗死患者,随机分为治疗组(45例)和对照组(45例)。两组患者均给予抗血小板、降血脂等常规对症治疗,11 d为1个疗程。对照组给予长春西汀静脉输液治疗,治疗组在对照组基础上加以前列地尔治疗。比较两组临床治疗效果,治疗前后神经功能恢复情况、日常生活能力恢复情况、并发症发生率及安全性。结果治疗组总有效率为93.3%,对照组为71.1%,治疗组明显高于对照组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。两组患者用药11 d后,神经功能缺损评分均高于治疗前,且治疗组明显高于对照组,差异均有统计学意义(P<0.05)。治疗组患者用药11d及90 d后日常生活能力恢复情况优于对照组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。两组均无严重药物不良反应。结论前列地尔联合长春西汀治疗急性脑梗死疗效显著,值得临床推广应用。     

凉血通瘀方干预高血压大鼠急性脑出血模型对脑组织中差异miRNA表达的影响＊

目的 研究凉血通瘀方对高血压大鼠急性脑出血模型脑组织miRNA表达的影响，对差异表达的miRNA靶基因进行分析，探索凉血通瘀方可能的药效机制。方法 将自发性高血压大鼠随机分成对照组（B）和实验组（C）。适应性饲养一周后，C组灌胃凉血通瘀方，B组灌胃等体积生理盐水，连续5天，每天1次。构建脑出血模型后收集脑组织，借助全转录组测序技术获得miRNA表达量，与miRBase数据库比对获取已知miRNA，使用miRDeep2预测新miRNA。差异分析软件为DESeq2，筛选阈值为|log₂FC| ≥1 并且P <0.05。对显著差异表达的miRNA进行靶基因预测，对靶基因进行GO功能、KEGG通路富集和PPI网络分析。结果 实验组和对照组对比，共发现21个显著差异表达的miRNA，上调有9个，下调有12个，共预测得到1243个有统计学意义的靶基因。GO富集分析发现，生物过程中突触囊泡分泌的调节、神经递质分泌的调节和神经递质运输的调节占前三位，神经元投射终点、全膜、质膜区域和细胞投射则是主要的细胞成分。分子功能分别为小GTPase绑定、底物特异性跨膜转运蛋白活性和离子跨膜转运体活性。通路分析结果显示，靶基因在癌证通路、pI3K-Akt信号通路、人类乳头瘤病毒感染、神经活性配体-受体相互作用和MAPK通路等分布广泛。采用STRING网站和Cytoscape软件，根据MCC算法筛选出ADRA2C、CASR、CCL28、CCR1、DRD2、GNAT3、GRM2、DYNC1LI1、GABBR1、GNAI1等核心靶基因。结论 凉血通瘀方对脑出血急性期鼠脑组织内miRNA的表达有重要影响；显著差异表达miRNAs可能通过靶向核心基因调控凉血通瘀方干预急性脑出血的病理过程及预后。     

Biomechanical behavior of brain injury caused by sticks using finite element model and Hybrid-III testing

Objective: To study the biomechanical mechanism of head injuries beaten with sticks, which is common in the battery or assaultive cases. Methods: In this study, the Hybrid-III anthropomorphic test device and finite element model (FEM) of the total human model for safety (THUMS) head were used to determine the biomechanical response of head while being beaten with different sticks. Total eight Hybrid-III tests and four finite element simulations were conducted. The contact force, resultant acceleration of head center of gravity, intracranial pressure and von Mises stress were calculated to determine the different biomechanical behavior of head with beaten by different sticks. Results: In Hybrid-III tests, the stick in each group demonstrated the similar kinematic behavior under the same loading condition. The peak values of the resultant acceleration for thick iron stick group, thin iron stick group, thick wooden stick group and thin wooden stick group were 203.4 g, 221.1 g, 170.5 g and 122.2 g respectively. In finite element simulations, positive intracranial pressure was initially observed in the frontal comparing with negative intracranial pressure in the contra-coup site. Subsequently the intracranial pressure in the coup site was decreasing toward negative value while the contra-coup intracranial pressure increasing toward positive values. Conclusions: The results illustrated that the stiffer and larger the stick was, the higher the von Mises stress, contact force and intracranial pressure were. We believed that the results in the Hybrid-III tests and THUMS head simulations for brain injury beaten with sticks could be reliable and useful for better understanding the injury mechanism.     

脑心通胶囊治疗脑梗死合并心肌缺血的多中心非随机临床对照试验

目的：观察脑心通胶囊（步长制药）治疗脑梗死合并心肌缺血患者的临床疗效。方法选取2013年10月至2014年12月北京21所医院神经内科收治的符合入组条件的急性脑梗死伴心肌缺血患者，非随机分为脑心通组（基础治疗基础上加用步长脑心通胶囊）和对照组（仅基础治疗）。对比分析第4周、8周、12周时2组心电图变化以及使用NIHSS和改良mRankin评估第12周时神经功能变化。结果入组544例，剔除16例（不良事件2例、自动放弃1例、违背规则1例、失访6例、其他6例），实际完成试验528例（包含测量资料缺失病例），其中脑心通组291例，对照组237例。心肌缺血改善的有效率脑心通组和对照组第4周差异无统计学意义（18．1％、14．9％， P ＝0．704）；但第8周（27．7％、14．3％， P ＝0．001）和第12周（31．3％、16．9％，P ＜0．01）差异有统计学意义（ P ＜0．05）。第12周时NIHSS减少≥2分脑心通组（77．7％）明显高于对照组（68．4％）（ P ＜0．05），mRankin 减少≥1分脑心通组（67．7％）显著高于对照组（56．1％）（ P ＜0．05）。多因素分析心电图改善的独立影响因素是脑心通（ P ＝0．005）和第12周时AST的降低（ P ＝00．47）；神经功能改善的影响因素包括脑心通治疗、基线收缩压和肌酐水平、既往心脏病或高脂血症病史。结论脑心通胶囊联合基础治疗对脑梗死合并心肌缺血临床疗效确切。     

Voluntary ambulation using voluntary upper limb muscle activity and Hybrid Assistive Limb® (HAL®) in a patient with complete paraplegia due to chronic spinal cord injury: A case report

Context: We sought to describe our experience with the Hybrid Assistive Limb® (HAL®) for active knee extension and voluntary ambulation with remaining muscle activity in a patient with complete paraplegia after spinal cord injury.

Findings: A 30-year-old man with complete paraplegia used the HAL® for 1 month (10 sessions) using his remaining muscle activity, including hip flexor and upper limb activity. Electromyography was used to evaluate muscle activity of the gluteus maximus, tensor fascia lata, quadriceps femoris, and hamstring muscles in synchronization with the Vicon motion capture system. A HAL® session included a knee extension session with the hip flexor and voluntary gait with upper limb activity. After using the HAL® for one month, the patient’s manual muscle hip flexor scores improved from 1/5 to 2/5 for the right and from 2/5 to 3/5 for the left knee, and from 0/5 to 1/5 for the extension of both knees.

Conclusion/clinical relevance: Knee extension sessions with HAL®, and hip flexor and upper-limb-triggered HAL® ambulation seem a safe and feasible option in a patient with complete paraplegia due to spinal cord injury.