Quality of life of psoriatic patients evaluated by a new psychometric assessment tool: PsoDisk

Background

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder which negatively impacts a patient’s quality of life (QoL).Arecently published assessment tool, PsoDisk, has been proposed to evaluate patient’s QoL.

Objective

The aim of this study was to test PsoDisk as a QoL assessment tool in psoriatic patients undergoing treatment with adalimumab.

Methods

A retrospective, monocentric study, including patients who completed at least 48 weeks of both adalimumab therapy and PsoDisk assessment. PASI was assessed by the physician whereas the PsoDisk test was self-performed by the patient. Both were evaluated at each control visit throughout the study-period in order to detect changes in disease severity and the impact of quality of life, respectively.

Results

In total, we evaluated 31 patients selected from our database. At baseline, all aspects of patients’ psycho-emotional and social lives were impaired. PASI score reduction correlated with a PsoDisk score decrease (r = 0.97; p = 0.02), reflecting an overall improvement of patient’s QoL.

Conclusion

PsoDisk was found to be easy to administer and intuitive for interpreting clinical results.

     

Discrimination of atypical parkinsonisms with transcranial magnetic stimulation

Background

Differential diagnosis of atypical parkinsonian disorders, i.e. dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) or corticobasal syndrome (CBS) still remains problematic. Furthermore, DLB may overlap with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the early stages of disease.

Impaired long‐term potentiation–like cortical plasticity in presymptomatic genetic frontotemporal dementia

Neurophysiological biomarkers were assessed using a transcranial magnetic stimulation multiparadigm approach in 13 presymptomatic (n = 13 Granulin) and 14 symptomatic (n = 11 Granulin, n = 3 C9orf72) subjects with a pathogenic mutation for frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Intracortical facilitation and long‐term potentiation–like plasticity were impaired in presymptomatic carriers, compared to healthy controls, more than 15 years before expected symptom onset. In symptomatic carriers, a decrease in short‐interval intracortical inhibition, compared to presymptomatic carriers, was found. In conclusion, these biomarkers could provide the footprints of specific physiopathological processes in the development of this disease and possibly support the diagnosis of autosomal‐dominant FTD. Ann Neurol 2016;80:472–476     

Central nervous system microbleeds in the acute phase are associated with structural integrity by DTI one year after mild traumatic brain injury: A longitudinal study

Introduction

Several imaging modalities are under investigation to unravel the pathophysiological mystery of delayed performance deficits in patients after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Although both imaging and neuropsychological studies have been conducted, only few data on longitudinal correlations of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) and extensive neuropsychological testing exist.

Epistasis between a set of variations located in the TAAR6 and HSP-70 genes toward schizophrenia and response to antipsychotic treatment

Suggestive associations have been reported between trace amines and heat shock proteins, and a disrupted pathophysiology that enhances the risk of psychosis and that modifies responses to antipsychotic treatments. Our group previously reported genetic studies on TAAR6 and HSP-70 separately in patients with schizophrenia. In the current study, we investigated possible epistasis between the same set of variations in a sample of 281 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 288 healthy controls. We applied the generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method and controlled covariates significantly associated with both diagnosis and treatment efficacy. To the best of our knowledge, epistasis between the present set of variations in schizophrenia has not been tested before. We found significant associations with both the risk of disease and response to treatment. However, the insufficiently balanced accuracy of the applied tests suggests that, despite significantly different genetic variations between cases and controls, these factors have a poor predictive value. Explanations for these findings and possible future directions are also discussed.     

Aortoiliac surgery concomitant with kidney transplantation: a single center experience

Abstract: Introduction: Aortoiliac pathology in kidney allograft recipients is not rare but treatment timing is controversial. As most publications on this topic are case reports it’s difficult to evaluate long‐term outcomes of those clinical challenges. Herein we report long‐term results of these procedures. Methods: From 1970 to 2006, 1544 kidney transplants were performed in our center. Thirty patients underwent aortoiliac surgery simultaneously with kidney transplantation. We analyzed their clinical records to come up with outcomes of these complex clinical challenges. Results: Vascular pathology was distributed as following: 19 stenoses treated with endarterectomy (15), aortoiliac bypass (two), aorto‐bi‐iliac bypass (one) and aorto‐bifemoral bypass (one); and 11 aneurysms treated with arterioplasty (four), aorto‐bi‐iliac bypass (four) and iliac‐iliac bypass (three). In 24 cases (80%) the necessity of vascular surgery was established intraoperatively as vessels’ conditions did not permit safe anastomoses and jeopardized graft survival. Mean follow‐up was 59 months (12–125). Five (16.7%) grafts were lost and three (10%) patients died in the first post‐operative month: acute myocardial infarction (two) and non‐viable kidney (one). Three patients died six, seven and 10 yr after the procedure. Nineteen patients are currently well with functioning grafts. Conclusions: Surgical correction of aortoiliac pathology may be performed simultaneously with kidney transplantation with acceptable outcome. This complex surgery can be performed in centers with experienced vascular surgeons. Specific vascular imaging should be performed regularly on patient at risk of aortoiliac disease before insertion and while on waiting list.