Nerve autografts and tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries: a 5-year bibliometric analysis

With advances in biomedical methods, tissue-engineered materials have developed rapidly as an alternative to nerve autografts for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. However, the materials selected for use in the repair of peripheral nerve injuries, in particular multiple injuries and large-gap defects, must be chosen carefully. Various methods and materials for protecting the healthy tissue and repairing peripheral nerve injuries have been described, and each method or material has advantages and disadvantages. Recently, a large amount of research has been focused on tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. Using the keywords “pe-ripheral nerve injury”, “autotransplant”, “nerve graft”, and “biomaterial”, we retrieved publications using tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries appearing in the Web of Science from 2010 to 2014. The country with the most total publications was the USA. The institutions that were the most productive in this field include Hannover Medical School (Germany), Washington University (USA), and Nantong University (China). The total number of publications using tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries grad-ually increased over time, as did the number of Chinese publications, suggesting that China has made many scientific contributions to this field of research.     

Psychopharmacology and Cardiovascular Disease

This review discusses common mental health disorders and their associations with cardiovascular disease risks. Commonly found mental health disorders include depression, anxiety, and personality types. The link between depression and cardiovascular disease mortality has been established. Depression is also common in patients with heart failure. In addition to discussing psychological disorders, a review of psychotropic drugs is also included. Drugs are described for therapy for depression and anxiety, as well as associations with cardiovascular drug-drug interactions. Drug-drug interactions are more common and potentially dangerous in elderly patients, in whom the conditions often coexist. The most common drug-drug interactions involve the P450 system of enzymes.     

"Occult" renal insufficiency due to evaluating renal function using only serum creatinine

Timely referral to nephrologists depends on identification of renal failure. Most primary care physicians and specialists rely on serum creatinine as the standard test for determination of renal function. Creatinine clearance requires 24 hours urine collection with many pitfalls and wrong results. We compare serum creatinine and the Cockcroft-Gault (C-G) equation as measure of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The study included 1,053 outpatients with serum creatinine lower than 2.5 mg/dl referred to our nephrological laboratory for serum creatinine and GFR determination using the C-G formula. Patients were grouped into two groups: normal renal function (serum creatinine < 1.3 mg/dl) and "incipient" abnormal renal function (serum creatinine 1.3-2.5 mg/dl). In the group of females with normal creatinine 22% (60-70 y), 35% (70-80 y) and 57% (> 80 y) had GFR values below 50 ml/min. In the group of males 11.3% (70-80 y) and 33.3% (> 80 y) also had GFR reduction in spite of normal serum creatinine. A severe renal insufficiency with creatinine clearance lower than 30 ml/min was observed in the group with "incipient" renal failure based on serum creatinine: 22.7%, 40% and 82.9% for females and 6%, 22.7% and 57% for male (60-70 y; 70-80 y; and > 80 y respectively). In order to improve management and prevention of renal failure appropriate measurements of renal function other than serum creatinine should be emphasize.     

Anti-IgLON5 disease with distinctive brain MRI findings responding to immunotherapy: A case report

Rationale:Anti-IgLON5 disease was first described as a progressive antibody-associated encephalopathy, with multiple non-specific clinical symptoms including sleep dysfunction, bulbar symptoms, progressive supranuclear palsy-like syndrome, cognitive impairment, and a variety of movement disorders. This newly discovered disease presents with unremarkable or unspecific brain magnetic resonance imagings (MRI), and have poor responsiveness to immunotherapy.Patient concerns:In this case, a 37-year-old man presented with 4-day history of gait instability, dysarthria, and oculomotor abnormalities. The initial neurologic examination revealed mild unsteady gait, subtle dysarthria, and left abducent paralysis.Diagnosis:The patient was diagnosed with anti-IgLON5 disease, based on clinical features and positive anti-IgLON5 antibodies in serum.Interventions:Initially, the patient was treated with high dosages of methylprednisolone and immunoglobulins.Outcomes: The symptoms of patient rapidly improved after high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone and immunoglobulins.Conclusions:In this paper, we report a new case of anti-IgLON5 disease with major symptoms of gait instability, dysarthria, and oculomotor abnormalities, with distinctive brain MRI findings, and responsive to immunotherapy.