Using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale to early identify very low-birth-weight infants with cystic periventricular leukomalacia

We examined whether the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) is able to identify very low-birth-weight (VLBW) preterm infants with cystic periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) as early as 6 months of corrected age. Longitudinal follow-up AIMS assessments were done at 6, 12, and 18 months old for 35 VLBW infants with cystic PVL (cPVL⁺), 70 VLBW infants without cystic PVL (cPVL⁻), and 76 term infants (healthy controls: HC). Corrected age was used for the preterm infants. The cPVL⁺ group had significantly lower prone, supine and sitting subscales at age 6, 12, and 18 months than the cPVL⁻ group (all p < 0.05). The cPVL⁻ group showed significantly lower supine, prone, sitting, and standing subscales than the HC group only at age 6 months. At age 6 months, the areas under the receiver operator curve used to discriminate the cPVL⁺ infants from cPVL⁻ infants were 0.82 ± 0.04 for prone, 0.93 ± 0.02 for supine, 0.83 ± 0.05 for sitting, and 0.62 ± 0.07 for standing. The AIMS may help early identify VLBW infants with cystic PVL at age 6 months old.     

血管紧张素原基因T704C多态性及血脂水平与动脉硬化性脑梗死的相关性研究

目的探讨血管紧张素原∽G7）基因T704C多态性与血脂水平及动脉硬化性脑梗死（ACI）的关系。方法2206为离退休职工为研究对象,进行体格检查和问卷调查,资料完整者l990名入选,其中男性1289名、女性701名。1990名中共检出ACl患者170例（男性132例,女性38例）为ACI组;余1820名无ACT者（男性1155例,女性665例）为对照组。采用PCR-RFLP方法检测AGT基因T704C基因型,采用全自动生化分析仪测定血脂等生化项目。结果ACI组性别、年龄、平均收缩压、平均舒张压、体重指数、血糖与对照组比较,两组问差异有统计学意义（P〈O．05）;调查人群中,携带AGT基因CC基因型的人群中,ACI患病率高干携带TT、TC基因型者（P〈0．05）;且携带C等位基因的人群ACI患病率高于携带T等位基因的人群（P〈0．05）;两组间血脂水平比较,对照组携带TC、CC基因型者高密度脂蛋白水平高于ACI组（P〈0．05）;携带CC基因型者三酰甘油水平明显低于ACI组（P〈0．05）。结论AGT基因T704C多态性及血脂水平与ACI相关。     

Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome Following a Scorpion Sting

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a clinicoradiologic entity not yet understood, that is present with transient neurologic symptoms and particular radiological findings. The most common imaging pattern in PRES is the presence of edema in the white matter of the posterior portions of both cerebral hemispheres. The cause of PRES is unclear. We report a case of 13‐year‐old male who was stung by a scorpion and developed a severe headche, visual disturbance, and seizures and had the diagnosis of PRES with a good outcome. Numerous factors can trigger this syndrome, most commonly: acute elevation of blood pressure, abnormal renal function, and immunosuppressive therapy. There are many cases described showing the relationship between PRES and eclampsia, transplantation, neoplasia and chemotherapy treatment, systemic infections, renal disease acute, or chronic. However, this is the first case of PRES following a scorpion sting.     

The effect of video-guidance on passive movement in patients with cerebral palsy: fMRI study

In patients with cerebral palsy (CP), neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that passive movement and action–observation tasks have in common to share neuronal activation in all or part of areas involved in motor system. Action observation with simultaneous congruent passive movements may have additional effects in the recruitment of brain motor areas. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to examine brain activation in patients with unilateral CP during passive movement with and without simultaneous observation of simple hand movement. Eighteen patients with unilateral CP (fourteen male, mean age 14 years and 2 months) participated in the study. Using fMRI block design, brain activation following passive simple opening–closing hand movement of either the paretic or nonparetic hand with and without simultaneous observation of a similar movement performed by either the left or right hand of an actor was compared. Passive movement of the paretic hand performed simultaneously to the observation of congruent movement activated more “higher motor areas” including contralesional pre-supplementary motor area, superior frontal gyrus (extending to premotor cortex), and superior and inferior parietal regions than nonvideo-guided passive movement of the paretic hand. Passive movement of the paretic hand recruited more ipsilesional sensorimotor areas compared to passive movement of the nonparetic hand. Our study showed that the combination of observation of congruent hand movement simultaneously to passive movement of the paretic hand recruits more motor areas, giving neuronal substrate to propose video-guided passive movement of paretic hand in CP rehabilitation.     

Motor learning of a bimanual task in children with unilateral cerebral palsy

Children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) have been shown to improve their motor performance with sufficient practice. However, little is known about how they learn goal-oriented tasks. In the current study, 21 children with unilateral CP (age 4–10 years old) and 21 age-matched typically developed children (TDC) practiced a simple bimanual speed stack task over 15 days of practice. Both groups demonstrated their ability to learn the current bimanual task, but their rate of improvement and learning pattern differed. Children with unilateral CP overall were slower and improved ~10% less than TDC. Most of the improvement occurred during the first 3 days for the TDC, whereas performance did not plateau until 6–8 days for the children with unilateral CP. This initial slower learning rate for children with unilateral CP was also confirmed by better fitting of the curve to an exponential function than the power law function (p < 0.05). Therefore, when working with children with unilateral CP, sufficient practice is important (two to three times more than for TDC), and delayed improvement is expected.