COVID-19 and macular edema: a necessarily blindness?

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology -     

Differential role for the striatum and cerebellum in response to novel movements using a motor learning paradigm.

The aim of this pilot study was to examine the role of the striatum and cerebellum in the adaptation to a novel movement within a sequence of practiced movements using a motor learning paradigm. The performance of patients in the early or advanced stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) and of patients with damage to the cerebellum (CE) was compared, respectively to a group of aged and young matched controls on an adapted version of the Mirror-Tracing Test. In this task, subjects were required to trace a series of complex figures in two conditions: (1) a Practiced condition, in which the figures were composed of the juxtaposition of three simple designs that were extensively practiced before; and (2) a Mixed condition in which triads were created by replacing the last simple figure of the triads in the Practiced condition by a new simple figure that had never been traced individually before. Results showed that all clinical groups were slower than controls at tracing the Practiced triads. Most interestingly, however, only patients in the advanced stages of PD showed increased completion time to trace the triads in the Mixed condition. This suggests that a bilateral striatal dysfunction affects the ability to adapt to a novel motion within a sequence of practiced movements. Although exploratory, these results support a functional dissociation between the striatum and cerebellum in acquiring visuomotor skilled behaviors.     

Gestion des risques et choix de maintenance à l'hôpitalRisks management and maintenance choices at the hospital

Regulations evolve and risks management becomes one of the biomedical engineers' preoccupations. Thus, risks are various, and consequently it is difficult to identify, to manage and to bring them under control. Furthermore, regulations exist for sectors like healthcare technology monitoring, but it is not the same thing for instance for the risks linked to the maintenance. Thus regulation in the sector of maintenance evolves and the decree of the 1^st July law of health safety is going to modify the biomedical environment. The goal of this work is to study the tools and the methods of risks management that have been used for several years in the industrial field and to use them for some biomedical equipment like monitors or IV pumps. These methods adapted to these equipment will allow us to determine some appropriate rules of maintenance.     

Severe hypoglycorrhachia after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Two cases with spontaneous recovery in adults

We report two patients with severe hypoglycorrhachia after a subarachnoid hemorrhage. They had no obvious meningeal infection, and they spontaneously recovered within a few weeks. Such cases have previously been reported in neonates, but exceptionally in adults. Contrary to detailed cases from the literature, our patients recovered without antibiotics, and hypoglycorrhachia was very severe.     

Does age worsen EEG slowing and attention deficits in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether EEG slowing is more pronounced in older than younger OSAS patients and to verify whether this cortical slowing is correlated to daytime performance, respiratory perturbation and sleep fragmentation. METHODS: Twelve young OSAS patients (mean age 38.2+/-2.0 y) and 13 older OSAS patients (mean age 62.2+/-1.9 y) along with 13 young controls (mean age 35.8+/-2.0 y) and 14 older controls (mean age 60.2+/-2.0 y) underwent a polysomnographic evaluation followed by a waking EEG recording. As a global index of cortical slowing, a ratio of slow-to-fast frequencies was calculated in all cortical regions. Daytime performance was assessed using the four choice reaction time test. RESULTS: Differences in waking EEG and in daytime performance were analyzed by ANOVAs with Group and Age as factors. Waking EEG did not yield a Group by Age interaction. OSAS patients had higher ratios across all regions than controls. Similarly, daytime performance revealed no Group by Age interaction. However, OSAS patients showed more lapses than controls and older subjects were slower than younger subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that age does not interact with OSAS to worsen the severity of cortical slowing, but age can add to the OSAS effect to worsen daytime performance deficits in OSAS patients. SIGNIFICANCE: The daytime performance deficits observed particularly in elderly OSAS patients warrant a careful clinical assessment of these patients to prevent accidents and injuries.     

Absent chondrodysplasia punctata in a male with an Xp terminal deletion involving the putative region for CDPX1 locus

This is a follow-up report on a male patient with a 46, Y, r(X) karyotype. Although he had no clinico-radiological features of X-linked recessive chondrodysplasia punctata (CDPX1), molecular studies revealed an Xp terminal deletion involving the putative region for the CDPX1 locus (PABX-DXS31). We suspect that the absence of CDPX1 may be attributable to the nature of the disease and the extreme short stature of the patient (mean – 5.6 S.D.). © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Neuropsychological evaluation before and after thalamic stimulation in 9 patients with Parkinson disease]

Chronic thalamic-VIM stimulation was performed in 9 parkinsonian patients with disabling tremor and poor response to drugs. Neuropsychological assessment was performed before and after deep brain electrode implantation and stimulation. Mild cognitive disorders were observed prior to thalamic implantation. Neuropsychological testing failed to show intellectual function worsening after implantation and stimulation. We conclude that thalamic stimulation could be an appropriate treatment of untractable tremor as this could provide less neuropsychological side-effects than thalamotomy, especially in Parkinson's disease.