EEG rhythms and retinal morphometric parameters before and after conventional therapy with adjunctive neuroprotective agent for refractive amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia

Background and Purpose Cochlear vascular micro-thrombosis has been hypothesized as one of the pathogenic mechanisms for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) refractory to regular management. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of intra-arterial pulsed-injection urokinase (IAPU) as a salvage therapy for SSNHL after the failure of conventional therapy. Methods We retrospectively reviewed our patient database to identify refractory SSNHL patients between November 2017 and July 2020. Study outcomes before and after the IAPU therapy were compared between IAPU and conventional therapy groups. Results Sixty-seven moderate-profound SSNHL patients (29 in IAUP group, 38 in control group) were included in this study. Compared to the control group, patients in the IAPU group showed more significant improvement in pure tone average (PTA) (34.2 ± 23.5 vs. 10.7 ± 13.1, p < 0.001) and degree of hearing recovery (total: 20.7% vs. 5.3%, partial: 24.1% vs. 10.5%, mild: 27.6% vs. 13.2% and non: 27.6% vs. 71.1%) 2 weeks after admission. In the IAPU group, a significant improvement of PTA (86.6 ± 11.5 vs. 54.6 ± 20.1 dB, p < 0.005) was observed on the first day after IAPU treatment. Conclusion In carefully selected SSNHL cases with a highly suspected vascular origin, IAPU is a safe and effective therapy when conventional treatments have failed. Despite the encouraging findings of our work, large studies are needed to better investigate the strengths and limitations of this salvage therapy.

Download Full-text

Accommodative ability in patients with strabismic amblyopia at concomitant strabismus

Medical Journal of the Russian Federation ◽

10.18821/0869-2106-2020-26-1-16-20 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 16-20

Author(s):

Valentina A. Usenko ◽

Aizhamal I. Berdibaeva

Keyword(s):

Visual Acuity ◽

Fold Increase ◽

Ciliary Muscle ◽

Control Group ◽

Healthy Individuals ◽

Strabismic Amblyopia ◽

Distance Visual Acuity ◽

Before And After ◽

Concomitant Strabismus ◽

High Degree

Aim. To study the state of the accommodative ability of amblyopia before and after treatment. Materials and methods. One hundred patients (158 eyes) with friendly alternating and monolateral strabismus were examined. The control group consisted of 10 healthy individuals (20 eyes) with emmetropia: the average age of patients under 3 years of age was 2.4 0.15 years, from 3 years to 7 years, 4.8 0.07 years, and above 7 years, 8.3 0.4 years. The vast majority of patients (84 people, 126 eyes) had hyperopic astigmatism, and 16 patients (32 eyes) had a high degree of hyperopia. Twenty-eight patients (40 eyes), 48 patients (84 eyes), and 20 patients (26 eyes) had amblyopia of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degrees, respectively. Along with generally accepted methods for examining eyes, the OAA volume and ZAA were determined as the absolute accommodation margin by the proximetric method (AKA-0.1) before and after hardware treatment to relax and stimulate the ciliary muscle. Results. The results after treatment revealed a 1.52-fold increase in OAA to 14.4 0.23 D; 13.5 0.10 D; 13.1 0.41 D; and ZAA and a significant 2-fold increase in visual acuity (P 0.001). Conclusion. A criterion for the effectiveness of hardware treatment for dysbinocular amblyopia is an increase in OAA and ZAA, accompanied by a 2-fold increase in distance visual acuity (P 0.001).

Download Full-text

EFFECTIVENESS OF NEURAL MOBILIZATION AND STRETCHING EXERCISE FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF SCIATICA

Pakistan Journal of Rehabilitation ◽

10.36283/pjr.zu.3.2/003 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 11-15

Author(s):

Sidra Zahid ◽

Ghazala Noor Nizami

Keyword(s):

Conventional Therapy ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Treatment Options ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

P Value ◽

Below The Knee ◽

Pain Disability ◽

Before And After ◽

Group A ◽

Group B

OBJECTIVE To find out the effectiveness of neural mobilization and stretching exercise for the management of sciatica BACKGROUND Sciatica is described as pain, radiating to the leg below the knee joint and caused by irritation of the sciatic nerve or nerve trunk. There are many treatment options for the management of sciatica, including stretching exercise and neural mobilization. MATERIAL AND METHODS This study was a Randomized Controlled Trial. 94 patients from physical therapy OPD of tertiary care hospitals, were participated in this study. Hence, 47 patients were randomly allocated into each group A and B. Before and after the nine treatment sessions, both groups were assessed with VAS, SLR ROM and Quebec back pain disability scale. In group A, neural mobilization with conventional therapy (heat and TENS) was applied, while stretching exercise with same conventional therapy was applied to group B. RESULTS It was observed that both treatments were helpful in reducing the symptoms. The analysis showed significant improvement (p-value <0.05) in the SLR to 60.851o±6.86oand Quebec score to 23.617±3.125, after the stretching exercise. Hence, both treatments were equally effective in reducing pain (p-value >0.05). CONCLUSION Stretching exercise is more effective in the improvement of SLR and disability. Furthermore, both techniques are helpful in the management of pain. KEY WORDS Sciatica, Stretching, Neural Mobilization, Straight Leg Raising, Visual Analogue Scale, TENS.

Download Full-text

Switching from conventional therapy to burosumab injection has the potential to prevent nephrocalcinosis in patients with X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets

Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism ◽

10.1515/jpem-2020-0734 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Daisuke Harada ◽

Kaoru Ueyama ◽

Kyoko Oriyama ◽

Yoshihito Ishiura ◽

Hiroko Kashiwagi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conventional Therapy ◽

Hypophosphatemic Rickets ◽

High Dose ◽

Normal Range ◽

Urine Calcium ◽

Metabolic Bone ◽

Renal Phosphate Reabsorption ◽

Before And After ◽

Fgf 23 ◽

The Impact

Abstract Objectives X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets (XLH) is a congenital fibroblast growth factor (FGF)23-related metabolic bone disease that is treated with active vitamin D and phosphate as conventional therapies. Complications of these therapies include nephrocalcinosis (NC) caused by excessive urine calcium and phosphate concentrations. Recently, an anti-FGF23 antibody, burosumab, was developed and reported to be effective in poorly-controlled or severe XLH patients. This study aimed to reveal the impact of switching treatments in relatively well-controlled XLH children with the Rickets Severity Scale less than 2.0. Methods The effects of the two treatments in eight relatively well-controlled XLH children with a mean age of 10.4 ± 1.9 years were compared retrospectively for the same treatment duration (31 ± 11 months) before and after the baseline. Results Actual doses of alfacalcidol and phosphate as conventional therapy were 150.9 ± 43.9 ng/kg and 27.5 ± 6.3 mg/kg per day, respectively. Renal echography revealed spotty NC in 8/8 patients, but no aggravation of NC was detected by switching treatments. Switching treatments increased TmP/GFR (p=0.002) and %TRP (p<0.001), and improved the high urine calcium/creatinine ratio to the normal range (p<0.001) although both treatments controlled disease markers equally. Additionally, low intact parathyroid hormone during conventional therapy was increased within the normal range by switching treatments. Conclusions Our results suggest that a high dose of alfacalcidol was needed to control the disease, but it caused hypercalciuria and NC. We concluded that switching treatments in relatively well-controlled XLH children improved renal phosphate reabsorption and decreased urine calcium extraction, and may have the potential to prevent NC.

Download Full-text

Etiopathogenetic neuroreparative therapy of encephalopathies

Vestnik of Russian military medical Academy ◽

10.17816/brmma12268 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 139-144

Author(s):

V N Tsygan ◽

O E Gurskaya ◽

N S Ilinsky

Keyword(s):

Alpha Rhythm ◽

Brain Cell ◽

Temporal Region ◽

Membrane Phospholipids ◽

Neuroprotective Agent ◽

Relative Index ◽

Cell Pool ◽

Before And After ◽

The Right ◽

Made In

The possibility of neural tissue regeneration in encephalopathies of various genesis by influencing brain cell pool with reduced functional activity in the state of parabiosis is discussed. The use of a neuroprotective agent rekognan (citicoline) is a justified etiopathogenetic therapy realizing its effects through mechanisms of synthesis of membrane phospholipids, inhibition of synthesis of phospholipase A2, restoration of Na+/K+-adenosine triphosphate functioning, blocking of oxidative stress and apoptosis, modulation of choline, dopamine and glutamatergic neurotransmission. Electroencephalography study was made in order to investigate reactivity of a brain in 12 patients (6 men and 6 women, average age 57±11 years) with encephalopathies to treatment with the Rekognan. The relative index - K α/θ spectra of electroencephalogram power - was used to assess the dynamics of the functional state of a brain before and after the course of treatment with a neuroprotective agent. The majority of patients (9 patients) had a statistically significant positive electrophysiological dynamics with an average increase of K α/θ by 64%. Deprivation of the focus of irrigation in the form of a «running» of reduced acute waves in the right temporal region was recorded in one case, revealed during the test with hyperventilation. An additional prescription for the main therapy of the course of the recognan is associated with an increase in the power of electroencephalogram spectra in a frequency of the dominant alpha rhythm in 75% of patients with encephalopathies of different etiology. Favorable dynamics K α/θ spectra of electroencephalogram power testifies to the involvement of the cerebral reserve due to the neuroreparative effect of recognan.

Download Full-text

The Effects of Over-Ground Robot-Assisted Gait Training for Children with Ataxic Cerebral Palsy: A Case Report

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21237875 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (23) ◽

pp. 7875

Author(s):

Myungeun Yoo ◽

Jeong Hyeon Ahn ◽

Eun Sook Park

Keyword(s):

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Conventional Therapy ◽

Independent Living ◽

Gait Training ◽

Robot Assisted ◽

Ataxic Gait ◽

Timed Up And Go ◽

Walking Capacity ◽

Before And After ◽

Gait Function

Poor balance and ataxic gait are major impediments to independent living in ataxic cerebral palsy (CP). Robot assisted-gait training (RAGT) has been shown to improve the postural balance and gait function in children with CP. However, there is no report on the application of RAGT for children with ataxic CP. Here, we report two cases of children with ataxic CP who underwent over-ground RAGT along with conventional therapy for 4 weeks. Outcome measures including the gross motor function measure (GMFM), pediatric balance scale, pediatric reach scale, one-minute walk test, and Timed Up and Go test were assessed before and after the 4-week intervention. Both cases were well adapted to the RAGT system without any significant adverse event. Improvements in the GMFM after RAGT, compared with that in the GMFM, after intensive conventional therapy have been reported previously. It is noteworthy that over-ground RAGT improved areas of the GMFM that did not improve with conventional therapy. In addition, over-ground RAGT with conventional therapy led to improvements in functional balance and walking capacity. These findings suggest that over-ground RAGT is feasible and may be a potential option for enhancing balance and functional walking capacity in children with ataxic CP.

Download Full-text

SENSORIMOTOR POTENTIATION OF MOTOR IMAGINATION AS CNS PLASTICITY ACTIVATOR

Science and Innovations in Medicine ◽

10.35693/2500-1388-2016-0-3-33-38 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 33-38

Author(s):

E S Korovina ◽

E N Glazkova ◽

I V Shirolapov ◽

O G Kuznetsova ◽

N R Khanbikov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Left Hemisphere ◽

Motor Imagery ◽

Sensorimotor Cortex ◽

Motor Pattern ◽

Elbow Flexion ◽

Recording System ◽

Eeg Rhythms ◽

Before And After ◽

Alpha Beta ◽

The Right

Aim - to find out the neurophysiological correlatives of motor imagery after the simulation of the motor pattern. Materials and methods. Monopolar EEG was recorded using EEG recording system Neuron - Spectrum - 4 / VPM at 7 right-handed volunteers aged 18-19 years. EEG was recorded according to the system 10-5 in the projection of the sensorimotor cortex of the left hemisphere during the imagination of two movements in the right hand (flexing the fingers, elbow flexion) before and after 30 seconds of simulation of movement patterns using the rehabilitation device Power Plate. Results. After the simulation of the motor pattern, the imagination of the two types of movement correlated with desynchronization of alpha-, beta- EEG rhythms, increasing the number of leads with the reaction of desynchronization (p

Download Full-text

Brain-Computer Interface Coupled to a Robotic Hand Orthosis for Stroke Patients’ Neurorehabilitation: A Crossover Feasibility Study

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.656975 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Jessica Cantillo-Negrete ◽

Ruben I. Carino-Escobar ◽

Paul Carrillo-Mora ◽

Marlene A. Rodriguez-Barragan ◽

Claudia Hernandez-Arenas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Feasibility Study ◽

Upper Limb ◽

Conventional Therapy ◽

Stroke Rehabilitation ◽

Motor Evoked Potentials ◽

Random Order ◽

Robotic Hand ◽

Stroke Patients ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Before And After

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) coupled to robotic assistive devices have shown promise for the rehabilitation of stroke patients. However, little has been reported that compares the clinical and physiological effects of a BCI intervention for upper limb stroke rehabilitation with those of conventional therapy. This study assesses the feasibility of an intervention with a BCI based on electroencephalography (EEG) coupled to a robotic hand orthosis for upper limb stroke rehabilitation and compares its outcomes to conventional therapy. Seven subacute and three chronic stroke patients (M = 59.9 ± 12.8) with severe upper limb impairment were recruited in a crossover feasibility study to receive 1 month of BCI therapy and 1 month of conventional therapy in random order. The outcome measures were comprised of: Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity (FMA-UE), Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), motor evoked potentials elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), hand dynamometry, and EEG. Additionally, BCI performance and user experience were measured. All measurements were acquired before and after each intervention. FMA-UE and ARAT after BCI (23.1 ± 16; 8.4 ± 10) and after conventional therapy (21.9 ± 15; 8.7 ± 11) were significantly higher (p < 0.017) compared to baseline (17.5 ± 15; 4.3 ± 6) but were similar between therapies (p > 0.017). Via TMS, corticospinal tract integrity could be assessed in the affected hemisphere of three patients at baseline, in five after BCI, and four after conventional therapy. While no significant difference (p > 0.05) was found in patients’ affected hand strength, it was higher after the BCI therapy. EEG cortical activations were significantly higher over motor and non-motor regions after both therapies (p < 0.017). System performance increased across BCI sessions, from 54 (50, 70%) to 72% (56, 83%). Patients reported moderate mental workloads and excellent usability with the BCI. Outcome measurements implied that a BCI intervention using a robotic hand orthosis as feedback has the potential to elicit neuroplasticity-related mechanisms, similar to those observed during conventional therapy, even in a group of severely impaired stroke patients. Therefore, the proposed BCI system could be a suitable therapy option and will be further assessed in clinical trials.

Download Full-text

Therapeutic Efficacy of Hyperbaric Oxygen on the Severe Acute Mountain Sickness Complicated with MODS

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.140.238 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 140 ◽

pp. 238-243

Author(s):

Qi Quan Zhou ◽

Xue Feng Zhang ◽

Ren Zeng Ciwang ◽

Qiang Zhou ◽

Yong Fan

Keyword(s):

Treatment Group ◽

Hyperbaric Oxygen ◽

Conventional Therapy ◽

Oxygen Therapy ◽

Therapy Group ◽

Acute Mountain Sickness ◽

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment ◽

Oxygen Treatment ◽

Before And After ◽

Mountain Sickness

Objective: To observe the treatment effects of hyperbaric oxygen on severe acute mountain sickness (ASHS) integrated with multiple organ dysfunction syndromes (MODS). Methods: 2006-2010 admitted to two hospitals in the Tibetan Plateau, 66 cases of patients who got the severe acute mountain sickness complicated by MODS were divided into two groups, 28 cases in the conventional therapy group, 38 cases in hyperbaric oxygen treatment therapy group, oxygen therapy, the conventional therapy concluded oxygen therapy, the treatment of primary disease and enhance the support for treatment of metabolic; hyperbaric oxygen group (was) on the basis of conventional therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy was used, the clinical effect of those two groups were compared with; with measured the before and after treatment blood levels of cytokines, to investigate the therapeutic mechanism of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Results: The efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen treatment group and the treatment time are better than the conventional treatment group, hyperbaric oxygen treatment significantly reduced TNF, IL-6, IL-8 levels, and there is a significant difference between before and after treatment. Conclusion: the method of Hyperbaric oxygen for acute high altitude mountain disease complicated with MODS is reliable and had notable curative effect.

Download Full-text

Binocular treatment in adult amblyopia is based on parvocellular or magnocellular pathway

European Journal of Ophthalmology ◽

10.1177/1120672119841216 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 658-667 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Liu Shuai ◽

Zou Leilei ◽

Wen Wen ◽

Wang Shu ◽

Liu Gangsheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Acuity ◽

Perceptual Learning ◽

Contrast Sensitivity ◽

Critical Period ◽

Magnocellular Pathway ◽

Strabismic Amblyopia ◽

Anisometropic Amblyopia ◽

Before And After

Introduction: Amblyopia is speculated to be an untreatable disease in the patient, who is beyond the critical period of vision; however, currently, it is treatable in adults. Purpose: This study aimed to elucidate whether the treatment is useful in both anisometropic amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia. In addition, the differences were detected between anisometropic amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia after the same perceptual treatment and whether the suppression in anisometropic amblyopia or strabismic amblyopia could be decreased before and after the treatment. Methods: A binocular perceptual learning was applied for the treatment, the suppression was measured, and the patients were followed up for 2 months after training. Anisometropic amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia groups were subjected to the assessment of stereo, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and suppression before and after the training. Results: After 6 weeks of “Diploma Gabor Orientation Coherence” training, in the anisometropic amblyopia group, the outcomes of visual acuity (t = 3.114, p = 0.026) and contrast sensitivity (t = 7.786, p = 0.001) were increased significantly. While in the strabismic amblyopia group, the outcomes of stereo (t = 2.987, p = 0.040) and contrast sensitivity (t = 3.638, p = 0.022) were increased significantly. Conclusion: After Diploma Gabor Orientation Coherence training in the same frequency and in the same duration, the anisometropic amblyopia group got an improvement in visual acuity, but the strabismic amblyopia group got an improvement in stereo. As there are evidences to show that anisometropic amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia were injured in different pathways, we think the diverse results might come from the different pathway injury in anisometropic amblyopia and strabismic amblyopia.

Download Full-text