scholarly journals Seasonal Pattern of Epileptic Seizures: A Single-Center Experience

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Alexandratou ◽  
A. Verentzioti ◽  
A. Siatouni ◽  
A. Alexoudi ◽  
D. Gkougka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Seasonal Fluctuation ◽  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Tertiary Hospital ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
One Year

Purpose: To evaluate the seasonal fluctuation of epileptic seizures during one year. Methods: This was a single centre retrospective observational study. Demographic data, number and type of epileptic seizures were collected and analyzed using a dataset from the outpatient epilepsy clinic of a tertiary hospital, during one year. The statistical tools included descriptive statistics, contingency tables, Chi-square of goodness-of-fit tests, and general linear models. Results: In total, 143 consecutive patients were included in the study. Among the patients, 72 were women and 71 men. In total, 1,351 epileptic seizures were recorded during one year. A significantly higher rate of epileptic seizures during spring and summer was revealed. An association between the type of epileptic seizure and the month of the year was recorded. Specifically, focal seizures with impairment of awareness fluctuate throughout the year, with a sudden peak during June. Significance: Epidemiologic data regarding epilepsy seasonality have so far received only limited attention. In our study, a seasonal pattern was recorded on the occurrence of epileptic seizures. Further research combining different weather conditions and environments is needed to fully characterize the seasonality of epilepsy.

Seasonal Changes in Affective State Measured Prospectively and Retrospectively

1996 ◽  
Vol 168 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kausar Nayyar ◽  
Raymond Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Seasonal Fluctuation ◽  
Clinical Population ◽  
Psychosocial Stressors ◽  
Seasonal Effect ◽  
The Difference ◽  
One Year ◽  
Assessment Questionnaire

BackgroundThe study was designed to investigate whether seasonal mood and behavioural changes are detectable prospectively in a non-clinical population in the way they have been reported in retrospective studies. The specificity of any seasonal fluctuation in affective state was also investigated by measuring anxiety as well as depression.MethodTo measure seasonal fluctuations in affect and behaviour prospectively, 25 women were interviewed every month for one year using four scales (depression, anxiety, stress, and behavioural change). Retrospective accounts of mood and behaviour at the end of the year were collected with the Seasonal Pattern and Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ).ResultsSeasonal depression peaked in winter as did atypical behaviour when measured either prospectively or retrospectively, but the difference between winter and summer was much more pronounced in the retrospective data. No seasonal effect was found for anxiety or psychosocial stressors.ConclusionsThe results obtained by retrospective techniques have limited reliability. In future, more prospective studies with unbiased, standardised instruments are recommended to measure seasonal variations in affect and behaviour.

scholarly journals A Neurologist’s Hard Day’s Work: Impact of Inpatient Neurology Consultation in a Tertiary Hospital

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Rocha ◽  
Ana Monteiro ◽  
Tiago Gomes ◽  
Miguel Grilo ◽  
Marta Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Data ◽  
Tertiary Hospital ◽  
Similar Proportion ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Focal Neurological Deficit ◽  
Altered Mental State ◽  
One Year ◽  
New Diagnosis ◽  
Work Impact ◽  
Management Changes

<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> Consultation of hospitalized patients under the responsibility of other specialties is a very demanding work. However, it is often under-recognized and poorly documented. The aim of the present study was to assess the burden of the inpatient neurology consultation in a Portuguese hospital and to evaluate the performance of our Neurology department regarding this issue.<br />Material and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted during 2013, reviewing clinical and demographic data.<br /><strong>Results:</strong> Over one year, the neurologists of our department evaluated 632 inpatients. The commonest reasons for consultation were altered mental state/behavior, focal neurological deficit and seizures. Requests came mainly from medical departments but also from Intermediate and Intensive Care Units. Neurologists suggested further investigation in almost one half of patients and management changes in a similar proportion of patients. A new diagnosis could be established in 63% of cases and the most frequent diagnosis were neurological manifestations of systemic disorders, epilepsy and cerebrovascular disease. Our intervention had impact on the care of 68% of patients.<br /><strong>Discussion and Conclusion:</strong> Different studies in the literature support our findings and highlight the economic and patient care benefits of this activity. Our results suggest that neurological inpatient observation generates useful interventions for the clinical management of these patients.</p>

scholarly journals A Neurologist’s Hard Day’s Work: Impact of Inpatient Neurology Consultation in a Tertiary Hospital

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Helena Rocha ◽  
Ana Monteiro ◽  
Tiago Gomes ◽  
Miguel Grilo ◽  
Marta Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Data ◽  
Tertiary Hospital ◽  
Similar Proportion ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Focal Neurological Deficit ◽  
Altered Mental State ◽  
One Year ◽  
New Diagnosis ◽  
Work Impact ◽  
Management Changes

<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> Consultation of hospitalized patients under the responsibility of other specialties is a very demanding work. However, it is often under-recognized and poorly documented. The aim of the present study was to assess the burden of the inpatient neurology consultation in a Portuguese hospital and to evaluate the performance of our Neurology department regarding this issue.<br />Material and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted during 2013, reviewing clinical and demographic data.<br /><strong>Results:</strong> Over one year, the neurologists of our department evaluated 632 inpatients. The commonest reasons for consultation were altered mental state/behavior, focal neurological deficit and seizures. Requests came mainly from medical departments but also from Intermediate and Intensive Care Units. Neurologists suggested further investigation in almost one half of patients and management changes in a similar proportion of patients. A new diagnosis could be established in 63% of cases and the most frequent diagnosis were neurological manifestations of systemic disorders, epilepsy and cerebrovascular disease. Our intervention had impact on the care of 68% of patients.<br /><strong>Discussion and Conclusion:</strong> Different studies in the literature support our findings and highlight the economic and patient care benefits of this activity. Our results suggest that neurological inpatient observation generates useful interventions for the clinical management of these patients.</p>

Diabetes admissions in a tertiary hospital: A one year review

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olubukola Ojo ◽  
Olalekan Ojo ◽  
Adebola Omosehin ◽  
Kayode Oluwatusa ◽  
Sulaeman Okoro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tertiary Hospital ◽  
One Year

scholarly journals Performance Evaluation of Neural Network-Based Short-Term Solar Irradiation Forecasts

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3030
Author(s):  
Simon Liebermann ◽  
Jung-Sup Um ◽  
YoungSeok Hwang ◽  
Stephan Schlüter
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Solar Irradiation ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Lstm Network ◽  
The Time Domain

Due to the globally increasing share of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, precise forecasts for weather data are becoming more and more important. To compute such forecasts numerous authors apply neural networks (NN), whereby models became ever more complex recently. Using solar irradiation as an example, we verify if this additional complexity is required in terms of forecasting precision. Different NN models, namely the long-short term (LSTM) neural network, a convolutional neural network (CNN), and combinations of both are benchmarked against each other. The naive forecast is included as a baseline. Various locations across Europe are tested to analyze the models’ performance under different climate conditions. Forecasts up to 24 h in advance are generated and compared using different goodness of fit (GoF) measures. Besides, errors are analyzed in the time domain. As expected, the error of all models increases with rising forecasting horizon. Over all test stations it shows that combining an LSTM network with a CNN yields the best performance. However, regarding the chosen GoF measures, differences to the alternative approaches are fairly small. The hybrid model’s advantage lies not in the improved GoF but in its versatility: contrary to an LSTM or a CNN, it produces good results under all tested weather conditions.

scholarly journals Ventriculitis: a severe complication of central nervous system infections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Luque-Paz ◽  
Matthieu Revest ◽  
François Eugène ◽  
Sarrah Boukthir ◽  
Loren Dejoies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Abscess ◽  
Behavior Disorder ◽  
Severe Complication ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Neurosurgical Procedures ◽  
Imaging Features ◽  
Neurological Sequelae ◽  
Single Centre Study ◽  
One Year ◽  
Gait Disturbances

Abstract Background Ventriculitis, a dreaded complication of brain abscess, meningitis, and various neurosurgical procedures, has attracted limited attention in the medical literature. Methods Retrospective single-centre study. We screened medical files of all patients who had a brain imaging report including the word “ventriculitis” during years 2005-2019. Only patients with clinical, microbiological and imaging features of ventriculitis were included. Data were collected through a standardized questionnaire. Results Ninety-eight patients fulfilled inclusion criteria: 42 women and 56 men, median age 60 years [interquartile range 48-68]. Primary mechanism for ventriculitis was classified as follows: brain abscess (n=29, 29.6%), meningitis (n=27, 27.6%), intraventricular catheter-related (n=17, 17.3%), post-neurosurgery (n=13, 13.3%), and hematogenous (n=12, 12.2%). Main neuroimaging features were intraventricular pus (n=81, 82.7%), ependymal enhancement (n=70, 71.4%) and intraventricular loculations (n=15, 15.3%). Main pathogens were streptococci (n=44, 44.9%), Gram-negative bacilli (n=27, 27.6%), and staphylococci (n=15, 15.3%). In-hospital and one-year mortality rates were, respectively, 30.6% (n=30), and 38.8% (n=38). Neurological sequelae were reported in 34/55 (61.8%) survivors, including cognitive impairment (n=11), gait disturbances (n=9), paresis (n=7), behavior disorder (n=6), epilepsy (n=5). On multivariate analysis, age &gt; 65 years, Glasgow Coma Scale score &lt; 13 at initial presentation, status epilepticus, hydrocephalus and positive cerebrospinal fluid culture were associated with one-year mortality. We built a scoring system to stratify patients with ventriculitis into low-risk (12.5%), intermediate-risk (36.5%), and high-risk (71.4%) of death. Conclusion Ventriculitis is a severe complication of brain abscess, meningitis, or neurosurgery, with in-hospital mortality rate of 30%, and neurological sequelae in 60% of survivors.

scholarly journals How combining different caries lesions characteristics may be helpful in short-term caries progression prediction: model development on occlusal surfaces of primary teeth

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Floriano ◽  
Elizabeth Souza Rocha ◽  
Ronilza Matos ◽  
Juliana Mattos-Silveira ◽  
Kim Rud Ekstrand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Primary Teeth ◽  
Clinical Parameters ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Caries Lesion ◽  
Occlusal Surfaces ◽  
Caries Progression ◽  
One Year ◽  
Caries Lesions ◽  
Cavitated Lesions

Abstract Background Few studies have addressed the clinical parameters' predictive power related to caries lesion associated with their progression. This study assessed the predictive validity and proposed simplified models to predict short-term caries progression using clinical parameters related to caries lesion activity status. Methods The occlusal surfaces of primary molars, presenting no frank cavitation, were examined according to the following clinical predictors: colour, luster, cavitation, texture, and clinical depth. After one year, children were re-evaluated using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System to assess caries lesion progression. Progression was set as the outcome to be predicted. Univariate multilevel Poisson models were fitted to test each of the independent variables (clinical features) as predictors of short-term caries progression. The multimodel inference was made based on the Akaike Information Criteria and C statistic. Afterwards, plausible interactions among some of the variables were tested in the models to evaluate the benefit of combining these variables when assessing caries lesions. Results 205 children (750 surfaces) presented no frank cavitations at the baseline. After one year, 147 children were reassessed (70%). Finally, 128 children (733 surfaces) presented complete baseline data and had included primary teeth to be reassessed. Approximately 9% of the reassessed surfaces showed caries progression. Among the univariate models created with each one of these variables, the model containing the surface integrity as a predictor had the lowest AIC (364.5). Univariate predictive models tended to present better goodness-of-fit (AICs < 388) and discrimination (C:0.959–0.966) than those combining parameters (AIC:365–393, C:0.958–0.961). When only non-cavitated surfaces were considered, roughness compounded the model that better predicted the lesions' progression (AIC = 217.7, C:0.91). Conclusions Univariate model fitted considering the presence of cavitation show the best predictive goodness-of-fit and discrimination. For non-cavitated lesions, the simplest way to predict those lesions that tend to progress is by assessing enamel roughness. In general, the evaluation of other conjoint parameters seems unnecessary for all non-frankly cavitated lesions.

scholarly journals Patient characteristics predict patency of early-cannulation arteriovenous grafts

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Kingsmore ◽  
Karen S. Stevenson ◽  
S. Richarz ◽  
Andrej Isaak ◽  
Andrew Jackson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Disease ◽  
Peripheral Vascular Disease ◽  
Vascular Access ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Peripheral Vascular ◽  
Arteriovenous Grafts ◽  
One Year

AbstractThere is a new emphasis on tailoring appropriate vascular access for hemodialysis to patients and their life-plans, but there is little known about the optimal use of newer devices such as early-cannulation arteriovenous grafts (ecAVG), with studies utilising them in a wide variety of situations. The aim of this study was to determine if the outcome of ecAVG can be predicted by patient characteristics known pre-operatively. This retrospective analysis of 278 consecutive ecAVG with minimum one-year follow-up correlated functional patency with demographic data, renal history, renal replacement and vascular access history. On univariate analysis, aetiology of renal disease, indication for an ecAVG, the number of previous tunnelled central venous catheters (TCVC) prior to insertion of an ecAVG, peripheral vascular disease, and BMI were significant associates with functional patency. On multivariate analysis the number of previous TCVC, the presence of peripheral vascular disease and indication were independently associated with outcome after allowing for age, sex and BMI. When selecting for vascular access, understanding the clinical circumstances such as indication and previous vascular access can identify patients with differing outcomes. Importantly, strategies that result in TCVC exposure have an independent and cumulative association with decreasing long-term patency for subsequent ecAVG. As such, TCVC exposure is best avoided or minimised particularly when ecAVG can be considered.

Prevalence of Hyponatremia and Its Associated Morbimortality in Hospitalized Patients Receiving Parenteral Nutrition

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Gómez-Hoyos ◽  
Martín Cuesta ◽  
Nayade Del Prado-González ◽  
Pilar Matía ◽  
Natalia Pérez-Ferre ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Parenteral Nutrition ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Tertiary Hospital ◽  
Hospital Length ◽  
Hospitalized Patients ◽  
Hospital Length Of Stay ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Comorbidity Index

Background: The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of hyponatremia (HN) and its associated morbimortality in hospitalized patients receiving parenteral nutrition (PN). Methods: A retrospective study including 222 patients receiving total PN (parenteral nutrition group [PNG]) over a 7-month period in a tertiary hospital and 176 matched to 179 control subjects without PN (control subjects group [CSG]). Demographic data, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), date of HN detection-(serum sodium or SNa <135 mmol/L)-intrahospital mortality, and hospital length-of-stay (LOS) were registered. In the PNG, body mass index (BMI) and SNa before, during, and after PN were recorded. Results: HN was more prevalent in the PNG: 52.8 vs. 35.8% (p = 0.001), and independent of age, gender, or CCI (OR 1.8 [95% CI 1.1-2.8], p = 0.006). In patients on PN, sustained HN (75% of all intraindividual SNa <135 mmol/L) was associated with a higher mortality rate independent of age, gender, CCI, or BMI (OR 7.38 [95% CI 1.07-50.8], p = 0.042). The absence of HN in PN patients was associated with a shorter hospital LOS (<30 days) and was independent of other comorbidities (OR 3.89 [95% CI 2.11-7.18], p = 0.001). Conclusions: HN is more prevalent in patients on PN. Sustained HN is associated with a higher intrahospital mortality rate. Absence of HN is associated with a shorter hospital LOS.

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