Is Alcohol Harmful for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis?

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-mediated, inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that affects both thebrain and spinal cord. The cause of MS is not fully understood, but the disease is believed to relate to an abnormal immune response in individuals who are genetically predisposed.

Multiple Sclerosis

An association of personal predisposition and environmental conditions may result in immune-mediated inflammation of the CNS and culminate in neuronal loss. The disease usually manifests in bouts of neurological disabilities and later progresses to dysfunction of many areas of the CNS. It can affect motor and sensory functions, coordination, cognition, and vision and sphincter control. It is often associated with fatigue, pain, depression, and anxiety and sleep disorders, thus leading to considerable personal, social and economic losses. Lifestyle/environmental factors may have an important role in determining the risk of MS. These are harder to accurately study and quantify than are genetic factors. However, it is important to identify these potential determinants of risk and worse outcomes in MS, since they are potentially preventable. Depression, anxiety disorders, social withdrawal and cognitive deficits often affect the quality of life of patients with MS. Chronic diseases like MS may negatively affect friendships and family relations. Read more>>>>>>>>>

Supporting Elderly Patients at Risk in Hospital Environments

Consistently low birth rates and higher life expectancy lead towards an older population structure in Western countries. In Europe, the proportion of people 65 years and older increased from 16.6% in 2005 to 18.9% in 2015, with Germany, Italy and Greece having the highest share of people 65 years and olderin the total population.

The median age of the total population also increased by about 4 years from 2005 to 2015 so that the proportion of older people will increase strongly in the future. Especially the proportion of very old people 80 years and older is rising due to better living standards, lifestyles and education, as well as rapid progress in healthcare and medicine so that it is expected to more than double from 5.3% in 2015 to 10.9% in 2050. Consequently, hospitals are confronted with an increasing number of older patients, which have been shown to exhibit an increased risk of adverse outcomes during and after the hospital stay compared to younger patients. An important factor contributing to this increased risk of adverse outcomes is that many old patients suffer from multi morbidity, defined as the coexistence of 2 or more chronic disease conditions. To know more>>>>>>>>

Association of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Gene Snps G196A and C270T with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Meta-Analysis

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common age-associated neurodegenerative disorder, clinically characterized by progressive memory disorder and decline in cognitive function, which typically begins with dementia.

Alzheimers Disease 

The number of people with AD worldwide in 2006 was estimated at 26.6 million and is predicted to nearly quadruple by 2050. The key pathological changes associated with AD brain tissue are the accumulation of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and abnormally aggregated ‘reactive’ proteins like β amyloid (Aβ) plaques and tau. Several elements, such as senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), abnormally aggregated ‘reactive’ proteins like β amyloid (Aβ) and tau, brain inflammation and exposure to aluminum has already shown the development of AD. Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is supposed to be one of the important genes, playing a significant role in AD progression. However, as a complex disorder, the neuropathological etiology of AD mentioned above are not due to the gene itself, but are also supposed to be associated with the combined interaction between genes and environmental factors. Read more>>>>>>>>

Technology to Take Care of Autism

The global prevalence of autism has increased twenty to thirty fold with in last 5 decades due to change of diagnostic criteria, increased awareness and biopsychosocial transformation. It is a global phenomenon that affects people of all strata from developed and developing countries.

Autism

However, the developing countries are affected more severely by this rapid escalation of this disease due to their lack of preparedness, resources and various other sociocultural problems. Among the developing countries Bangladesh is making a remarkable contribution in autism awareness and the country has already established herself as the role model for the low and middle income countries. Existing literatures reported about 2 to 8.4 children per thousand are suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder in this country. However, none of these data was extracted from a nationwide sample and few other studies have major methodological concern and inconsistency that prevent them from citing in this article. Read more>>>>>>> 

Outcome of Palliative Single Posterior Reconstruction Surgery for Metastatic Spinal Tumor

Metastatic spinal tumor has been reported to occur in approximately 30% of cancer patients. The distribution of lesions is 10% in cervical spine, 20% in lumbar spine and 70% in thoracic spine. Five percent of metastatic spinal tumor is reportedto cause epidural compression, giving rise to clinical symptoms such asparalysis and pain. These symptoms can lead to deterioration of patients’ daily activities. The therapeutic choice for these patients should be based on clinical information such as the extent of metastasis, degree of malignancy, general condition of the patient, and estimated life expectancy.

Tokuhashi et al. reported a scoring system for pre-operative evaluation of prognosis of metastatic spine tumor. In their paper, prognosis evaluation was based on the opinion of oncologist and the pre-operative prognostic score. They suggested that excisional procedures are indicated in patients with a total score from their scoring system of 12 or more (predicted survival period, 1 year or longer), while conservative or palliative procedures are indicated on patients with a total score of 8 or less (predicted survival period, less than 6 months). Tomita et al. also described a scoring system, with corresponding treatment proposals, for patients with spinal metastasis. It was based on three prognostic factors: (1) grade of malignancy, (2) presence of visceral metastasis, and (3) presence of bone metastases. Their strategy for each patient was decided along with treatment goal: a wide or marginal excision for long-term local control, marginal or intralesional excision for medium-term local control, palliative surgery for short-term palliation, and non-operative supportive care.(Read More)

Can Enforced Behavioral Activity in Spinal Cord Injured Rats be considered as Rehabilitation Process to Accentuate Tacrolimus Treated Recovery? A nursing Care Perspective

Experimental studies using suitable animal models for spinal cord injury (SCI) help to simulate clinical conditions as observed in humans and play an important role to understand the pathophysiology of the disease and to develop effective treatment modalities. To date no satisfactory drug treatment or other methodsof interventions like physiotherapeutically related rehabilitation process havebeen designed to repair the traumatically injured spinal cord in humans. The aim of the present study is to understand the behavioral recovery that often occurs following the initial primary injury, and to develop suitable rehabilitative intervention including pharmacological agent to enhance improved sensory and motor function. Furthermore, this research intends to bring awareness among the nurses working in general wards, specialized wards, and occupational health set-ups, to understand the need to show their passion for SCI patient’s care by exploring and learning standardized and improvised rehabilitation methods to manage and practice effective nursing caring skills for SCI patients.

Tacrolimus (also known as FK506), a macrolide lactane antibiotic, was introduced as an immunosuppressive agent with virtually no side effects. Tacrolimus, a potent calcineurin inhibitor exhibits neuroprotection actions in several experimental models of central nervous system trauma, including stroke and improved neurological recovery following peripheral and spinal cord injuries. However, some side effects from oral and intravenous administration of Tacrolimus in clinical case studies have been reported which include nephrotoxicity, lung damage, various neuropsychiatric problems, neurotoxic effects such as akinetic mutism and catatonic mutism. On the contrary, in experimental studies, Tacrolimus improves the functional outcome of spinal cord injury and has an in vivo neurotrophic action whereby it enhances the rate of axon regeneration leading to more rapid neurological recovery.(Read more)

Capillaries, Old Age and Alzheimer’s Disease

Diminished blood flow to the brain and other organ systems may result from an impaired microcirculation due to pathological changes in the capillaries or reduced numbers of capillaries. The former are reflected in twisting, kinking, andlooping of capillaries in the cerebral cortex. Whether these changes progress to reduced capillary numbers by cellular atrophy has not been demonstrated and is not considered further here. However, the widespread reduced capillary density (CD) found in aged animals and people has been correlated with diminished levels of angiogenic growth factors (AGFs).

The association between CD and AGFs during old age is the focus of this essay, which advances two ideas. 1) The reduced CD of old age may be the main, primary cause of many symptoms and signs of the elderly, i.e., the ‘lesser ailments of aging’. 2) A reduced CD may also be an underlying, secondary condition for other diseases associated with aging and may facilitate the action of factors postulated to cause them -- e.g. amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, etc. of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Lewy bodies, proposed malfunctioning mitochondria, etc. of Parkinson’s disease (PD).