1,721,046 research outputs found
Allodynia in migraine: frequent random association or unavoidable consequence?
No full textAllodynia, the perception of pain induced by a non-painful stimulus, is frequently associated with migraine, especially when chronic, and mainly in the aura subtype. Among migraineurs, allodynia is thought to be caused by the headache and the activation of nociceptors with the development of central sensitization in subjects with an altered regulation of the central nociceptive pathway. The persistence of pain sensation seems to be able to induce central sensitization in the caudal nucleus of the trigeminal nerve by lowering the neuronal pain threshold. Different pathogenetic mechanisms may be involved and genetic, environmental and psychological elements should be considered. The complaint of allodynia is more frequent during the headache attack (acute allodynia) than in-between attacks (interictal allodynia). Acute allodynia is generally referred to the painful region but may diffuse to other areas, cephalic or even extracephalic. Extracephalic allodynia could not be mediated by nucleus caudalis as its neurons do not express whole-body receptive fields. The likely mechanism is thalamic sensitization. This symptom must be carefully assessed because it may be as annoying and limiting in daily activities as pain itself, and because its presence seems to reduce the efficacy of drugs used for migraine attacks. Instrumental measures may be applied, and clinical questionnaires to assess the presence of allodynic symptoms have also been developed and validated
Low dose-topiramate-induced acute bilateral reversible glaucoma : a case report
No full textOBJECTIVE: To report possible rapid onset adverse events with low-dose topiramate BACKGROUND: Topiramate is an antiepileptic drug, also useful for migraine prophylaxis. Topiramate effects on ocular pressure are well known, generally linked to preexistent glaucoma and in most cases in a dose dependent way. DESIGN/METHODS: We observed the clinical evolution of visual disturbances appeared after 3 days of 25 mg topiramate daily intake in a young female migraineur RESULTS: After three days of assumption of a 25mg daily dose of topiramate for migraine prevention, previously non responding to amitriptyline, a 25 year-old caucasian woman developed, in about 12 hours, acute bilateral severe visual loss. She was unable to distinguish familial faces and to count fingers in both eyes. Intraocular pressure was 30 mm and 31 mm of Hg respectively in left and right eye. Conjunctival chemosis and corneal edema were present. A bilateral closed angle was found on gonioscopy. After three days therapy discontinuation, a quite complete resolution of the visual impairment was observed. Intraocular pressure after 24 hours discontinuation of topiramate was bilaterally 15mm of Hg, without any antiglaucoma therapy. After three days, visual acuity was normalized and conjunctival and corneal aspect was normal, such as ocular pressure. CONCLUSIONS/RELEVANCE: Topiramate is generally well tolerated, with only mild cognitive disturbances and, more often, mild-moderate paresthesias. Its effect on vision, causing an acute angle closure glaucoma with myopic visual disturbances, is well known, but generally this adverse event appears less quickly. Many cases occured within 2 weeks since the starting of the therapy. We have not found any other case in which symptoms appeared after only three days of treatment at 25mg dose per day and so severely. Patients treated with topiramate need to be cautioned about this potential, even uncommon side effect, and when the problem appears, the prophilaxys need to be discontinuated
Personality profile and allodynic migraine
No full textMigraine is known to be associated to particular psychological features. Cutaneous allodynia is a painful sensation or discomfort induced by a non-noxious stimulus, and is a frequent complaint during migraine attacks. The aim of this study was to compare the personality profile of allodynic and non-allodynic migraineurs to identify possible relationships between psychological aspects and the presence of allodynia. The Symptom Check List 90-R (SCL90R), a 90-item self-report psychological symptom inventory, was used to investigate the psychological profile of our patients. The presence of allodynia was assessed by a set of semi-structured questions that investigated if the patient experienced abnormal scalp sensitiveness and/or discomfort during headache episodes. Twenty-five nonallodynic patients and 38 allodynic migraineurs were studied. No significant difference was found between the two groups in any area of the personality profile. The psychological profile seems not to affect the presence/absence of cutaneous allodynia in migraine patients. This reinforces the hypothesis that allodynia is a "somatic" symptom, not modified by psychological aspects
A semi quantitative sport-specific assessment of recurrent traumatic brain injury: the TraQ questionnaire and its application in American football
No full textChronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is very frequent and studied among contact sport players, above all American Football. Now, the defined diagnosis is only post-mortem and, consequently, more detailed diagnostic in-vivo instruments are needed to facilitate diagnosis and to allow a follow up. This clinical questionnaire (Trauma Questionnaire-TraQ) has been designed to investigate in parallel the traumatic load and clinical and cognitive subjective symptoms. It evaluates 4 anamnestic fields (specific sport activity, all previous pathological events, clinical manifestations compatible with TBI (traumatic brain injury) or CTE and subjective perception of personal memory efficacy with PRMQ questionnaire). The aim of TraQ questionnaire is to allow a standardized follow-up of active players and to identify subclinical disturbances that may become warnings. A pilot comparative study with TraQ on 105 subjects (75 AF players and 30 comparable people without a history of contact-sports activity) revealed that AF players have an increased amount of severe head trauma, an amplified level of subjective aggressiveness, more olfactory deficits but also more speech subjective problems, previously never related with CTE. In view of the obtained results, the TraQ seems to be useful (1) to obtain a better quantification of the traumatic load; (2) to differentiate the risk of long-term neurological consequences, allowing better management of different athletes right from the pre-symptomatic phases; (3) to manage prevention strategies if regularly applied to periodic visits to sports fitness; and (4) to identify the predisposing factors for the development of CTE and other neurological consequences of TBI with follow-up studies
Fluctuating position-related cognitive disturbances and recurrent cerebral ischemic attacks as presenting symptoms in a patient with platypnea-orthodeoxya syndrome
Get PDFPlatypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome is a condition of dyspnea and hypoxia whilst in the upright position, which improves in the recumbent position. We present a case of platypnea-orthodeoxia due to a fenestrated atrial septal aneurysm that induced recurrent strokes and a recent condition of fluctuating confusion and cognitive impairment, modified by position, associated with rapid variations of O2 saturation position related. The suspect of platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome may be hypothesized in case of patients with recurrent cerebral ischemia and fluctuating cognitive disturbances induced by change of position. In those cases a careful echocardiographic evaluation and O2 saturation determination in up and downright position are required
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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