Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Hydrocephalus Revealed by Relapsing Bilateral Fourth Cranial Nerve Palsy

Introduction: Uni- or bi-lateral fourth cranial nerve palsy due to hydrocephalus and/or after VPS placement is a very rare oculomotor manifestation. We report a case of relapsing bilateral fourth nerve palsies demonstrating recurring hydrocephalus. We reviewed the literature (table1) in order to inform the clinician about the clinical assessment, the past medical history and the radiological findings that prompt research for this peculiar entity and to avoid misdiagnoses like palsies of the sixth cranial nerve. Diagnosis, intervention and outcome: The patient presented with recurrence of diplopia in reading position, partially resolved after a second VPS placement. A diagnosis of bilateral fourth nerves palsies was done after complete neuro-ophthalmological evaluation. A close follow-up demonstrated fluctuating level of diplopia by changing VPS valve resistance. An optimal placement of the VPS offered reduction and stability of diplopia. A final strabismus surgery was necessary to obtain complete symptoms release.</jats:p

Multiple subpial transections and magnetic resonance imaging.

INTRODUCTION: Multiple subpial transection (MST) has been applied to the treatment of refractory epilepsy when epileptogenic zone involves eloquent areas since 1989. However, there is a lack of data evaluating the effect of this surgical technique on the cortex as measured by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ten consecutive patients (3F/7M, average age: 18.5 years) were operated on using radiating MST (average: 39; min: 19, max: 61) alone (n=3) or associated with another technique (n=7). Seven patients underwent a post-operative 3.0T MRI while 3 had a 1.5T MRI. Three patients had an early post-operative MRI and 7 a late MRI, among which 3 previously had an intraoperative MRI. RESULTS: The MR sequences that allowed the best assessment of MST-induced changes were T2 and T2*. The traces of MST are more visible on late MRI. These discrete non-complicated stigmas of MST were observed in all 10 studied patients: on the intraoperative MRI they are seen as micro-hemorrhagic spots (hypo-T2), on the early postoperative MRI as a discreet and limited cortical edema whether associated or not with micro-hemorrhagic spots and on the late MRI as liquid micro-cavities (hyper-T2) surrounded with a fine border of hemosiderin. CONCLUSIONS: MST-induced cerebral lesions are best visualized in T2-sequences, mainly on the late postoperatively MRIs. On all the MRI examinations in this study, the MST are only associated with limited modifications of the treated cortical regions

Outcome of Patients with Surgical Site Infection after Craniotomy.

BACKGROUND: The management of surgical site infection (SSI) after craniotomy remains challenging with few existing recommendations. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the medical files of patients who underwent surgery between 2009 and 2018 to manage infection after craniotomy at our tertiary hospital. The Cox proportional hazards model and the Renyi test were used to investigate the association between relapse or all-cause mortality and selected variables. We compared infections with and without intra-cranial involvement using the Fisher test and the Wilcoxon rank sum test. RESULTS: Seventy-seven episodes of infection were identified in 58 patients. The proportion of relapse was estimated to be 32.2% (± standard deviation [SD] 6.9) at five years. Intra-cranial infection was present in 15.6% of the cases (n = 12). Bone flap was removed in the majority of cases (93.5%) and the overall median duration of antibiotic therapy was six weeks (interquartile range [IQR] 6-12 weeks). Staphylococcus aureus was associated with a higher risk of relapse (p = 0.037). The administration of parenteral antibiotic agents (p = 0.012) and bone flap removal (p = 0.0051) were correlated with less relapse. In contrast, immunosuppressive drug use and radiotherapy were correlated with a higher risk of relapse (p = 0.014 and p = 0.031, respectively) and a higher all-cause mortality (p = 0.0093 and p < 0.0001, respectively). We found no difference between infections with and without intra-cranial involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Bone flap removal and parenteral antibiotic agents remain important in the management of SSI after craniotomy and were associated with less relapse in our study. More studies are needed to better determine the optimal treatment of this infection

Blind source separation analysis of the LFPs recorded from the insula and elicited by nociceptive, tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli delivered to the contralateral hemibody.

<p>PICA was used to isolate the contribution of multimodal and modality-specific neural activities. The displayed waveforms correspond to the global field amplitude of the ICs, backprojected onto the electrode contacts, as a function of time. LFPs elicited by nociceptive and non-nociceptive stimuli (global field amplitude of the original signal: black waveform) can be almost entirely explained by multimodal sources of activity (yellow). A small amount of somatosensory-specific activity (cyan) also contributes to both the nociceptive and vibrotactile LFPs, in particular, those recorded from the posterior insula. Not a single nociceptive-specific component (red) is identified. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/4R7PM" target="_blank">10.17605/OSF.IO/4R7PM</a>.</p

Additional clinical value of voxel-based morphometric MRI post-processing for MRI-negative epilepsies: a prospective study.

Magnetic resonance imaging is of paramount importance in the presurgical evaluation of drug resistant epilepsy. Detection of a potentially epileptogenic lesion significantly improves seizure outcome after surgery. To optimize the detection of subtle lesions, MRI post-processing techniques may be of essential help. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the detection rate of the voxel-based morphometric analysis program (MAP) in a prospective trial. We aimed to study the MAP+ findings in terms of their clinical value in the decision-making process of the presurgical evaluation. We included, prospectively, 21 patients who had negative MRI by visual analysis. In a first step, results of the conventional non-invasive presurgical evaluation were discussed, blinded to the MAP results, in multidisciplinary patient management conferences to determine the possible seizure onset zone and to set surgical or invasive evaluation plans. Thereafter, MAP results were presented, and the change of initial clinical plan was recorded. All MAP detections were reaffirmed by a neuroradiologist with epilepsy expertise. For the 21 patients included, mean age at the time of patient management conference was 26 years (SD 15 +/- years, range: 5-54 years). In total, 4/21 had temporal lobe epilepsy and 17/21 had extra-temporal lobe epilepsy. MAP was positive in 10/21 (47%) patients and in 6/10 (60%) a diagnosis of focal cortical dysplasia was confirmed after neuroradiologist review, corresponding to a 28% detection rate. MAP+ findings had a clear impact on the initial management in 7/10 patients (7/21, 33% of all patients), which included an adaptation of the intracranial EEG plan (6/7 patients), or the decision to proceed directly to surgery (1/7 patients). MRI post-processing using the MAP method yielded an increased detection rate of 28% for subtle dysplastic lesions in a prospective cohort of MRI-negative patients, indicating its potential value in epilepsy presurgical evaluation

Experimental procedure.

<p>Nociceptive stimuli (N) were brief pulses of radiant heat applied to the hand dorsum using a temperature-controlled CO₂ laser. This ensured that the elicited brain responses were exclusively related to the activation of heat-sensitive nociceptors. Tactile stimuli (T) were short-lasting mechanical vibrations delivered to the index fingertip, so as to selectively activate low-threshold mechanoreceptors of the medial lemniscal system. Auditory stimuli (A) were loud, lateralized short-lasting tones delivered through earphones. Visual stimuli (V) were brief, bright, and punctate flashes of light delivered using a light-emitting diode (LED) placed on the hand dorsum. The different stimuli were presented in blocks, using a long-lasting and variable interstimulus interval (5–10 s), so as to maximize their salience.</p

Linear CSD plots of the LFPs elicited by nociceptive, tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli delivered to the contralateral side.

<p>Upper left panel. CSD maps obtained from the right insula of a representative patient, expressing the recorded signals as a function of time (<i>x</i>-axis) and insular electrode contact location (<i>y</i>-axis). Note that polarity reversals are observed at the same insular locations for all four types of LFPs. One of these polarity reversals is shown by the horizontal arrows, between contacts 3 and 4. Lower left panel. CSD signals recorded from these two contacts. The signal shown for each insular contact corresponds to the signal measured from that contact, using the average of the two adjacent contacts as reference. Right panel. Total number of polarity reversals that occurred at the same contact locations across modalities and patients. In almost all cases, polarity reversals occurred at the same sites for all four modalities, indicating that, at least at the mesoscopic level of intracerebral EEG recordings, the locations of the sources generating nociceptive and non-nociceptive LFPs in the insula are largely identical. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/4R7PM" target="_blank">10.17605/OSF.IO/4R7PM</a>.</p