Epilepsy care during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the care of all patients around the world. The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) COVID-19 and Telemedicine Task Forces examined, through surveys to people with epilepsy (PWE), caregivers, and health care professionals, how the pandemic has affected the well-being, care, and services for PWE. The ILAE included a link on their website whereby PWE and/or their caregivers could fill out a survey (in 11 languages) about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including access to health services and impact on mental health, including the 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. An anonymous link was also provided whereby health care providers could report cases of new-onset seizures or an exacerbation of seizures in the context of COVID-19. Finally, a separate questionnaire aimed at exploring the utilization of telehealth by health care professionals since the pandemic began was available on the ILAE website and also disseminated to its members. Seventeen case reports were received; data were limited and therefore no firm conclusions could be drawn. Of 590 respondents to the well-being survey (422 PWE, 166 caregivers), 22.8% PWE and 27.5% caregivers reported an increase in seizure frequency, with difficulty in accessing medication and health care professionals reported as barriers to care. Of all respondents, 57.1% PWE and 21.5% caregivers had severe psychological distress (k score >13), which was significantly higher among PWE than caregivers (p<0.01). An increase in telemedicine use during the COVID-19 pandemic was reported by health care professionals, with 40% of consultations conducted by this method. Although 74.9% of health care providers thought that this impacted positively, barriers to care were also identified. As we move forward, there is a need to ensure ongoing support and care for PWE to prevent a parallel pandemic of unmet health care needs

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Graft Improves Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury in Adult Rats through Neurotrophic and Pro-Angiogenic Actions

Numerous strategies have been managed to improve functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) but an optimal strategy doesn't exist yet. Actually, it is the complexity of the injured spinal cord pathophysiology that begets the multifactorial approaches assessed to favour tissue protection, axonal regrowth and functional recovery. In this context, it appears that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) could take an interesting part. The aim of this study is to graft MSCs after a spinal cord compression injury in adult rat to assess their effect on functional recovery and to highlight their mechanisms of action. We found that in intravenously grafted animals, MSCs induce, as early as 1 week after the graft, an improvement of their open field and grid navigation scores compared to control animals. At the histological analysis of their dissected spinal cord, no MSCs were found within the host despite their BrdU labelling performed before the graft, whatever the delay observed: 7, 14 or 21 days. However, a cytokine array performed on spinal cord extracts 3 days after MSC graft reveals a significant increase of NGF expression in the injured tissue. Also, a significant tissue sparing effect of MSC graft was observed. Finally, we also show that MSCs promote vascularisation, as the density of blood vessels within the lesioned area was higher in grafted rats. In conclusion, we bring here some new evidences that MSCs most likely act throughout their secretions and not via their own integration/differentiation within the host tissue

Cellular therapies for treating pain associated with spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury leads to immense disability and loss of quality of life in human with no satisfactory clinical cure. Cell-based or cell-related therapies have emerged as promising therapeutic potentials both in regeneration of spinal cord and mitigation of neuropathic pain due to spinal cord injury. This article reviews the various options and their latest developments with an update on their therapeutic potentials and clinical trialing

Planar wideband circularly polarized antenna design with rectangular ring dielectric resonator and parasitic printed loops

A wideband circularly polarized (CP) rectangular dielectric resonator (DR) parasitically coupled to a printed rectangular loops is presented. The DR is housed in a thin dielectric substrate with a microstrip line and narrow strip printed from one side and a ground plane and conducting loops and lines connected to the ground plane. The DR is linearly polarized, and for CP, we introduced printed conducting loops in the other side of the DR, which produce the orthogonal polarization with the required quadratic phase. Several loops are used to achieve the wide CP band. The final design achieves CP with 51% bandwidth. The reflection coefficient, axial ratio (AR), radiation patterns, gain, and efficiency of the antenna are studied, and reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated results is observed. © 2011 IEEE

Bandwidth enhancement and radiation characteristics improvement of rectangular dielectric resonator antenna

A simple, compact, wideband rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) is presented. The bandwidth is enhanced using a proper tapered strip excitation from one side of the DR. The radiation characteristics are improved by adding a shorted narrow strip to the opposite side of the excitation. In addition, by using this shorted strip, further improvement of the bandwidth is obtained. A parametric study on the strip dimension is carried out. The proposed DRA with good radiation characteristics offers a measured bandwidth of 96% between 2.13 and 6.08 GHz for VSWR < 2. © 2010 IEEE

Wideband P-shaped dielectric resonator antenna

A novel P-shaped dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is presented and investigated for wideband wireless application. By using P-shaped resonator, a wideband impedance bandwidth of 80 % from 3.5 to 8.2 GHz is achieved. The antenna covers all of wireless systems like C-band, 5.2, 5.5 & 5.8 GHz-WLAN & WiMAX. The proposed antenna has a low profile and the thickness of the resonator is only 5.12 mm, which is 0.06-0.14 free space wavelength. A parametric study is presented. The proposed DRA is built and the characteristics of the antenna are measured. Very good agreement between numerical and measured results is obtained

Rectangular ring-shaped dielectric resonator antenna for dual and wideband frequency

A new modified planar dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is presented and investigated. The proposed DRA is excited by a microstrip feed that is extended as a probe in the proximity of the DR. On the opposite side to the probe excitation printed narrow strips directly connected to the ground plane edge are used to improve the radiation characteristics of the antenna by keeping a unidirectional broadside radiation. In addition, the short circuit strips introduce a second frequency band. Thus, a dual-band antenna is achieved. The measured bandwidths are about 73% (2.78-5.95 GHz) for the wideband DRA as well as 8% (2.4-2.6 GHz) and 56% (3.3-5.85 GHz) for the dual-band DRA. The minimum and maximum gain enhancements of about 0.6 and 1.2 dB from 3.5 to 6 GHz are obtained. Parametric study and measurement results are presented and discussed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Characteristics and predictors of progression in an Egyptian multiple sclerosis cohort: a multicenter registry study

Sherif M Hamdy,1 Maged Abdel-Naseer,1 Nevin M Shalaby,1 Alaa N Elmazny,1 Ahmed A Nemr,2 Amr Hassan,1 Mohamed I Hegazy,1 Husam S Mourad,1 Nirmeen A Kishk,1 Mona A Nada,1 Ahmed Abdelalim,1 Amr M Fouad,1 Hatem S Shehata1 1Neurology Department, Cairo University, 2Neurology Department, Maadi Military Hospital, Cairo, Egypt Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune disease with a heterogeneous presentation and diverse disease course. Recent studies indicate a rising prevalence of MS in the Middle East.Objective: To characterize the demographics and disease features of Egyptian patients attending four tertiary referral MS centers in Cairo.Materials and methods: This was a retrospective, observational study on 1,581 patients between 2001 and 2015. Medical records were reviewed and data were identified and extracted in a standardized electronic registry.Results: The mean age of disease onset was 26.6&plusmn;7.8 years, with the majority being female (2.11:1). Relapsing&ndash;remitting MS was the most common type (75.1%). The main presenting symptom was motor weakness (43.9%), which was also the most frequent symptom during the disease course. Family history of MS was found in 2.28%. Higher initial Expanded Disability Status Scale score, black holes, and infratentorial lesions on initial magnetic resonance imaging were independent factors for disease progression by univariate analysis (OR 3.87 [95% CI 1.84&ndash;6.51], 4.14 [95% CI 3.08&ndash;5.58], 4.07 [95% CI 3.21&ndash;4.99], respectively); however, in multivariate analysis, only infratentorial lesions were an independent risk for disease progression (OR 6, 95% CI 2.99&ndash;12.02; P=0.0005).Conclusion: The results from this registry &ndash; the largest for MS in the Arab region to date &ndash; are comparable to other registries with slight differences. Keywords: multiple sclerosis, MS registry, epidemiology, Middle East, North Africa, Egypt&nbsp