Cysticidal Therapy: Impact On Seizure Control In Epilepsy Associated With Neurocysticercosis

Objective: To evaluate the clinical features and seizure control of epilepsy related to neurocysticercosis. Method: 18 patients with partial epilepsy and neurocysticercosis were treated with albendazol or praziquantel and followed from 3 months to 12 years. We analyzed results from the CSF exam, interietal electroencephalogram (EEG), head computerized tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging. Results: The patients' mean age was 36.4 years. The mean duration of epilepsy was 16 years. 83% patients had simple partial seizures ; 17% had complex partial seizures. All patients underwent routine EEGs: 62% had abnormalities and 38% were normal. A relationship was observed between focal EEG abnormality and the location of cyst in 28% of the patients. The CSF exams showed pleocytosis in 33% of the patients, and 28% had elevated protein levels. Only 22% of patients had positive titer for cysticercosis in the CSF. In all patients who had somatosensory and special sensory seizures there was a relationship between location of the cysts and seizure semiology (n=11). After cysticidal therapy, 83% patients had a significant improvement in controlling seizures. Conclusion: In this group, we found a predominance of simple partial seizures and a relationship between somatosensory and special sensory seizures and the location of the cysts. Cysticidal therapy was effective in controlling seizures in these patients and should be considered for patients with partial seizures and semiology related to cyst location.58410141020Carpio, A., Escobar, A., Hauser, W.A., Cysticercosis and epilepsy: A critical review (1998) Epilepsia, 39, pp. 1025-1040Pal, D.K., Carpio, A., Sander, J.W., Neurocysticercosis and epilepsy in developing countries (2000) J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 68, pp. 137-143Del Brutto, O.H., Prognostic factors for seizure recurrence after withdrawal of antiepileptic drugs in patients with neurocysticercosis (1994) Neurology, 44, pp. 1706-1709Spina-França, A., Livramento, J.A., Machado, L.R., Cysticercosis of the central nervous system and cerebrospinal fluid: Immunodiagnosis of 1573 patients in 63 years (1993) Arq Neuropsiquiatr, 51, pp. 16-20Monteiro, L., Nunes, B., Mendonça, D., Lopes, J., Spectrum of epilepsy in neurocysticercosis: A long-term follow-up of 143 patients (1995) Acta Neurol Scand, 92, pp. 33-40Carpio, A., Santillán, F., León, P., Aspectos clinicos de la cisticercosis (1990) Rev Inst Cienc Salud (Ecuador), 5, pp. 1-40Palacio, L.G., Jiménez, I., Garcia, H.H., Neurocysticercosis in persons with epilepsy in Medellín, Colombia (1998) Epilepsia, 39, pp. 1334-1339Garcia, H.H., Gilman, R., Martinéz, M., Cysticercosis as a major cause of epilepsy in Peru (1993) Lancet, 341, pp. 197-200Medina, M.T., Rosas, E., Rubio-Donnadieu, F., Sotelo, J., Neurocysticercosis as the main cause of late-onset epilepsy in Mexico (1990) Arch Intern Med, 150, pp. 323-325Sotelo, J., Escobedo, F., Rodriguez-Carbajal, J., Rubio-Donnadieu, F., Therapy of parenchymal brain cysticercosis with praziquantel (1984) N Engl J Med., 310, pp. 1001-1007Shawhney, I.M.S., Lekhra, O.P., Shashi, J.S., Evaluation of epilepsy management in a developing country: A prospective study of 407 patients (1996) Acta Neurol Scand, 94, pp. 19-23Proposal for revised classification of epilepsies and epileptic seizures (1989) Epilepsia, 30, pp. 389-399Takayanagui, O.M., Jardim, E., Therapy for neurocysticercosis: Comparison between albendazole and praziquantel (1992) Arch Neurol, 49, pp. 290-294Carpio, A., Santillán, F., León, P., Is the course of neurocysticercosis modified by treatment with antibelminthic agents? (1995) Arch Intern Med, 155, pp. 1982-1988Kramer, L.D., Medical Treatment of cysticercosis-ineffective (1995) Arch Neurol, 52, pp. 101-102Hachinski, V., Medical treatment of cysticercosis (1995) Arch Neurol, 52, p. 104Krammer, L.D., Locke, G.E., Byrd, S.E., Daryabagi, J., Cerebral cysticercosis: Documentation of natural history with CT (1989) Radiology, 171, pp. 459-462Cukiert, A., Pugli, P., Scapolan, H.B., Congruence of the topography of intracranial calcifications and epileptic foci (1994) Arq Neuropsiquiatr, 52, pp. 289-294Escobedo, F., Penagos, P., Rodríguez, J., Sotelo, J., Albendazole therapy for neurocysticercosis (1987) Arch Intern Med, 147, pp. 738-741Murthy, J.M.K., Reddy, Y.V.S., Prognosis of epilepsy associated with single CT enhancing lesion: A long term follow up study (1998) J Neurol Sci, 159, pp. 151-155Bittencourt, P., Adamolekum, B., Bharucha, N., Epilepsy in the tropics: II. 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On walls of marginal stability in N=2 string theories

We study the properties of walls of marginal stability for BPS decays in a class of N=2 theories. These theories arise in N=2 string compactifications obtained as freely acting orbifolds of N=4 theories, such theories include the STU model and the FHSV model. The cross sections of these walls for a generic decay in the axion-dilaton plane reduce to lines or circles. From the continuity properties of walls of marginal stability we show that central charges of BPS states do not vanish in the interior of the moduli space. Given a charge vector of a BPS state corresponding to a large black hole in these theories, we show that all walls of marginal stability intersect at the same point in the lower half of the axion-dilaton plane. We isolate a class of decays whose walls of marginal stability always lie in a region bounded by walls formed by decays to small black holes. This enables us to isolate a region in moduli space for which no decays occur within this class. We then study entropy enigma decays for such models and show that for generic values of the moduli, that is when moduli are of order one compared to the charges, entropy enigma decays do not occur in these models.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figure

Spectra, signless Laplacian and Laplacian spectra of complementary prisms of graphs

The complementary prism GG‾ of a graph G is obtained from the disjoint union of G and its complement G‾ by adding an edge for each pair of vertices (v,v′), where v is in G and its copy v′ is in G‾. The Petersen graph C5C5‾ and, for n≥2, the corona product of Kn and K1 which is KnKn‾ are examples of complementary prisms. This paper is devoted to the computation of eigenpairs of the adjacency, signless Laplacian and Laplacian matrices of a complementary prism GG‾ in terms of the eigenpairs of the corresponding matrices of G. Particular attention is given to the complementary prisms of regular graphs. Furthermore, Petersen graph is shown to be the unique complementary prism which is a strongly regular graph

Epidermal growth factor receptor regulates fibrinolytic pathway elements in cervical cancer: functional and prognostic implications

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling and components of the fibrinolytic system, including urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and thrombomodulin (TM), have been implicated in tumor progression. In the present study, we employed cBioPortal platform (http://www.cbioportal.org/), cancer cell lines, and an in vivo model of immunocompromised mice to evaluate a possible cooperation between EGFR signaling, uPA, and TM expression/function in the context of cervical cancer. cBioPortal analysis revealed that EGFR, uPA, and TM are positively correlated in tumor samples of cervical cancer patients, showing a negative prognostic impact. Aggressive human cervical cancer cells (CASKI) presented higher gene expression levels of EGFR, uPA, and TM compared to its less aggressive counterpart (C-33A cells). EGFR induces uPA expression in CASKI cells through both PI3K-Akt and MEK1/2-ERK1/2 downstream effectors, whereas TM expression induced by EGFR was dependent on PI3K/Akt signaling alone. uPA induced cell-morphology modifications and cell migration in an EGFR-dependent and -independent manner, respectively. Finally, treatment with cetuximab reduced in vivo CASKI xenografted-tumor growth in nude mice, and decreased intratumoral uPA expression, while TM expression was unaltered. In conclusion, we showed that EGFR signaling regulated expression of the fibrinolytic system component uPA in both in vitro and in vivo settings, while uPA also participated in cell-morphology modifications and migration in a human cervical cancer model

Frequency of 677C -> T and 1298A -> C polymorphisms in the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene in Turner syndrome individuals

Turner syndrome (TS) is an interesting model for investigating the association between methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene polymorphisms and non-disjunction because of the high frequency of chromosomal mosaicism among patients with this syndrome. We determined the frequencies of MTHFR 677C -> T and 1298A -> C polymorphic mutations in 49 patients with TS and 200 control individuals. The frequency of the 677C -> T allele was 0.39 for patients and 0.29 for controls while that of the 1298A -> C allele was 0.28 for patients and 0.25 for controls. Genotype frequencies were shown to be different in patients and controls (chi2 = 12.143; p = 0.033), and this was attributable to the higher frequency of the C677C -> T /677C -> T genotype among TS patients. In homozygotes, this mutation might have an effect on somatic chromosome disjunction by decreasing MTHFR activity.414

Concept of temperature in multi-horizon spacetimes: Analysis of Schwarzschild-De Sitter metric

In case of spacetimes with single horizon, there exist several well-established procedures for relating the surface gravity of the horizon to a thermodynamic temperature. Such procedures, however, cannot be extended in a straightforward manner when a spacetime has multiple horizons. In particular, it is not clear whether there exists a notion of global temperature characterizing the multi-horizon spacetimes. We examine the conditions under which a global temperature can exist for a spacetime with two horizons using the example of Schwarzschild-De Sitter (SDS) spacetime. We systematically extend different procedures (like the expectation value of stress tensor, response of particle detectors, periodicity in the Euclidean time etc.) for identifying a temperature in the case of spacetimes with single horizon to the SDS spacetime. This analysis is facilitated by using a global coordinate chart which covers the entire SDS manifold. We find that all the procedures lead to a consistent picture characterized by the following features: (a) In general, SDS spacetime behaves like a non-equilibrium system characterized by two temperatures. (b) It is not possible to associate a global temperature with SDS spacetime except when the ratio of the two surface gravities is rational (c) Even when the ratio of the two surface gravities is rational, the thermal nature depends on the coordinate chart used. There exists a global coordinate chart in which there is global equilibrium temperature while there exist other charts in which SDS behaves as though it has two different temperatures. The coordinate dependence of the thermal nature is reminiscent of the flat spacetime in Minkowski and Rindler coordinate charts. The implications are discussed.Comment: 12 page

Simulating maize yield in sub-tropical conditions of southern Brazil using Glam model

The objective of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of simulating maize yield in a sub‑tropical region of southern Brazil using the general large area model (Glam). A 16‑year time series of daily weather data were used. The model was adjusted and tested as an alternative for simulating maize yield at small and large spatial scales. Simulated and observed grain yields were highly correlated (r above 0.8; p<0.01) at large scales (greater than 100,000 km2), with variable and mostly lower correlations (r from 0.65 to 0.87; p<0.1) at small spatial scales (lower than 10,000 km2). Large area models can contribute to monitoring or forecasting regional patterns of variability in maize production in the region, providing a basis for agricultural decision making, and Glam‑Maize is one of the alternatives

Measurement of the Bs0→J/ψKS0B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0 branching fraction

The $B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0$ branching fraction is measured in a data sample corresponding to 0.41$fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. This channel is sensitive to the penguin contributions affecting the sin2$\beta$ measurement from $B^0\to J/\psi K_S^0$ The time-integrated branching fraction is measured to be $BF(B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0)=(1.83\pm0.28)\times10^{-5}$. This is the most precise measurement to date