What is the impact of physical effort on the diagnosis of concussion?

Objective: Sport-related concussion commonly occurs in contact sports such as rugby. To date, diagnosis is based on the realization of clinical tests conducted pitch-side. Yet, the potential effect of prior physical effort on the results of these tests remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to determine whether preceding physical effort can influence the outcome of concussion assessments. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: University Medicine Center Patients: A cohort of 40 subjects (20 rugby players and 20 athletes from a range of sports). Intervention: A concussion assessment was performed immediately following physical activity. Following a period of 6 months and under the same experimental conditions, the same cohort performed the same tests in resting conditions. Main outcome measure: Results of concussion tests. Results: In both cohorts, the comparison for post-exercise and rest assessments demonstrated a most likely moderate-to-very large increase in the number of symptoms, severity of symptoms and BESS score. In the rugby cohort, scores for concentration, delayed memory and SAC, likely-to-most likely decreased following completion of physical activity compared to baseline values. The between-cohort comparison showed a greater impact post-exercise in the rugby players for delayed recall (0.73±0.61, 93/7/1) and SAC score (0.75±0.41, 98/2/0). Conclusion: Physical activity altered the results of concussion diagnostic tests in athletes from a range of sports and notably in rugby players. Therefore, physical efforts prior to the concussion incident should be accounted for during pitch-side assessments and particularly during rugby competition and training

Suprasellar cysts: clinical presentation, surgical indications, and optimal surgical treatment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To describe the clinical presentation of suprasellar cysts (SSCs) and surgical indications, and compare the treatment methods of endoscopic ventriculocystostomy (VC) and ventriculocystocisternotomy (VCC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We retrospectively reviewed the records of 73 consecutive patients with SSC who were treated between June 2002 and September 2009. Twenty-two patients were treated with VC and 51 with VCC. Outcome was assessed by clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The patients were divided into five groups based on age at presentation: age less than 1 year (n = 6), 1-5 years (n = 36), 6-10 years (n = 15), 11-20 years (n = 11), and 21-53 years (n = 5). The main clinical presentations were macrocrania (100%), motor deficits (50%), and gaze disturbance (33.3%) in the age less than 1 year group; macrocrania (75%), motor deficits (63.9%), and gaze disturbance (27.8%) in the 1-5 years group; macrocrania (46.7%), symptoms of raised intracranial pressure (ICP) (40.0%), endocrine dysfunction (40%), and seizures (33.3%) in the 6-10 years group; symptoms of raised ICP (54.5%), endocrine dysfunction (54.5%), and reduced visual field or acuity (36.4%) in the 11-20 years group; and symptoms of raised ICP (80.0%) and reduced visual field or acuity (40.0%) in the 21-53 years group. The overall success rate of endoscopic fenestration was 90.4%. A Kaplan-Meier curve for long-term efficacy of the two treatment modalities showed better results for VCC than for VC (p = 0.008).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Different age groups with SSCs have different main clinical presentations. VCC appears to be more efficacious than VC.</p

Third brain ventricle deformation analysis using fractional differentiation and evolution strategy in brain cine-MRI

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