THE GREENLAND LEE-LOW AND A FORECAST ERROR OF THE 8 JANUARY 2005 DENMARK WINDSTORM

Forecasts of the 8 January Denmark Windstorm are compared. In a wrong forecast, the Greenland-lee low is far to shallow, there is less outflow of cold air from west of Greenland and consequently a poor development of the upper trough that fed the windstorm. The analysis of the forecasts and an ETKF analysis support that a correct analysis of the atmosphere in the region between Iceland and Greenland would have been of importance to get a correct forecast of the windstorm over Denmark 3 days later

Metachronous Colorectal Cancer in Icelandic MSH6 and PMS2 Lynch Syndrome Carriers in 1955-2017 : A Population-based Study

Funding Information: Funding The study was partially funded by the Research Fund at Landspitali University Hospital. The funder had no role in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data or in writing the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Oculomotor Deficits after Chemotherapy in Childhood

Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric malignancies have substantially increased the number of childhood cancer survivors. However, reports suggest that some of the chemotherapy agents used for treatment can cross the blood brain barrier which may lead to a host of neurological symptoms including oculomotor dysfunction. Whether chemotherapy at young age causes oculomotor dysfunction later in life is unknown. Oculomotor performance was assessed with traditional and novel methods in 23 adults (mean age 25.3 years, treatment age 10.2 years) treated with chemotherapy for a solid malignant tumor not affecting the central nervous system. Their results were compared to those from 25 healthy, age-matched controls (mean age 25.1 years). Correlation analysis was performed between the subjective symptoms reported by the chemotherapy treated subjects (CTS) and oculomotor performance. In CTS, the temporal control of the smooth pursuit velocity (velocity accuracy) was markedly poorer (p<0.001) and the saccades had disproportionally shorter amplitude than normal for the associated saccade peak velocity (main sequence) (p = 0.004), whereas smooth pursuit and saccade onset times were shorter (p = 0.004) in CTS compared with controls. The CTS treated before 12 years of age manifested more severe oculomotor deficits. CTS frequently reported subjective symptoms of visual disturbances (70%), unsteadiness, light-headedness and that things around them were spinning or moving (87%). Several subjective symptoms were significantly related to deficits in oculomotor performance. To conclude, chemotherapy in childhood or adolescence can result in severe oculomotor dysfunctions in adulthood. The revealed oculomotor dysfunctions were significantly related to the subjects’ self-perception of visual disturbances, dizziness, light-headedness and sensing unsteadiness. Assessments of oculomotor function may, thus, offer an objective method to track and rate the level of neurological complications following chemotherapy

Decreased postural control in adult survivors of childhood cancer treated with chemotherapy

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Nature Research. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36784The objective of cancer treatment is to secure survival. However, as chemotherapeutic agents can affect the central and peripheral nervous systems, patients must undergo a process of central compensation. We explored the effectiveness of this compensation process by measuring postural behaviour in adult survivors of childhood cancer treated with chemotherapy (CTS). We recruited sixteen adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood for malignant solid (non-CNS) tumours and 25 healthy age-matched controls. Subjects performed posturography with eyes open and closed during quiet and perturbed standing. Repeated balance perturbations through calf vibrations were used to study postural adaptation. Subjects were stratified into two groups (treatment before or from 12 years of age) to determine age at treatment effects. Both quiet (p = 0.040) and perturbed standing (p ≤ 0.009) were significantly poorer in CTS compared to controls, particularly with eyes open and among those treated younger. Moreover, CTS had reduced levels of adaptation compared to controls, both with eyes closed and open. Hence, adults treated with chemotherapy for childhood cancer may suffer late effects of poorer postural control manifested as reduced contribution of vision and as reduced adaptation skills. These findings advocate development of chemotherapeutic agents that cause fewer long-term side effects when used for treating children.The authors’ wish to acknowledge the financial supported from the Swedish Medical Research Council (grant nr. 17x-05693), the Medical Faculty, Lund University, Sweden and the Skåne County Council’s research and development foundation.Published versio

Elevated visual dependency in young adults after chemotherapy in childhood

Chemotherapy in childhood can result in long-term neurophysiological side-effects, which could extend to visual processing, specifically the degree to which a person relies on vision to determine vertical and horizontal (visual dependency). We investigated whether adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood experience elevated visual dependency compared to controls and whether any difference is associated with the age at which subjects were treated. Visual dependency was measured in 23 subjects (mean age 25.3 years) treated in childhood with chemotherapy (CTS) for malignant, solid, non-CNS tumors. We also stratified CTS into two groups: those treated before 12 years of age and those treated from 12 years of age and older. Results were compared to 25 healthy, age-matched controls. The subjective visual horizontal (SVH) and vertical (SVV) orientations was recorded by having subjects position an illuminated rod to their perceived horizontal and vertical with and without a surrounding frame tilted clockwise and counter-clockwise 20° from vertical. There was no significant difference in rod accuracy between any CTS groups and controls without a frame. However, when assessing visual dependency using a frame, CTS in general (p = 0.006) and especially CTS treated before 12 years of age (p = 0.001) tilted the rod significantly further in the direction of the frame compared to controls. Our findings suggest that chemotherapy treatment before 12 years of age is associated with elevated visual dependency compared to controls, implying a visual bias during spatial activities. Clinicians should be aware of symptoms such as visual vertigo in adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood

Severe difficulties with word recognition in noise after platinum chemotherapy in childhood, and improvements with open-fitting hearing-aids

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field.Abstract: Objective: To investigate word recognition in noise in subjects treated in childhood with chemotherapy, study benefits of open-fitting hearing-aids for word recognition, and investigate whether self-reported hearing-handicap corresponded to subjects' word recognition ability. Design: Subjects diagnosed with cancer and treated with platinum-based chemotherapy in childhood underwent audiometric evaluations. Study Sample: Fifteen subjects (eight females and seven males) fulfilled the criteria set for the study, and four of those received customized open-fitting hearing-aids. Results: Subjects with cisplatin-induced ototoxicity had severe difficulties recognizing words in noise, and scored as low as 54% below reference scores standardized for age and degree of hearing loss. Hearing-impaired subjects' self-reported hearing-handicap correlated significantly with word recognition in a quiet environment but not in noise. Word recognition in noise improved markedly (up to 46%) with hearing-aids, and the self-reported hearing-handicap and disability score were reduced by more than 50%. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the importance of testing word recognition in noise in subjects treated with platinum-based chemotherapy in childhood, and to use specific custom-made questionnaires to evaluate the experienced hearing-handicap. Open-fitting hearing-aids are a good alternative for subjects suffering from poor word recognition in noise.Swedish Research Council Skane County Council's research and development foundatio

Effects of chemotherapy and visual target movement amplitude on saccade parameters.

<p>Effects of chemotherapy and visual target movement amplitude on saccade parameters.</p

Main sequence parameter values.

<p>The main sequence values (mean and SEM values) illustrate the relationship between the saccade’s peak velocity and amplitude. A higher main sequence value than normal suggests that the saccades produced moved disproportionally shorter distance than normal for the saccade peak velocity.</p

Effects of chemotherapy and visual target velocity on smooth pursuit parameters.

<p>Effects of chemotherapy and visual target velocity on smooth pursuit parameters.</p