CHInese medicine NeuroAiD efficacy on stroke recovery - Extension study (CHIMES-E): A multicenter study of long-term efficacy

© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel. Background: The CHInese Medicine NeuroAiD Efficacy on Stroke recovery (CHIMES) study was an international randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of MLC601 (NeuroAiD) in subjects with cerebral infarction of intermediate severity within 72 h. CHIMES-E (Extension) aimed at evaluating the effects of the initial 3-month treatment with MLC601 on long-term outcome for up to 2 years. Methods: All subjects randomized in CHIMES were eligible for CHIMES-E. Inclusion criteria for CHIMES were age ≥18, baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale of 6-14, and pre-stroke modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≤1. Initial CHIMES treatment allocation blinding was maintained, although no further study treatment was provided in CHIMES-E. Subjects received standard care and rehabilitation as prescribed by the treating physician. mRS, Barthel Index (BI), and occurrence of medical events were ascertained at months 6, 12, 18, and 24. The primary outcome was mRS at 24 months. Secondary outcomes were mRS and BI at other time points. Results: CHIMES-E included 880 subjects (mean age 61.8 ± 11.3; 36% women). Adjusted OR for mRS ordinal analysis was 1.08 (95% CI 0.85-1.37, p = 0.543) and mRS dichotomy ≤1 was 1.29 (95% CI 0.96-1.74, p = 0.093) at 24 months. However, the treatment effect was significantly in favor of MLC601 for mRS dichotomy ≤1 at 6 months (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.11-2.01, p = 0.008), 12 months (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.05-1.90, p = 0.023), and 18 months (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.01-1.83, p = 0.045), and for BI dichotomy ≥95 at 6 months (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.14-2.10, p = 0.005) but not at other time points. Subgroup analyses showed no treatment heterogeneity. Rates of death and occurrence of vascular and other medical events were similar between groups. Conclusions: While the benefits of a 3-month treatment with MLC601 did not reach statistical significance for the primary endpoint at 2 years, the odds of functional independence defined as mRS ≤1 was significantly increased at 6 months and persisted up to 18 months after a stroke.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

PARK16 is associated with PD in the Malaysian population

10.1002/ajmg.b.32454American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics1716839-847AJMG

LRRK2 G2385R and R1628P Mutations Are Associated with an Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease in the Malaysian Population

10.1155/2014/867321BioMed Research International201486732

Electrocoalescence Mechanisms of Microdroplets Using Localized Electric Fields in Microfluidic Channels

Electrocoalescence of water-in-oil microdroplets in microfluidic channels is an active technique that enables dioplet-based mixing functionalities to be achieved in lab-on-a-chip applications In this work, a characterization of the electrocoalescence mechanisms of water microdroplets in oil is presented, using localized electric field systems We report a theoretical and experimental description of the electrocoalscence behavior of droplet pairs by varying the physical and fluid dynamic conditions of the phases Our results demonstrate that localized electric field systems can be reliably used to merge droplets in pairs, regardless of the distance between the drops The coalescence behavior was dependent upon the viscosity of the continuous phase for water droplets that were separated by a thick layer of oil and upon interfacial tension for droplets that were in close proximity We showed that these systems have the potential to be used lot high-throughput applications and that, unlike other examples of active systems in the literature, the need of droplet synchronization and the application of high voltages is considerably reduce