Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Robot-guided neuronavigated repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in central neuropathic pain. An update of long-term follow-up

To confirm and extend previous results involving repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) aimed at alleviating refractory central neuropathic pain (CNP). To evaluate pain relief in detail and to assess ongoing benefits after one year of treatment.Prospective observational study.University hospital. Outpatient settings.Patients (N=80) with chronic central pain after brain or spinal cord injuries.High-frequency (20Hz) neuronavigated-rTMS sessions were applied on the primary motor cortex using a figure-of-eight coil positioned by a robotized arm. Patients received a minimum of 4 consecutive sessions, each separated by 3-4 weeks.Percentage of pain relief (%R), duration of pain relief (DPR), numeric rating scale (NRS), neuropathic pain symptom inventory (NPSI), and pain relief score (PRS).Seventy-one patients completed the study. On average, after the first 4 sessions, %R was 28% and DPR was 11 days. Fifty-four patients (76%) were responders with a permissive threshold of ≥10%R and 61% (43 patients) with a stringent threshold ≥30%R. After 12 months of treatment (15 sessions) we observed a cumulative effect on %R (48%), DPR (20d), and on the prevailing NPSI sub-score (-28%). This effect reached significance after 4 sessions and was further maintained over 12 months. Across participants, more than 1000 rTMS sessions were delivered over 6 years without any adverse effect.These results confirm that multiple rTMS sessions are both safe and have potential as a treatment for CNP. An ongoing randomized controlled trial will allow teasing out of this effect from placebo analgesia

Improvement of refractory rheumatoid arthritis-associated constrictive bronchiolitis with etanercept

International audienc

New procedure of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for central neuropathic pain: a placebo-controlled randomized crossover study

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a procedure increasingly used to treat patients with central neuropathic pain, but its efficacy is still under debate. Patients with medically refractory chronic central neuropathic pain were included in 2 randomized phases (active/sham), separated by a wash-out period of 8 weeks. Each phase consisted of 4 consecutive rTMS sessions and a final evaluation session, all separated from one another by 3 weeks. High-frequency (20 Hz) rTMS was delivered over the primary motor cortex (M1) contralateral to the patient's pain using a neuronavigated robotic system. Patients and clinicians assessing outcomes were blinded to treatment allocation during the trial. The primary outcome measured the percentage of pain relief (%R) from baseline. Secondary outcomes were VAS score, Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory, analgesic drug consumption, and quality of life (EQ-5D). Thirty-six patients performed the entire study with no adverse effects. The analgesic effect for the main criterion (%R) was significantly higher in the active (33.8% confidence interval [CI]: [23.88-43.74]) than in the sham phase (13.02% CI: [6.64-19.76]). This was also the case for the secondary outcome VAS (-19.34% CI: [14.31-25.27] vs -4.83% CI: [1.96-8.18]). No difference was observed for quality of life or analgesic drug consumption. Seventeen patients (47%) were identified as responders, but no significant interaction was found between clinical and technical factors considered here and the analgesic response. These results provide strong evidence that 3 weeks spaced high-frequency rTMS of M1 results in a sustained analgesic effect and support the clinical interest of this stimulation paradigm to treat refractory chronic pain

The acoustic space of pain: How human baby cries code for distress

International audienceCrying is the primary signalling strategy available to the human newborn for eliciting parental care. Yet, we only have superficial understanding of the information carried by cries, and of how this information modulates parents’ interpretation and response to cries. Using modern tools of sound processing and playback experiments coupled with brain imaging and physiological monitoring, we are currently investigating both the information content of cries and the factors influencing the behavioural and the brain responses of adults to cries elicited by different levels of stress. We used dedicated sound analysis tools to compare the structure of cries of healthy babies recorded in controlled conditions differing by the degree of elicited stress (i.e. bath or vaccinations). We identified vocal ‘roughness’, a composite acoustic factor characterising the level of aperiodicity of the cries, that differs between different levels of discomfort or pain. On the receiver’s side, while adults are able to use acoustic features of cries to discriminate broad differences in distress levels, they fail to discriminate between different levels of pain. During this talk, we will also demonstrate the importance of familiarisation, emphasising that the ability to recognise newborns by their cries is independent of sex and parenthood status

SPM Analysis Applied to MIBI-SPECT for the Diagnosis of Recurrent Oligodendrogliomas

European Journal of Nuclear Medecine 27(8):1144International audienceno abstrac

Atlas-based automatic segmentation of MR images: validation study on the brainstem in radiotherapy context

International audiencePURPOSE: Brain tumor radiotherapy requires the volume measurements and the localization of several individual brain structures. Any tool that can assist the physician to perform the delineation would then be of great help. Among segmentation methods, those that are atlas-based are appealing because they are able to segment several structures simultaneously, while preserving the anatomy topology. This study aims to evaluate such a method in a clinical context. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The brain atlas is made of two three-dimensional (3D) volumes: the first is an artificial 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the second consists of the segmented structures in this artificial MRI. The elastic registration of the artificial 3D MRI against a patient 3D MRI dataset yields an elastic transformation that can be applied to the labeled image. The elastic transformation is obtained by minimizing the sum of the square differences of the image intensities and derived from the optical flow principle. This automatic delineation (AD) enables the mapping of the segmented structures onto the patient MRI. Parameters of the AD have been optimized on a set of 20 patients. Results are obtained on a series of 6 patients' MRI. A comprehensive validation of the AD has been conducted on performance of atlas-based segmentation in a clinical context with volume, position, sensitivity, and specificity that are compared by a panel of seven experimented physicians for the brain tumor treatments. RESULTS: Expert interobserver volume variability ranged from 16.70 cm(3) to 41.26 cm(3). For patients, the ratio of minimal to maximal volume ranged from 48% to 70%. Median volume varied from 19.47 cm(3) to 27.66 cm(3) and volume of the brainstem calculated by AD varied from 17.75 cm(3) to 24.54 cm(3). Medians of experts ranged, respectively, for sensitivity and specificity, from 0.75 to 0.98 and from 0.85 to 0.99. Median of AD were, respectively, 0.77 and 0.97. Mean of experts ranged, respectively, from 0.78 to 0.97 and from 0.86 to 0.99. Mean of AD were, respectively, 0.76 and 0.97. CONCLUSIONS: Results demonstrate that the method is repeatable, provides a good trade-off between accuracy and robustness, and leads to reproducible segmentation and labeling. These results can be improved by enriching the atlas with the rough information of tumor or by using different laws of deformation for the different structures. Qualitative results also suggest that this method can be used for automatic segmentation of other organs such as neck, thorax, abdomen, pelvis, and limbs