Seasonality and Delirium Tremens in Hospitalized Patients with Alcohol Dependence Syndrome

Introduction: Due to the high rate of mortality, recognizing the contributing factors of alcohol-related delirium tremens (DT), which is the most severe form of alcohol withdrawal state (AWS) is pivotal in clinical settings. Previous studies suggested relationship between seasonality and other types of delirium; however, to our knowledge, this is the first empirical study which examined the role of seasonality in DT in alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS). Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken between 2008 and 2015; medical records of 1,591 patients were included, which yielded 2,900 hospital appearances. Three groups were formed based on the ICD-10 diagnoses: ADS, AWS, and DT. The characteristics of the groups were analysed with one-way ANOVA and χ2 tests. Multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the potential predictors of DT, including seasonality. Results: The highest incidence of DT was in spring (36.8%; χ2 (3) = 27.666; p 2 (11) = 33.168; p Conclusions: The present study revealed that spring, especially March is a critical period in temperate climate zone regarding DT. This can be interpreted as a late winter effect since the temperature is lower in this month compared to other spring months. Furthermore, higher age and the occurrence of comorbid somatic disorders can be considered as risk factors in case of DT. These results support the need of further clinical studies to better understand the impact of seasonality on DT

Első lépés egy egységes szemlélet felé: az Alkohol Megvonási Skála bevezetése a hazai betegellátási gyakorlatba = The first step towards a unified approach: validation of the Hungarian version of the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised in Hungarian general hospital settings

Absztrakt: Bevezetés és célkitűzés: Alkoholbetegek egészségügyi ellátása során az alkoholfogyasztás csökkentésével vagy annak elhagyásával alkohol okozta megvonási szindróma alakulhat ki. Jelenleg hazánkban nem áll rendelkezésre olyan standardizált mérőeszköz, amellyel az alkoholmegvonás tünetei mérhetők lennének. A nemzetközi szakirodalom, illetve irányelvek a megvonás tüneteinek monitorozására elsődlegesen a Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised mérőeszközt ajánlják, melynek hazai bevezetése hiánypótlónak tekinthető. A jelen vizsgálat célja a Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised hazai változata (Alkohol Megvonási Skála) pszichometriai mutatóinak feltárása, illetve a mérőeszköz alkalmazásának bemutatása. Módszer: A vizsgálat a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Pszichiátriai Klinikájára alkohol okozta megvonási szindróma iránydiagnózissal osztályra felvett páciensek (n = 30) körében történt, utánkövetéses elrendezésben. Kétnaponta, hat alkalommal került felvételre az Alkohol Megvonási Skála, illetve mellette a Klinikai Globális Összbenyomás – Súlyosság Skála. A felvételek során kapott átlagok összehasonlítása ismételt méréses varianciaanalízissel történt. Belső konzisztenciai mutatók (Cronbach-alfa, tétel-totál korreláció), konvergens és divergens validitási mutatók (Alkohol Megvonási Skála, illetve a Klinikai Globális Összbenyomás – Súlyosság Skála közötti Pearson korrelációs elemzés alapján) kerültek kiszámításra. Eredmények: Szignifikáns csökkenés volt megfigyelhető a 6 adatfelvételi időpontban az Alkohol Megvonási Skála (F = 202,46, p<0,001), illetve a Klinikai Globális Összbenyomás – Súlyosság Skála (F = 503,04, p<0,001) pontszámainak esetében. A Cronbach-alfa-értékek az első 3 mérési napon 0,7 felett voltak. Az egy időben felvett Alkohol Megvonási Skála és a Klinikai Globális Összbenyomás – Súlyosság Skála minden esetben 0,45 feletti korrelációt mutatott. Következtetés: Az Alkohol Megvonási Skála megbízható és érvényes mérőeszköz a megvonási tünetek részletes szimptomatológiai vizsgálatára. Így lehetővé teszi a hazai betegellátási gyakorlatban az alkoholmegvonás tüneteinek felismerését és súlyosságának meghatározását. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(30): 1184–1192. | Abstract: Introduction and aim: The available literature and protocols have unequivocally suggested that the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised is a psychometric scale for identifying and following the signs of alcohol withdrawal. However, there has not been any validated tool for the identification of withdrawal symptoms in Hungarian general hospital settings. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the validity and the reliability of the Hungarian version of this scale among patients hospitalized with alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Method: The translation of the scale into Hungarian was done by ‘back translation’ method, followed by testing the face validity. The empirical phase was performed in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Szeged. Patients admitted with alcohol withdrawal syndrome (n = 30) were recruited from the inpatient units of the clinic. Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised and Clinical Global Impression – Severity Scale were recorded every two days. Statistical comparisons of data were performed with repeated-measures ANOVA. Cronbach’s alpha, item-total correlation, convergent and discriminant validity were determined. Results: Significant decrease of the total scores of Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised and Clinical Global Impression – Severity Scale was observed between the six measurements (F = 202.46, p<0.001; F = 503.04, p<0.001). Cronbach alpha values were above 0.7 during the first 3 measurement days. The withdrawal and severity scores recorded the same day showed positively significant correlations (>0.45). Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol, Revised is a reliable and valid psychometric tool for the detailed analysis of withdrawal symptoms in Hungarian general hospital settings. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(30): 1184–1192

A priori tudás és filozófiai megismerés = A priori knowledge and philosophical thought

A pályázat keretében (1) felállítottunk egy konvencionalista elméletet a logikai igazságról, mely feltehetően kiterjeszthető a matematikaira igazságra; (2) elemeztük az intuíció szerepét Husserl és Heidegger munkásságában, és megvilágítottuk a kettejük közötti különbségeket; (3) védelmeztük az intuíciók filozófiai felhasználását a kísérleti filozófia nyújtotta kritika ellenében; (4) bíráltuk Chalmers felfogását az elgondolhatósági érvekről, és javaslatot tettünk Yablo elképzelésének továbbfejlesztésére; (5) védelmünkbe vettük az analitikus metafizikát mint alapvetően antikantiánus és revizionista vállalkozást; (6) fenomenológiai értelmezést kínáltunk Nietzsche genealógiájára, mely szerint a genealógiai a történeti a priori fellazítására irányuló szabadság-elvű vállalkozás; (7) feltártuk, hogy a filozófia Heidegger és Gadamer nevével fémjelzett hermeneutikai fordulata miként formálta át az a priori fogalmát és változtatta meg annak jelentőségét (8); válaszoltunk az analitikus filozófiai bizonyos fenomenológiai kritikáira, és megvizsgáltunk, hogy a fenomenológia miként járulhat hozzá az analitikus elmefilozófiához. Eredményeink azt sugallják, hogy az a felfogás, mely a filozófia és a tudomány elhatárolását az a priori és az empirikus megkülönböztetése révén szándékozik megtenni, nem különösképpen gyümölcsöző. | Within the framework of the project we (1) put forward a conventionalist account of logical truth, which can be possibly extended to mathematical truth; (2) explored the role of intuition in Husserl’s and Heidegger’s philosophy and highlighted how their accounts differ; (3) defended the use of intuitive judgments in philosophy against the criticism offered by experimental philosophy; (4) took issue with the Chalmers’s account of conceivability arguments and offered a new account which is an elaboration of Yablo’s approach; (5) described and defended the project of contemporary analytic metaphysics as a fundamentally anti-Kantian and revisionary enterprise; (6) offered a phenomenological interpretation of Nietzsche’s genealogy as an attempt at loosening the hold historical a priori has over us; (7) analyzed how the concept and the significance of the a priori has been transformed as a result of the hermeneutic turn in philosophy advocated by Heidegger and Gadamer; (8) defended analytic philosophy against some criticism by phenomenologists and explored the ways in which phenomenology may contribute to analytic philosophy of mind. Our results suggest the distinction between philosophy and science in terms of a priori and empirical character is not particularly revealing

Long term follow-up of refractory/relapsed hairy cell leukaemia patients treated with low-dose vemurafenib between 2013 and 2022 at the Department of Internal Medicine and Oncology, Semmelweis University

Introduction: Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is an indolent B-cell lymphoproliferative disease. BRAF V600E mutation is detected in nearly all classical HCL cases which offers the possibility of targeted therapy.Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the efficacy of low-dose vemurafenib as well as to assess the long term outcome of HCL patients treated with this drug at the Department of Internal Medicine and Oncology at Semmelweis University.Methods: We report on 10 patients with classical HCL treated with low-dose vemurafenib at our Department between 2013 and 2022.Results: As a result of fixed time low-dose vemurafenib treatment, 5 of 10 patients (5/10) achieved partial remission, 4 (4/10) had stable disease, and 1 (1/10) had MRD positivity. No patients achieved complete remission. The median progression-free survival was 28.5 months while the overall survival was 82 months.Conclusion: We confirm that low dose of vemurafenib is effective and safe in the vast majority of patients with HCL. This small-molecule oral treatment allows to gain valuable time—months or even years—before further, usually parenteral treatment options have to be given or before previous treatment has to be repeated. There are also promising data supporting the combination of vemurafenib with other drugs for the treatment of HCL patients which could provide even further possibility to bridge treatment

A microarray-komparatív genomhibridizálás (arrayCGH) praenatalis alkalmazása. Javaslat a hazai bevezetésre = Chromosomal microarray comparative genome hybridization (arrayCGH) in prenatal settings. Proposal for Hungarian application in clinical practice

Absztrakt: Az invazív mintavétel kapcsán elvégzett hagyományos magzati kromoszómavizsgálat a mai napig a praenatalis diagnosztika alapvető vizsgálómódszere. Felhasználásának a fénymikroszkópos vizsgálat felbontási képessége szab határt. A kariotipizálással nem felismerhető, szubmikroszkópos kromoszóma-rendellenességek, microdeletiók és microduplicatiók, kópiaszám-variációk (CNV-k) vizsgálatára a nagy felbontású molekuláris vizsgálóeljárások biztosítanak lehetőséget. A kromoszomális összehasonlító microarray-vizsgálat (array-komparatív genomhibridizálás – arrayCGH) alkalmas az anyai életkortól függetlenül előforduló kópiaszám-variációk prae- és postnatalis kimutatására. A módszer a fejlett országok orvosi gyakorlatában rutinszerűen alkalmazott eljárás a magzati diagnosztikában. Az elmúlt egy évtized külföldi eredményei alapján alkalmazása ultrahangeltérést nem mutató magzatok esetén körülbelül 1–2%, strukturális ultrahangeltérést mutató magzatoknál körülbelül 5–7% többlet genetikai információval szolgál a hagyományos kromoszómavizsgálattal szemben. Közleményünkben áttekintjük az arrayCGH módszerét, praenatalis alkalmazásának nemzetközi gyakorlatát, s javaslatokat és indikációs kört fogalmazunk meg a módszer praenatalis használatának magyarországi bevezetésére. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(13): 484–493. | Abstract: Invasive prenatal testing and conventional G-banding chromosome analysis have been considered to be the gold standard of fetal cytogenetic diagnosis. Standard karyotyping is, however, constrained by the limits of the resolution of using a microscope. The advantage of molecular karyotyping, array based methods is the evaluation of sub-microscopic copy number changes across the whole genome in a single analysis. The application of array comparative genome hybridization has greatly increased the detection of pathogenic chromosomal abnormalities in prenatal settings. Based on available data in the international literature of the last decade, the clinical utility of arrayCGH is the recognition of some 1–2% and 5–7% additional genetical information compared to metaphase karyotype alone in fetuses without ultrasound anomaly and in fetuses with ultrasonographically detected malformations, respectively. Thus arrayCGH improves the prenatal diagnosis of genetic abnormalities mainly in fetuses with structural sonographic findings. In the present paper we review the literature of chromosomal microarray and make a proposal for the application of the method in Hungarian prenatal genetical practice. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(13): 484–493

A ritka kromoszóma-rendellenességek és a fetoplacentaris mozaikosság jelentősége a praenatalis diagnosztikában a nem invazív szűrővizsgálatok tükrében

Introduction and objective: To determine the prevalence of microscopically visible de novo atypical chromosomal aberrations and fetoplacental mosaicism in a prenatal tertial referral center, and to investigate the maternal and fetal characteristics in connection with genomewide non-invasive prenatal screening. Method: Retrospective cohort study from 2014 to 2019 of pregnancies with invasive genetic analysis. Results: In the cohort of 2504 cases, the proportion of CVS was 53.3%. We diagnosed 200 chromosomal aberrations (8%), including 13.5% of de novo rare chromosomal aberrations (14 rare autosomal trisomies, 6 polyploidies, 5 structural aberrations and 2 small supernumerary marker chromosomes). The rate of fetoplacental mosaicism was 12.4%/77.8% in common/atypical chromosomal aberrations (p = 0.001) and confined to placenta in 17/40 cases. Associated ultrasound abnormalities were abnormal nuchal translucency and major malformations in 58% and 35% with common trisomies and 11% (p = 0.006) and 67% (p = 0.047) with true mosaic cases of rare abnormalities, respectively. Major ultrasound malformation was facial dysmorphism with rare aberrations. Potential application of genomewide non-invasive prenatal test in atypical chromosomal aberrations presumably would have been false-positive in 12 cases (44%), false-negative in 1 case (3.7%), and would have early detected 2 cases of rare autosomal trisomies (7.4%) without ultrasound anomalies. Conclusion: Structural ultrasound malformations with normal nuchal translucency thickness may be indicative of rare chromosomal aberrations. Application of genomewide non-invasive prenatal test is an alternative of early diagnostic methods with a potential of discordant results due to mosaicism. Knowledge about the presence of fetoplacental mosaicism influences risk estimation and genetic counseling, detailed cytogenetic characterization is of utmost importance. © Szerző(k)

The personality profile of chronic alcohol dependent patients with comorbid gambling disorder symptoms

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The importance of personality characteristics in the diagnosis and treatment of gambling disorder (GD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is often highlighted in scientific literature. This study aimed to test predictions about the associations of temperament and character in chronic AUD patients with comorbid GD symptoms and without them. METHODS: Chronic AUD patients enrolled from an inpatient clinic were divided in two groups based on cluster analysis, AUD patients with (AUD + GD group: n = 30) and without (AUD group: n = 68) GD symptoms. Severity of GD symptoms and personality dimensions (Cloninger\u27s Temperament and Character Inventory Revised, TCI-R) were assessed. Associations of tested variables were analysed with analysis of covariance, one-sample and independent sample t-tests. RESULTS: GD symptoms proved to be a clustering factor in terms of personality, where AUD + GD group expressed a more maladaptive personality profile. Compared to Hungarian normative TCI-R scores, both patient groups showed elevated levels of Harm Avoidance and Novelty Seeking with lower scores of Self-directedness, while the AUD + GD group scored lower on Persistence and Cooperation as well. The AUD + GD group reported significantly higher levels of Harm Avoidance, with lower scores of Reward Dependence compared to the AUD group. DISCUSSION: Comorbid GD symptom severity is an important factor in chronic AUD, where AUD patients with comorbid GD symptoms exhibited a more maladaptive personality constellation than singular AUD patients. These emphasize the need of special attention for comorbid GD symptoms in AUD, since treatment recommendations and prognosis for them may also differ

Externalizing personality characteristics define clinically relevant subgroups of alcohol use disorder

AIMS: Higher levels of externalizing characteristics, i.e. impulsivity, novelty seeking and aggression, could contribute to the development, progression and severity of alcohol use disorder (AUD). The present study aims to explore whether these externalizing characteristics together have a potential group-forming role in AUD using latent profile analysis (LPA). METHODS: Externalizing characteristics of 102 AUD patients were analyzed using LPA to explore the group-forming role of externalizing symptoms; groups were compared in terms of demographic and alcohol-related variables, indices of psychopathological, depressive and anxiety symptom severity. RESULTS: LPA revealed and supported a two-group model based on externalizing symptoms. The group with higher levels of externalizing symptoms showed significantly elevated levels of alcohol-related and anxio-depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Externalizing characteristics converge and have a group-forming role in chronic AUD, and are associated with a more severe form of AUD. By making the diagnostic category less heterogeneous, these different subtypes within AUD may provide aid in tailoring treatments to patients\u27 specific needs