Drawings of very preterm-born children at 5 years of age: a first impression of cognitive and motor development?

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to examine differences in drawing skills between very preterm and term children, and to determine whether very preterm children's cognitive and motor development is reflected in the draw-a-person test (DAP) at age 5. Seventy-two very preterm children (birth weight <1,500 g and/or gestational age <32 weeks) and 60 term children at 5 years of age were compared on the DAP. Cognitive and motor skills of the very preterm children had been assessed four times, at 1/2, 1, 2, and 5 years of age. Very preterm children showed a developmental delay in drawing ability. Structural equation modeling revealed a positive relation between both cognitive as well as motor development and the DAP. CONCLUSION: The DAP could be a crude parameter for evaluating cognitive and motor deficits of very preterm children. A worrisome result should be followed by more standardized tests measuring cognitive and motor skill

International longitudinal registry of patients with atrial fibrillation and treated with rivaroxaban: RIVaroxaban Evaluation in Real life setting (RIVER)

Background Real-world data on non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are essential in determining whether evidence from randomised controlled clinical trials translate into meaningful clinical benefits for patients in everyday practice. RIVER (RIVaroxaban Evaluation in Real life setting) is an ongoing international, prospective registry of patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and at least one investigator-determined risk factor for stroke who received rivaroxaban as an initial treatment for the prevention of thromboembolic stroke. The aim of this paper is to describe the design of the RIVER registry and baseline characteristics of patients with newly diagnosed NVAF who received rivaroxaban as an initial treatment. Methods and results Between January 2014 and June 2017, RIVER investigators recruited 5072 patients at 309 centres in 17 countries. The aim was to enroll consecutive patients at sites where rivaroxaban was already routinely prescribed for stroke prevention. Each patient is being followed up prospectively for a minimum of 2-years. The registry will capture data on the rate and nature of all thromboembolic events (stroke / systemic embolism), bleeding complications, all-cause mortality and other major cardiovascular events as they occur. Data quality is assured through a combination of remote electronic monitoring and onsite monitoring (including source data verification in 10% of cases). Patients were mostly enrolled by cardiologists (n = 3776, 74.6%), by internal medicine specialists 14.2% (n = 718) and by primary care/general practice physicians 8.2% (n = 417). The mean (SD) age of the population was 69.5 (11.0) years, 44.3% were women. Mean (SD) CHADS2 score was 1.9 (1.2) and CHA2DS2-VASc scores was 3.2 (1.6). Almost all patients (98.5%) were prescribed with once daily dose of rivaroxaban, most commonly 20 mg (76.5%) and 15 mg (20.0%) as their initial treatment; 17.9% of patients received concomitant antiplatelet therapy. Most patients enrolled in RIVER met the recommended threshold for AC therapy (86.6% for 2012 ESC Guidelines, and 79.8% of patients according to 2016 ESC Guidelines). Conclusions The RIVER prospective registry will expand our knowledge of how rivaroxaban is prescribed in everyday practice and whether evidence from clinical trials can be translated to the broader cross-section of patients in the real world

Susceptibility of human and probiotic Bifidobacterium spp. to selected antibiotics as determined by the Etest method

This study reports the antibiotic susceptibility of 203 strains representing human or probiotic associated Bifidobacterium species as determined by the Etest method. Strains showing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for tetracycline >= 16 mu g mL(-1) were detected in all studied Bifidobacterium species/groups (prevalence 4-18%). Mostly the high MICs could be associated with a tet gene, although the correspondence between the phenotypic susceptibility and detection of let determinants was not complete. In addition to tet(W), tet(O), which has not been previously described in bifidobacteria, was detected. Occasional erythromycin (2%) and/or clindamycin (5%) resistant strains were found, while the strains were uniformly susceptible to ampicillin and vancomycin. Bifidobacterium strains displayed,generally high MICs for streptomycin and gentamicin suggesting intrinsic resistance. The Etest on lactic acid bacteria susceptibility test medium supplemented with cysteine proved to be an applicable technique for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of bifidobacteria, and is especially useful when susceptibility data of individual strains is needed. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Lithium and suicide prevention in modd disorders and in the general population: a systematic review

Suicide contributes to 1–4 % of deaths worldwide every year. We conducted a systematic review aimed at summarizing evidence on the use of lithium for the prevention of suicide risk both in mood disorders and in the general population. We followed the PRISMA methodology (keywords: “lithium”, “suicide” AND “suicidal” on Pubmed, Cochrane CENTRAL, Clinicaltrial.gov, other databases). Inclusion criteria: lithium therapy in mood disorder or found in drinking water or scalp in the general population. Exclusion criteria: no lithium administration. From 918 screened references, 18 prospective (number of participants: 153786), 10 retrospective (number of participants: 61088) and 16 ecological studies (total sample: 2062) were included. Most of the observational studies reported a reduction in suicide in patients with mood disorders. All studies about lithium treatment's duration reported that long-term lithium give more benefits than short-term lithium in suicide risk The evidence seems to attribute an intrinsic anti-suicidal property of lithium, independent of its proven efficacy as a mood stabilizer

Anxiolytic-like effects observed in rats exposed to the elevated zero-maze following treatment with 5-HT₂/5-HT₃/5-HT₄ ligands

The present study examined the effects of administering selective 5-HT antagonists and agonists to rats tested in the elevated zero-maze (EZM) model of anxiety. The EZM paradigm has advantages over the elevated plus-maze (EPM) paradigm with respect to measuring anxiety, yet has been utilized less frequently. Three experiments were conducted each with a diazepam control (0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 mg/kg). In the first experiment, we administered the 5-HT(2C) antagonist RS 102221 (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/kg) and 5-HT(2C) agonist MK-212 (0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 mg/kg); in the second experiment, we administered the 5-HT(3) antagonist Y-25130 (0.1, 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg) and 5-HT(3) agonist SR 57227A (0.1, 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg), and in the third experiment, we administered the 5-HT(4) antagonist RS 39604 (0.01, 0.1, 1.0 mg/kg) and 5-HT(4) agonist RS 67333 (0.01, 0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg). The administration of 5-HT(2/3/4) subtype antagonists all generated behavioral profiles indicative of anxiolytic-like effects in the EZM, which was apparent from examination of both traditional and ethological measures. While little effect was observed from 5-HT(2) and 5-HT(3) agonists, the 5-HT(4) agonist RS 67333 was found to produce a paradoxical anxiolytic-like effect similar to that produced by the 5-HT(4) antagonist RS 39604. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings