Correlation between clinical and radiological findings with presence of neuropsychological impairments in patients with mild traumatic brain injury

Uvod: Traumatsko oštećenje mozga (TOM) nastaje usled dejstva spoljašnje mehničke sile na kranijum i endokranijalni sadržaj, koje se karakteriše privremenim ili trajnim neurološkim oštećenjem, funkcionalnom onesposobljenošću ili psihosocijalnom neprilagođenošću. Blago TOM je najčešće i čini između 70% i 90% svih povređenih sa TOM. Postoji veliki broj definicija ovog kliničkog entiteta, ali gotovo sve sadrže Glazgov koma skor 13-15, poremećaj stanja svesti u različitom trajanju, te posttraumatsku amneziju kao odrednice koje definišu blago TOM. Najveći broj povređenih sa blagim TOM ima dobru prognozu i potpunu rezoluciju tegoba u kratkom vremenskom periodu nakon povređivanja, bez medicinski relevantnih posledica. Međutim, jedna grupa povređenih koja navodi naglašenije i dugotrajnije tegobe koje mogu imati uticaja na ukupno zdravstveno stanje i kvalitet života. U savremenom naučnoistraživačkom radu aktuelni su pokušaji da se primenom novih dijagnostičkih metoda, detaljnim praćenjem povređenih i primenom neuropsiholoških testova objektivizuju ove tvrdnje, kako bi se pacijenti sa povišenim rizikom od nastanka dugotrajnih tegoba pravovremeno identifikovali i kako bi se mogao sprovesti adekvatan tretman. Cilj: Cilj ove studije je da se utvrditi da li postoji korelacija između kliničkih i radioloških simptoma i znakova i rezultata neuropsihološkog testiranja kod povređenih sa blagim traumatskim oštećenjem mozga, kao i da se utvrdi da li neki od od kliničkih simptoma i znakova mogu biti pouzdan prediktor pojave perzistentnih neuropsiholoških posledica, i koja je priroda moždanih oštećenja koja mogu biti u njihovoj osnovi. Materijal i metode: Sprovedeno istraživanje je u celosti bilo kliničko, prospektivno, i obuhvatilo je 64 povređena sa blagim TOM koji su u periodu od 2012. do 2015. godine hospitalizovani na Klinici za neurohirurgiju Kliničkog centra Vojvodine u Novom Sadu. Pre prijema je svim ispitanicima načinjen pregled endokranijuma kompjuterizovanom tomografijom (CT) koji nije prikazivao znakove traumatskih oštećenja kranijuma niti endokranijalnog sadržaja. U toku hospitalizacije kod povređenih su praćeni i beleženi relevantni klinički parametri. U prvih 72 sata od povređivanja je kod 37 ispitanika načinjen pregled endokranijuma magnetnom rezonancom (MRI). Kod 25 ispitanika je načinjeno neuropsihološko ispitivanje baterijom neuropsiholoških testova mesec dana nakon povređivanja i 6-9 meseci nakon povređivanja. Rezultati su unošeni u bazu podataka i nakon toga statistički analizirani. Rezultati: U analiziranoj grupi od 64 povređena sa blagim TOM kod 37 ispitanika (58%) je načinjen MRI pregled endokranijuma, a pozitivan nalaz u smislu postojanja traumom izazvanih oštećenja moždanog parenhima pronađen je kod 17 ispitanika (46%). Najsenzitivnije MRI sekvence su SWI i T2* kojima se otkrivaju veoma diskretni depoziti razgradnih produkata krvi. Povređeni sa pozitivnim MRI nalazom imaju lošije postignuće na rekogniciji liste B Rejovog testa verbalnog učenja u odnosu na povređene iz grupe bez intrakranijalne traumatske lezije. Rezultati neuropsiholoških testova ukazuju na poboljšanje rezultata između prvog i drugog testiranja u pogledu egzekutivnih i govornih funkcija u ispitivanoj grupi. U ostalim ispitivanim kognitivnim aspektima nije pronađena značajna razlika među navedenim grupama Zaključak: TOM predstavlja jedan od najvećih savremenih medicinskih izazova koji se nameće zbog svoje visoke incidence, dijagnostičkih i terapijskih problema, ali i potencijalno lošeg ishoda i visokih troškova rehabilitacije i resocijalizacije povređenih. Rezultati studije se mogu iskoristiti za bolje razumevanje blagog TOM u smislu lakšeg rešavanja dijagnostičkih dilema, kreiranje efikasnijih dijagnostičkih protokola i preciznije procene ishoda nakon povređivanja ove vrste.Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a result of the influence of external mechanical forces on scull and endocranial structures which can produce temporarily or permanent neurological impairment, functional disability or psychosocial unconformity. Mild TBI is the most frequent form of TBI and represent between 70% and 90% of all TBI cases. There are several different definitions of mild TBI, but almost all of them contain Glasgow Coma Scale score 13-15, altered state of consciousness and different forms of amnesia as criteria for mild TBI diagnosis. Largest number of patients suffered mild TBI have good prognosis and complete resolution of symptoms in short period of time after injury, with out of any kind of sequeles. However, small group of patients report various symptoms and complaints which can last longer than is usual and seriously affect quality of life of this patients. Numerous researches has been conducted applying novel imaging technologies, long follow-up periods and neuropsychological testing in order to make these non-specific self-reported complaints as much objective as possible. The other reason is necessity of timely identification of patients in risk of developing long term complaints so they can be treated in a proper manner. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine is there correlation between clinical and radiological signs and symptoms and results of neuropsychological testing in patients with mild TBI. The aim also was to determine are there some clinical signs which can be reliable predictor of appearance of neuropsychological consequences and what is the nature of cerebral lesion suspected to be a cause of this consequences. Materials and methods: The research was clinical, completely prospective and included total of 64 patients with mild TBI who were hospitalized between 2012 and 2015 at Clinic for neurosurgery, Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. All patients had computed tomography scan (CT) at the admission which failed to show any signs of trauma of cranial bones or endocranial content. During the first 72 hours after injury the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been performed in 37 patients. 25 patients had neuropsychological testing one month and 6-9 months after injury. We entered results in database and after completion we performed statistical analysis. Results: In 37 of 64 patients (58%) MRI examination has been performed and in 46% of patients we found trauma induced small haemorrhagic and oedematous brain lesions. The most sensitive sequences in our protocol were SWI and T2* confirmed superb sensitivity in detection of small foci of blood. Patients with detected MRI abnormalities showed poorer accomplishment at recognition of list B of Ray Auditory Verbal Learning Test in comparison with group with no intracranial lesions. The results of neuropsychological testing showed significant improvement of executive and speech functions between two periods in time when tests have been administered. We found no other significant differences between analysed cognitive functions in this period in our group of patients. Conclusion: TBI is one of the most important contemporary medical problems due to his high incidence, diagnostics and therapy related issues, but also potentially poor outcome and high costs of rehabilitation. Results of this study can be used for better understanding of mild TBI in order to solve some diagnostic dilemma, create more efficient diagnostic protocols and facilitate more precise outcome assessment after mild TBI

Correlation between clinical and radiological findings with presence of neuropsychological impairments in patients with mild traumatic brain injury

Uvod: Traumatsko oštećenje mozga (TOM) nastaje usled dejstva spoljašnje mehničke sile na kranijum i endokranijalni sadržaj, koje se karakteriše privremenim ili trajnim neurološkim oštećenjem, funkcionalnom onesposobljenošću ili psihosocijalnom neprilagođenošću. Blago TOM je najčešće i čini između 70% i 90% svih povređenih sa TOM. Postoji veliki broj definicija ovog kliničkog entiteta, ali gotovo sve sadrže Glazgov koma skor 13-15, poremećaj stanja svesti u različitom trajanju, te posttraumatsku amneziju kao odrednice koje definišu blago TOM. Najveći broj povređenih sa blagim TOM ima dobru prognozu i potpunu rezoluciju tegoba u kratkom vremenskom periodu nakon povređivanja, bez medicinski relevantnih posledica. Međutim, jedna grupa povređenih koja navodi naglašenije i dugotrajnije tegobe koje mogu imati uticaja na ukupno zdravstveno stanje i kvalitet života. U savremenom naučnoistraživačkom radu aktuelni su pokušaji da se primenom novih dijagnostičkih metoda, detaljnim praćenjem povređenih i primenom neuropsiholoških testova objektivizuju ove tvrdnje, kako bi se pacijenti sa povišenim rizikom od nastanka dugotrajnih tegoba pravovremeno identifikovali i kako bi se mogao sprovesti adekvatan tretman. Cilj: Cilj ove studije je da se utvrditi da li postoji korelacija između kliničkih i radioloških simptoma i znakova i rezultata neuropsihološkog testiranja kod povređenih sa blagim traumatskim oštećenjem mozga, kao i da se utvrdi da li neki od od kliničkih simptoma i znakova mogu biti pouzdan prediktor pojave perzistentnih neuropsiholoških posledica, i koja je priroda moždanih oštećenja koja mogu biti u njihovoj osnovi. Materijal i metode: Sprovedeno istraživanje je u celosti bilo kliničko, prospektivno, i obuhvatilo je 64 povređena sa blagim TOM koji su u periodu od 2012. do 2015. godine hospitalizovani na Klinici za neurohirurgiju Kliničkog centra Vojvodine u Novom Sadu. Pre prijema je svim ispitanicima načinjen pregled endokranijuma kompjuterizovanom tomografijom (CT) koji nije prikazivao znakove traumatskih oštećenja kranijuma niti endokranijalnog sadržaja. U toku hospitalizacije kod povređenih su praćeni i beleženi relevantni klinički parametri. U prvih 72 sata od povređivanja je kod 37 ispitanika načinjen pregled endokranijuma magnetnom rezonancom (MRI). Kod 25 ispitanika je načinjeno neuropsihološko ispitivanje baterijom neuropsiholoških testova mesec dana nakon povređivanja i 6-9 meseci nakon povređivanja. Rezultati su unošeni u bazu podataka i nakon toga statistički analizirani. Rezultati: U analiziranoj grupi od 64 povređena sa blagim TOM kod 37 ispitanika (58%) je načinjen MRI pregled endokranijuma, a pozitivan nalaz u smislu postojanja traumom izazvanih oštećenja moždanog parenhima pronađen je kod 17 ispitanika (46%). Najsenzitivnije MRI sekvence su SWI i T2* kojima se otkrivaju veoma diskretni depoziti razgradnih produkata krvi. Povređeni sa pozitivnim MRI nalazom imaju lošije postignuće na rekogniciji liste B Rejovog testa verbalnog učenja u odnosu na povređene iz grupe bez intrakranijalne traumatske lezije. Rezultati neuropsiholoških testova ukazuju na poboljšanje rezultata između prvog i drugog testiranja u pogledu egzekutivnih i govornih funkcija u ispitivanoj grupi. U ostalim ispitivanim kognitivnim aspektima nije pronađena značajna razlika među navedenim grupama Zaključak: TOM predstavlja jedan od najvećih savremenih medicinskih izazova koji se nameće zbog svoje visoke incidence, dijagnostičkih i terapijskih problema, ali i potencijalno lošeg ishoda i visokih troškova rehabilitacije i resocijalizacije povređenih. Rezultati studije se mogu iskoristiti za bolje razumevanje blagog TOM u smislu lakšeg rešavanja dijagnostičkih dilema, kreiranje efikasnijih dijagnostičkih protokola i preciznije procene ishoda nakon povređivanja ove vrste.Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a result of the influence of external mechanical forces on scull and endocranial structures which can produce temporarily or permanent neurological impairment, functional disability or psychosocial unconformity. Mild TBI is the most frequent form of TBI and represent between 70% and 90% of all TBI cases. There are several different definitions of mild TBI, but almost all of them contain Glasgow Coma Scale score 13-15, altered state of consciousness and different forms of amnesia as criteria for mild TBI diagnosis. Largest number of patients suffered mild TBI have good prognosis and complete resolution of symptoms in short period of time after injury, with out of any kind of sequeles. However, small group of patients report various symptoms and complaints which can last longer than is usual and seriously affect quality of life of this patients. Numerous researches has been conducted applying novel imaging technologies, long follow-up periods and neuropsychological testing in order to make these non-specific self-reported complaints as much objective as possible. The other reason is necessity of timely identification of patients in risk of developing long term complaints so they can be treated in a proper manner. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine is there correlation between clinical and radiological signs and symptoms and results of neuropsychological testing in patients with mild TBI. The aim also was to determine are there some clinical signs which can be reliable predictor of appearance of neuropsychological consequences and what is the nature of cerebral lesion suspected to be a cause of this consequences. Materials and methods: The research was clinical, completely prospective and included total of 64 patients with mild TBI who were hospitalized between 2012 and 2015 at Clinic for neurosurgery, Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. All patients had computed tomography scan (CT) at the admission which failed to show any signs of trauma of cranial bones or endocranial content. During the first 72 hours after injury the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been performed in 37 patients. 25 patients had neuropsychological testing one month and 6-9 months after injury. We entered results in database and after completion we performed statistical analysis. Results: In 37 of 64 patients (58%) MRI examination has been performed and in 46% of patients we found trauma induced small haemorrhagic and oedematous brain lesions. The most sensitive sequences in our protocol were SWI and T2* confirmed superb sensitivity in detection of small foci of blood. Patients with detected MRI abnormalities showed poorer accomplishment at recognition of list B of Ray Auditory Verbal Learning Test in comparison with group with no intracranial lesions. The results of neuropsychological testing showed significant improvement of executive and speech functions between two periods in time when tests have been administered. We found no other significant differences between analysed cognitive functions in this period in our group of patients. Conclusion: TBI is one of the most important contemporary medical problems due to his high incidence, diagnostics and therapy related issues, but also potentially poor outcome and high costs of rehabilitation. Results of this study can be used for better understanding of mild TBI in order to solve some diagnostic dilemma, create more efficient diagnostic protocols and facilitate more precise outcome assessment after mild TBI

CoRAL: a Context-aware Croatian Abusive Language Dataset

In light of unprecedented increases in the popularity of the internet and social media, comment moderation has never been a more relevant task. Semi-automated comment moderation systems greatly aid human moderatorsby either automatically classifying the examples or allowing the moderators to prioritizewhich comments to consider first. However,the concept of inappropriate content is oftensubjective, and such content can be conveyedin many subtle and indirect ways. In this work,we propose CoRAL1 a language and culturally aware Croatian Abusive dataset covering phenomena of implicitness and relianceon local and global context. We show experimentally that current models degrade whencomments are not explicit and further degradewhen language skill and context knowledgeare required to interpret the comment

Reducing the Sodium Chloride Content in Chicken Pate by Using Potassium and Ammonium Chloride

AbstractThe aim of this research was to investigate possibility of chicken pate production with reduced sodium chloride content, as well as to establish changes in sensory characteristics. In the study, six experimental groups of chicken pate were produced with the same basic ingredients, but different amounts of added salts. Sensory evaluation was performed in order to determine general taste acceptability, and of the sodium and potassium levels in the chicken pate. The pate from EI and EII groups in which the amount of added sodium chloride was reduced and/or partially substituted with ammonium chloride had a most acceptable taste

Nokardijalni apsces mozga koji je oponašao metastazu karcinoma pluća kod imunokompetentnog bolesnika s plućnom nokardijazom: prikaz slučaja

Nocardia is a ubiquitous microorganism which can be the cause of local and disseminated infection in humans. Immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients both can be affected and Nocardia cyriacigeorgica was reported as a pathogen isolated in patients worldwide. In most cases, nocardiosis is present as pulmonary infection because inhalation is the primary way of bacterial exposure. Nocardial brain abscess occurs usually secondary to a septic focus elsewhere in the body. Considering the facts that the elderly population is growing, such as the number of immunocompromised patients together with high mortality rate in patients with nocardial infection of the central nervous system, we have to raise aware-ness of the possibility for this rare but potentially fatal condition. We present a case where nocardial ab-scesses of lung and brain were initially suspected as lung cancer with brain metastases. The patient was treated with a combination of surgical resection and antimicrobial therapy with good outcome.Nocardia je ubikvitaran mikroorganizam koji može biti uzročnik lokalnih i sistemskih infekcija kod čovjeka. No-cardia cyriacigeorgica je patogen koji je izoliran i prijavljen u svim dijelovima svijeta. I imunokompetentne i imu-nokompromitirane osobe mogu biti zahvaćene ovom infekcijom. U većini slučajeva prisutna je infekcija pluća bu-dući da je inhalacija primarni put unošenja uzročnika. Nokardijalni apscesi mozga se obično javljaju uslijed posto-janja žarišta infekcije u drugim dijelovima organizma. Imajući u vidu činjenicu da raste broj osoba starije životne dobi i broj imunokompromitiranih osoba u ukupnoj populaciji, uz visoku smrtnost bolesnika s nokardijalnom infek-cijom središnjega živčanog sustava, moramo biti svjesni mogućnosti za razvoj ovog rijetkog, ali potencijalno fatal-nog stanja. Prikazujemo slučaj bolesnika kod kojega su plućna nokardijalna infekcija i nokardijalni apsces mozga inicijalno shvaćeni kao karcinom pluća i metastatski tumor mozga. Bolesnik je liječen kombinacijom kirurškog liječenja i antimikrobne terapije s dobrim ishodom

Findings from the Hackathon on Understanding Euroscepticism Through the Lens of Textual Data

We present an overview and the results of a shared-task hackathon that took place as part of a research seminar bringing together a variety of experts and young researchers from the fields of political science, natural language processing and computational social science. The task looked at ways to develop novel methods for political text scaling to better quantify political party positions on European integration and Euroscepticism from the transcript of speeches of three legislations of the European Parliament

Power and vulnerability: managing sensitive language in organizational communication

Organizational responsibilities can give people power but also expose them to scrutiny. This tension leads to divergent predictions about the use of potentially sensitive language: power might license it, while exposure might inhibit it. Analysis of peoples' language use in a large corpus of organizational emails using standardized Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) measures shows a systematic difference in the use of words with potentially sensitive (ethnic, religious, or political) connotations. People in positions of relative power are ~3 times less likely to use sensitive words than people more junior to them. The tendency to avoid potentially sensitive language appears to be independent of whether other people are using sensitive language in the same email exchanges, and also independent of whether these words are used in a sensitive context. These results challenge a stereotype about language use and the exercise of power. They suggest that, in at least some circumstances, the exposure and accountability associated with organizational responsibilities are a more significant influence on how people communicate than social power

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The European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) recommended the establishment of forensic DNA databases and specific implementation and management legislations for all EU/ENFSI members. Therefore, forensic institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia launched a wide set of activities to support these recommendations. To assess the current state, a regional expert team completed detailed screening and investigation of the existing forensic DNA data repositories and associated legislation in these countries. The scope also included relevant concurrent projects and a wide spectrum of different activities in relation to forensics DNA use. The state of forensic DNA analysis was also determined in the neighboring Slovenia and Croatia, which already have functional national DNA databases. There is a need for a ‘regional supplement’ to the current documentation and standards pertaining to forensic application of DNA databases, which should include regional-specific preliminary aims and recommendations

Quality indicators for patients with traumatic brain injury in European intensive care units

Background: The aim of this study is to validate a previously published consensus-based quality indicator set for the management of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) at intensive care units (ICUs) in Europe and to study its potential for quality measur