Clinical And Neuropsychological Correlation In Patients With Rolandic Epilepsy [correlação Entre Achados Clínicos E Neuropsicológicos Em Pacientes Com Epilepsia Rolândica]

Objectives: To evaluate the presence of neurological soft signs (NSS) and to correlate them with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC III) in patients with rolandic epilepsy (RE). Methods: Forty children and adolescents aged between 9 and 15 years were studied. They were divided into two groups: G1 - patients with RE (n=20) - and G2 - healthy controls without epilepsy (n=20). They were assessed with the Quick Neurological Screening Test (QNST II) - clinical trial to search for NSS -, and the WISC III - neuropsychological test. Results: No statistical difference between groups was found in WISC III and QNST II. However, children with poorer motor skills had worse performance in the QNST II and also in the execution intelligence quotient - IQ (p=0.001) and in total IQ (p=0.004), thus showing a positive correlation between them. Conclusions: The QNST II is a good screening tool for the neurologist to detect abnormalities in fine motor skills.709691693Berg, A.T., Berkovic, S.F., Brodie, M.J., Revised terminology and concepts for organization of seizures and epilepsies: Report of the ILAE Commission on Classification and Terminology, 2005-2009 (2010) Epilepsia, 51, pp. 676-685Lerman, P., Kivity, S., Benign focal epilepsy of childhood. A follow-up study of 100 recovered patients (1975) Arch Neurol, 32, pp. 261-264Bouma, P.A., Bovenkerk, A.C., Westendorp, R.G., Brouwer, O.F., The course of benign partial epilepsy of childhood with centrotemporal spikes: A meta-analysis (1997) Neurology, 48 (2), pp. 430-437Hommet, C., Billard, C., Motte, J., Cognitive function in adolescents and young adults in complete remission from benign childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (2001) Epileptic Disord, 3, pp. 207-216D'Alessandro, P., Piccirilli, M., Tiacci, C., Neuropsychological features of benign partial epilepsy in children (1990) Ital J Neurol Sci, 11, pp. 265-269Binnie, C.D., Marston, D., Cognitive correlates of interictal discharges (1992) Epilepsia, 33 (SUPPL. 6), pp. S11-S17Fonseca, L.C., Tedrus, G.M., Pacheco, E.M., Epileptiform EEG discharges in benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes: Reactivity and transitory cognitive impairment (2007) Epilepsy Behav, 11, pp. 65-70Baglietto, M.G., Battaglia, F.M., Nobili, N., Neuropsychological disorders related to interictal epileptic discharges during sleep in benign epilepsy of childhood with centrotemporal or rolandic spikes (2001) Dev Med Child Neurol, 43, pp. 407-412Hermann, B.P., Jones, J., Sheth, R., Seidenberg, M., Cognitive and magnetic resonance volumetric abnormalities in new-onset pediatric epilepsy (2007) Semin Pediatri Neurol, 14, pp. 173-180Panayiotopoulos, C.P., Benign childhood partial epilepsies: Benign childhood seizures susceptibility syndromes (1993) J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 56, pp. 2-5Lindgren, A., Kihlgren, M., Melin, L., Croona, C., Development of cognitive functions in children with rolandic epilepsy (2004) Epilepsy Behav, 5, pp. 903-910Weglage, J., Demsky, A., Pietsh, M., Kurlemann, G., Neuropsychological, intellectual, and behavioral findings in patients with centrotemporal spikes with and without seizure (1997) Dev Med Child Neurol, 39, pp. 645-651Deonna, T., Rolandic epilepsy: Neuropsychology of the active epilepsy phase (2000) Epileptic Disord, 2 (SUPPL. 1), pp. S59-S61Deonna, T., Zesiger, P., Davidoff, V., Benign partial epilepsy of childhood: A longitudinal neuropsychological and EEG study of cognitive function (2000) Dev Med Child Neurol, 42, pp. 595-60

Cardiopulmonary exercise test in patients with refractory angina: functional and ischemic evaluation

Objectives: Refractory angina (RA) is a chronic condition clinically characterized by low effort tolerance; therefore, physical stress testing is not usually requested for these patients. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is considered a gold standard examination for functional capacity evaluation, even in submaximal tests, and it has gained great prominence in detecting ischemia. The authors aimed to determine cardiorespiratory capacity by using the oxygen consumption efficiency slope (OUES) in patients with refractory angina. The authors also studied the O2 pulse response by CPET and the association of ischemic changes with contractile modifications by exercise stress echocardiography (ESE). Methods: Thirty-one patients of both sexes, aged 45 to 75 years, with symptomatic (Canadian Cardiovascular Society class II to IV) angina who underwent CPET on a treadmill and exercise stress echocardiography on a lower limb cycle ergometer were studied. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03218891. Results: The patients had low cardiorespiratory capacity (OUES of 1.74 ± 0.4 L/min; 63.9±14.7% of predicted), and 77% of patients had a flattening or drop in O2 pulse response. There was a direct association between Heart Rate (HR) at the onset of myocardial ischemia detected by ESE and HR at the onset of flattening or drop in oxygen pulse response detected by CPET (R = 0.48; p = 0.019). Conclusion: Patients with refractory angina demonstrate low cardiorespiratory capacity. CPET shows good sensitivity for detecting abnormal cardiovascular response in these patients with a significant relationship between flattening O2 pulse response during CEPT and contractile alterations detected by exercise stress echocardiography

Study of Tau-pair Production in Photon-Photon Collisions at LEP and Limits on the Anomalous Electromagnetic Moments of the Tau Lepton

Tau-pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-tau+tau- was studied using data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 during the years 1997 - 2000. The corresponding integrated luminosity is 650 pb^{-1}. The values of the cross-section obtained are found to be in agreement with QED predictions. Limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton are deduced.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Energy dependence of Cronin momentum in saturation model for p+Ap+A and A+AA+A collisions

We calculate $\sqrt{s}$ dependence of Cronin momentum for $p+A$ and $A+A$ collisions in saturation model. We show that this dependence is consistent with expectation from formula which was obtained using simple dimentional consideration. This can be used to test validity of saturation model (and distinguish among its variants) and measure $x$ dependence of saturation momentum from experimental data.Comment: LaTeX2e, 12 pages, 8 figure

CP asymmetry in B→ϕKSB \to \phi K_S in a general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-generation quarks

We discuss the time-dependent CP asymmetry of decay $B \to \phi K_S$ in an extension of the Standard Model with both two Higgs doublets and additional fourth-generation quarks. We show that although the Standard Model with two-Higgs-doublet and the Standard model with fourth generation quarks alone are not likely to largely change the effective $\sin 2 \beta$ from the decay of $B \to \phi K_S$, the model with both additional Higgs doublet and fourth-generation quarks can easily account for the possible large negative value of $\sin 2 \beta$ without conflicting with other experimental constraints. In this model, additional large CP violating effects may arise from the flavor changing Yukawa interactions between neutral Higgs bosons and the heavy fourth generation down type quark, which can modify the QCD penguin contributions. With the constraints obtained from $b \to s \bar{s} s$ processes such as $B \to X_s \gamma$ and $\Delta m_{B_s^0}$, this model can lead to the effective $\sin 2 \beta$ to be as large as $- 0.4$ in the CP asymmetry of $B \to \phi K_S$.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, references added, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.