Treatment evaluation of acute stroke for using in regenerative cell elements (TREASURE) trial : Rationale and design

Rationale: MultiStem® (HLM051) is one of the promising allogenic cell products for acute ischemic stroke with strong evidence. A previous phase 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter dose-escalation trial showed the safety of MultiStem® for acute ischemic stroke, with a time window beyond that of rt-PA and endovascular thrombectomy. We aim to obtain stronger evidence and to show the efficacy of the MultiStem® for treatment of ischemic stroke. Sample size: Estimated sample size is 220 (110 patients per group), which has 90% power at 5% significance level. Methods and design: TREASURE is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter phase 2/3 trial. The trial will be done at 31 medical centers in Japan. Patients with acute ischemic stroke including motor or speech deficit defined by a National Institution of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score of 8-20 at baseline will be randomized 1:1 to receive a single intravenous infusion of MultiStem® or placebo within 18-36 h of stroke onset. Study outcomes: Primary outcome in this study is the proportion of patients with an excellent outcome at day 90 defined by the functional assessment. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02961504). Conclusion: The TREASURE trial will provide a novel treatment option and expand the therapeutic window for patients with stroke if the results are positive

Reduced Personal Space in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Maintaining an appropriate distance from others is important for establishing effective communication and good interpersonal relations. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder associated with social difficulties, and it is thus worth examining whether individuals with ASD maintain typical or atypical degrees of social distance. Any atypicality of social distancing may impact daily social interactions. We measured the preferred distances when individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals approached other people (a male experimenter) and objects (a coat rack with clothes) or when other people approached them. Individuals with ASD showed reduced interpersonal distances compared to TD individuals. The same tendency was found when participants judged their preferred distance from objects. In addition, when being approached by other people, both individuals with ASD and TD individuals maintained larger interpersonal distances when there was eye contact, compared to no eye contact. These results suggest that individuals with ASD have a relatively small personal space, and that this atypicality exists not only for persons but also for objects

Mean preferred distances from another person when the other person approached.

<p>ASD, autism spectrum disorder; TD, typically developing. Error bars indicate standard errors of the mean.</p

Pearson’s correlation coefficients between interpersonal distance and age, IQ, autistic traits, and clinical complaints for all participants, the autism spectrum disorder group, and the typically developing group.

<p>Pearson’s correlation coefficients between interpersonal distance and age, IQ, autistic traits, and clinical complaints for all participants, the autism spectrum disorder group, and the typically developing group.</p

Participant characteristics.

<p>Participant characteristics.</p

Mean preferred distances from another person and an object when the participants approached.

<p>ASD, autism spectrum disorder; TD, typically developing. Error bars indicate standard errors of the mean.</p

Treatment evaluation of acute stroke for using in regenerative cell elements (TREASURE) trial: Rationale and design

Rationale: MultiStem® (HLM051) is one of the promising allogenic cell products for acute ischemic stroke with strong evidence. A previous phase 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter dose-escalation trial showed the safety of MultiStem® for acute ischemic stroke, with a time window beyond that of rt-PA and endovascular thrombectomy. We aim to obtain stronger evidence and to show the efficacy of the MultiStem® for treatment of ischemic stroke. Sample size: Estimated sample size is 220 (110 patients per group), which has 90% power at 5% significance level. Methods and design: TREASURE is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter phase 2/3 trial. The trial will be done at 31 medical centers in Japan. Patients with acute ischemic stroke including motor or speech deficit defined by a National Institution of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score of 8-20 at baseline will be randomized 1:1 to receive a single intravenous infusion of MultiStem® or placebo within 18-36 h of stroke onset. Study outcomes: Primary outcome in this study is the proportion of patients with an excellent outcome at day 90 defined by the functional assessment. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02961504). Conclusion: The TREASURE trial will provide a novel treatment option and expand the therapeutic window for patients with stroke if the results are positive

Decision making processes based on social conventional rules in early adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders.

悪い子の良い行動から何を読み取るか? : 自閉スペクトラム症を持つ小学生・中学生の善悪判断. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2016-11-30.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by problems with reciprocal social interaction, repetitive behaviours/narrow interests, and impairments in the social cognition and emotional processing necessary for intention-based moral judgements. The aim of this study was to examine the information used by early adolescents with and without ASD when they judge story protagonists as good or bad. We predicted that adolescents with ASD would use protagonists' behaviour, while typically developing (TD) adolescents would use protagonists' characteristics when making the judgements. In Experiment 1, we measured sentence by sentence reading times and percentages for good or bad judgements. In Experiment 2, two story protagonists were presented and the participants determined which protagonist was better or worse. Experiment 1 results showed that the adolescents with ASD used protagonist behaviours and outcomes, whereas the TD adolescents used protagonist characteristics, behaviours, and outcomes. In Experiment 2, TD adolescents used characteristics information when making "bad" judgements. Taken together, in situations in which participants cannot go back and assess (Experiment 1), and in comparable situations in which all information is available (Experiment 2), adolescents with ASD do not rely on information about individual characteristics when making moral judgements