Is the natural feed the better nutritional therapy in patients with severe acquired brain injury? A retrospective study

SUMMARY: Background: This retrospective study aimed to assess whether the use of natural foods, also in combination with enteral nutrition, improves rehabilitative recovery in patients severe acquired brain injuries. Methods: 40 severe acquired brain injuries patients (75% males, aged 50.2 ± 16.6) were selected. The study population was divided into three groups based on the type of nutrition administered (enteral, oral, and mixed). Mini Nutritional Assessment and Level of Cognitive Functioning scales were used to assess changes from admission to discharge in each group. Multiple logistic regression model was performed to assess the association between the feeding typology and nutritional recovery. Results: At admission, about 97.5% of patients were malnourished. We found significant score changes from baseline to follow-up for both test used and in each subgroup, except for the subgroup that includes patients fed with enteral nutrition. There were significant differences in biochemical indicators, including levels of albumin (p < 0.01) and protein (p < 0.001), compared to baseline and follow-up. Oral nutrition resulted to be a significant predictor for nutritional improvement. Conclusions: Nutrition therapy within a multi-disciplinary team may improve both the hospital care and the recovery in severe acquired brain injuries population. Notably, our findings suggest that natural nutrition is superior to enteral nutrition in improving nutritional outcomes, which should be confirmed by further studies

Post-traumatic olfactory dysfunction: a scoping review of assessment and rehabilitation approaches

Post-traumatic Olfactory Dysfunction (PTOD) consists of a complete or partial loss of olfactory function that may occur after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). PTOD may be linked to some neuropsychiatric features, such as social, cognitive and executive dysfunction, as well as behavioral symptoms, especially when TBI involves the orbito-frontal cortex. The diagnosis of PTOD is based on medical history and clinical data and it is supported by psychometric tests (i.e., subjective tools) as well as electrophysiological and neuroimaging measures (i.e., objective methods). The assessment methods allow monitoring the changes in olfactory function over time and help to establish the right therapeutic and rehabilitative approach. In this context, the use of the olfactory training (OT), which is a non-pharmacological and non-invasive treatment option, could promote olfactory function through top-down (central) and bottom-up (peripheral) processes. To better manage patients with TBI, PTOD should be detected early and properly treated using the various therapeutic rehabilitative possibilities, both conventional and advanced, also taking into consideration the emerging neuromodulation approach

Clinical and Neurocognitive Outcome EvaluationIn locked-in Syndrome

We reported a case of Locked-in syndrome, who underwent a specific clinical and neuropsychological battery, assessing verbal memory, linguistic comprehension, perception, executive functioning..

Functional evaluation of awareness in vegetative and minimally conscious state

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess differences in brain activation in a large sample of Vegetative State (VS) and Minimally Conscious State (MCS) patients, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods: We studied 50 patients four to seven months after brain injury. By using international clinical criteria and validated behavioural scales such as the Glasgow Coma Scale and the Clinical Unawareness Assessment Scale, the patients were grouped into VS (n=23) and MCS (n=27). All patients underwent to fMRI examination. After 6 months, the patients were reassessed using Glasgow Outcome Scale and Revised Coma Recovery Scale. Results: fMRI showed significant (p<0.01, cluster-corrected) brain activation in the primary auditory cortex bilaterally during the acoustic stimuli in patients with both VS and MCS. However, ten patients clinically classified as VS, showed a pattern of brain activation very similar to that of MCS patients. Six months later, these ten VS patients had significant clinical improvement, evolving into MCS, whereas the other VS patients and patients with MCS remained clinically stable. Conclusion: Brain activity could help in discerning whether the status of wakefulness in VS is also accompanied by partial awareness, as occurs in MCS. This may have very important prognostic implications

Clinical Study Sativex in the Management of Multiple Sclerosis-Related Spasticity: Role of the Corticospinal Modulation

Sativex is an emergent treatment option for spasticity in patients affected by multiple sclerosis (MS). This oromucosal spray, acting as a partial agonist at cannabinoid receptors, may modulate the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters, leading to muscle relaxation that is in turn responsible for spasticity improvement. Nevertheless, since the clinical assessment may not be sensitive enough to detect spasticity changes, other more objective tools should be tested to better define the real drug effect. The aim of our study was to investigate the role of Sativex in improving spasticity and related symptomatology in MS patients by means of an extensive neurophysiological assessment of sensory-motor circuits. To this end, 30 MS patients underwent a complete clinical and neurophysiological examination, including the following electrophysiological parameters: motor threshold, motor evoked potentials amplitude, intracortical excitability, sensory-motor integration, and H max /M max ratio. The same assessment was applied before and after one month of continuous treatment. Our data showed an increase of intracortical inhibition, a significant reduction of spinal excitability, and an improvement in spasticity and associated symptoms. Thus, we can speculate that Sativex could be effective in reducing spasticity by means of a double effect on intracortical and spinal excitability

Hallucinations after abrupt withdrawal of oral and intrathecal baclofen

Since 1977 several cases of hallucinations after abrupt withdrawal of oral baclofen have been described. There are no reports of hallucinations after gradual withdrawal of oral baclofen. No one has ever described visual hallucinations after abrupt interruption of intrathecal baclofen therapy. We describe five personally observed cases of visual hallucinations occurring after sudden interruption of baclofen (in two of these cases, intrathecal baclofen) therapy. The patients were immediately submitted to routine EEG, visual evoked potentials and standard brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A few days later they also underwent polysomnography, fundus oculi examination and brain MRI of the temporal lobe. All these examinations were normal. We hypothesise that these symptoms could be due to biochemical and molecular changes, chiefly in glutamatergic n-methyl-d-aspartate, GABA-A, and GABA-B receptor response, leading to increased excitability and spontaneous activity as a result of chronic use of baclofe

Twin pregnancy outcome following teriflunomide treatment in a relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patient: A case report

Rationale: Teriflunomide is a disease-modifying drug that has been approved for treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Due to its teratogenic effect in animals, however, it is not recommended during pregnancy. For this reason, effective contraception must be used during its administration. When an unscheduled pregnancy occurs during therapy, patients must undergo a cholestyramine procedure for rapid flushing of the drug. Patient concerns: We describe the case of a 35-year-old female patient suffering diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis at the age of 20. The patient as a result of side effects of previous therapies started taking teriflunomide. Diagnosis: Despite recommendations for the use of contraceptives, the patient became pregnant during drug therapy. Pregnancy occurred 12 months after initiating teriflunomide treatment. Interventions: Therapy with teriflunomide was immediately suspended and cholestyramine was prescribed (8 g 3 times a day, for 11 days) to flush out any residual drug from the body. Outcomes: Despite an 8-week exposure to teriflumomide during gestation, the patient gave birth to healthy twin girls at 35 week. Controls carried out after birth did not reveal any malformation or genetic and chromosomal abnormality. At a 5-month pediatric specialist check both babies were healthy and growing regularly. Conclusion: This shows that even if there is evidence of teratogenic effects in animals, an 8-week exposure to teraflunomide &gt;0.02 mg/L did not have effects on the newborn

Cortical Responsiveness to Nociceptive Stimuli in Patients with Chronic Disorders of Consciousness: Do C-Fiber Laser Evoked Potentials Have a Role?

It has been shown that the presence of Aδ-fiber laser evoked potentials (Aδ-LEP) in patients suffering from chronic disorders of consciousness (DOC), such as vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS), may be the expression of a residual cortical pain arousal. Interestingly, the study of C-fiber LEP (C-LEP) could be useful in the assessment of cortical pain arousal in the DOC individuals who lack of Aδ-LEP. To this end, we enrolled 38 DOC patients following post-anoxic or post-traumatic brain injury, who met the international criteria for VS and MCS diagnosis. Each subject was clinically evaluated, through the coma recovery scale-revised (CRS-R) and the nociceptive coma scale-revised (NCS-R), and electrophysiologically tested by means of a solid-state laser for Aδ-LEP and C-LEP. VS individuals showed increased latencies and reduced amplitudes of both the Aδ-LEP and C-LEP components in comparison to MCS patients. Although nearly all of the patients had both the LEP components, some VS individuals showed only the C-LEP ones. Notably, such patients had a similar NCS-R score to those having both the LEP components. Hence, we could hypothesize that C-LEP generators may be rearranged or partially spared in order to still guarantee cortical pain arousal when Aδ-LEP generators are damaged. Therefore, the residual presence of C-LEP should be assessed when Aδ-LEP are missing, since a potential pain experience should be still present in some patients, so to properly initiate, or adapt, the most appropriate pain treatment

Impact of Depression, Fatigue, and Global Measure of Cortical Volume on Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis

Objective. To investigate the influence of demographic and clinical variables, such as depression, fatigue, and quantitative MRI marker on cognitive performances in a sample of patients affected by multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods. 60 MS patients (52 relapsing remitting and 8 primary progressive) underwent neuropsychological assessments using Rao’s Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB-N), the Beck Depression Inventory-second edition (BDI-II), and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). We performed magnetic resonance imaging to all subjects using a 3 T scanner and obtained tissue-specific volumes (normalized brain volume and cortical brain volume). We used Student’s t-test to compare depressed and nondepressed MS patients. Finally, we performed a multivariate regression analysis in order to assess possible predictors of patients’ cognitive outcome among demographic and clinical variables. Results. 27.12% of the sample (16/59) was cognitively impaired, especially in tasks requiring attention and information processing speed. From between group comparison, we find that depressed patients had worse performances on BRB-N score, greater disability and disease duration, and brain volume decrease. According to multiple regression analysis, the BDI-II score was a significant predictor for most of the neuropsychological tests. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that the presence of depressive symptoms is an important determinant of cognitive performance in MS patients

Effects of counseling on psychological measures in caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness

Objective: Caregivers represent an important and potential resource in the care network of patients due to the amount of time dedicated to the patient and to their emotional involvement. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of psychological support to families of patients with a disorder of consciousness (DOC). Methods: A total of 48 DOC caregivers were enrolled. Participants were randomly divided into 2 groups based upon the clinical condition of their family members (vegetative state [VS] versus minimally consciousness state [MCS]). Group 1 underwent psychological support and Group 2 was the control group. Results: The 2 groups were evaluated at T0 (baseline) and at T1 (after 6 months). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for within-group comparisons whereas the Mann-Whitney-U test was used to test for between-group differences. Results show how the psychological condition of caregivers in Group 1 was modified after the intervention by the healthcare team in the post-acute rehabilitative unit. Conclusions: Our data confirm that psychological support improves caregivers' ability to process the experience of DOC illness, independent of type of diagnosis