The Initiation of Swallowing Can Indicate the Prognosis of Disorders of Consciousness: A Self-Controlled Study.

Objective: To detect the initiation of swallowing in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) as well as the relationship between the initiation of swallowing and the prognosis of DOC patients. Methods: Nineteen DOC patients were included in this study, and a self-controlled trial compared five different stimuli. The five different stimuli were as follows: (1) one command, as recommended by the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R), which was "open your mouth"; (2) placing a spoon in front of the patient's mouth without a command; (3) placing a spoon filled with water in front of the patient's mouth without a command; (4) one command-"there is a spoon; open your mouth"-with a spoon in front of the patient's mouth; (5) one command, "there is a spoon with water; open your mouth," with a spoon filled with water in front of the patient's mouth. All 19 patients were given these five stimuli randomly, and any one of the commands was presented four times to a patient, one at a time, at 15-s intervals. The sensitivity and specificity of the initiation of swallowing in detecting conscious awareness were determined. Results: None of the patients responded to the first four stimuli. However, six patients showed initiated swallowing toward the fifth stimulus. Among those six, five patients showed improvement in their consciousness state 6 months later. The sensitivity and specificity of the initiation of swallowing for DOC patients was 83.33% [95% CIs (36%, 100%)] and 92.31% [95% CIs (64%, 100%)], respectively. Conclusions: The initiation of swallowing can be an early indication of conscious behavior and can likely provide evidence of conscious awareness. Clinical Trial Registration: www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03508336; Date of registration: 2018/4/16

Modern staging and utility of PET imaging in esophageal cancer management

[[abstract]]Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide, and one of the most fatal diseases despite modern medical treatment. Because correct staging and surveillance of neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal cancer is mandatory for further treatment planning, choosing a modern imaging system is important. The development of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET) has provided alternate means of tumor detection distinct from more conventional methods. This modality has extraordinary performance in detecting locoregional lymph node involvement and distant metastatic disease, and has been introduced as a powerful tool in many guidelines. However, some factors still lead to false-negative or -positive results, raising questions of its accuracy. This article discusses the clinical efficacy of PET in staging and surveillance of neoadjuvant therapy in esophageal cancer, comparing its accuracy with conventional imaging modalitles

Cerebral response to subject's own name showed high prognostic value in traumatic vegetative state

Background: Previous studies have shown the prognostic value of stimulation elicited blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal in traumatic patients in vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (VS/UWS). However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have focused on the relevance of etiology and level of consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) when explaining the relationship between BOLD signal and both outcome and signal variability. We herein propose a study in a large sample of traumatic and non-traumatic DOC patients in order to ascertain the relevance of etiology and level of consciousness in the variability and prognostic value of a stimulation-elicited BOLD signal. Methods: 66 patients were included, and the response of each subject to his/her own name said by a familiar voice (SON-FV) was recorded using fMRI; 13 patients were scanned twice in the same day, respecting the exact same conditions in both cases. A behavioral follow-up program was carried out at 3, 6, and 12 months after scanning. Results: Of the 39 VS/UWS patients, 12 (75%) out of 16 patients with higher level activation patterns recovered to minimally conscious state (MCS) or emergence from MCS (EMCS) and 17 (74%) out of 23 patients with lower level activation patterns or no activation had a negative outcome. Taking etiology into account for VS/UWS patients, a higher positive predictive value was assigned to traumatic patients, i.e., up to 92% (12/13) patients with higher level activation pattern achieved good recovery whereas 11 out of 13 (85%) non-traumatic patients with lower level activation or without activation had a negative clinical outcome. The reported data from visual analysis of fMRI activation patterns were corroborated using ROC curve analysis, which supported the correlation between auditory cortex activation volume and VS/UWS patients' recovery. The average brain activity overlap in primary and secondary auditory cortices in patients scanned twice was 52%. Conclusions: The activation type and volume in auditory cortex elicited by SON-FV significantly correlated with VS/UWS patients' prognosis, particularly in patients with traumatic etiology, however, this could not be established in MCS patients. Repeated use of this simple fMRI task might help obtain more reliable prognostic information. © 2015 Wang et al.; licensee BioMed Central

Validation of the Chinese version of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R)

Primary Objective: This study aims to validate the Chinese version of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). Methods: One hundred sixty-nine patients were assessed with both the CRS-R and the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), diagnosed as being in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS, formerly known as vegetative state), minimally conscious state (MCS), or emergence from MCS (EMCS). A subgroup of 50 patients has been assessed twice by the same rater, within 24 h. Patient outcome was documented six months after assessment. Results: The internal consistency for the CRS-R total score was excellent (Cronbach’s α = 0.84). Good test–retest reliability was obtained for CRS-R total score and subscale scores (intra-class correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.87 and ICC = 0.66–0.84, respectively). Inter-rater reliability was high (ICC = 0.719; p < 0.01). Concurrent validity was good between CRS-R total scale and GCS total scale. Diagnostic validity was excellent compared with GCS (emerged from UWS: 24%; emerged from MCS: 28%). When considering patient outcome, diagnostic validity was good. In addition, false-positive rates have been detected for both diagnoses. Conclusion: The Chinese version of the CRS-R is a reliable and sensitive tool and can discriminate patients in UWS, MCS, and EMCS successfully

Assessment of visual fixatio in vegetative and minimally conscious states

Background: Visual fixation plays a key role in the differentiation between vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness (VS/UWS) syndrome and minimally conscious state (MCS). However, the use of different stimuli changes the frequency of visual fixation occured in patients, thereby possibly affecting the accuracy of the diagnosis. In order to establish a standardized assessment of visual fixation in patients in disorders of consciousness (DOC), we compared the frequency of visual fixation elicited by mirror,a ball and a light. Method: Visual fixation was assessed in eighty-one post-comatose patients diagnosed with a MCS or VS/UWS. Occurrence of fixation to different stimuli was analysis used Chi-square testing. Result: 40 (49%) out of the 81 patients showed fixation to visual stimuli. Among those, significantly more patients (39, 48%) had visual fixation elicited by mirror compared to a ball (23, 28%) and mirror compared to a light (20, 25%).Conclusion: The use of a mirror during the assessment of visual fixation showed higher positive response rate, compared to other stimuli in eliciting a visual fixating response. Therefore, fixation elicited by a mirror can be a very sensitive and accurate test to differentiate the two disorders of consciousness

Chinese translation of the Coma Recovery Scale—Revised

<p><i>Background</i>: Misdiagnosis rate is high in patients with disorders of consciousness, potentially leading to an inappropriate clinical management of these patients. Sensitive standardised rating scales offer some protections from these diagnostic errors. In this context, the use of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) has strongly been recommended by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. <i>Objective</i>: Here, we present the work that has been performed to translate this important diagnostic tool in Chinese. <i>Methods</i>: The scale has been translated from its original English version to Chinese by a team of native Chinese speakers in agreement with an expert highly trained in the use of the original version of the CRS-R and, then, back-translated to English by four independent translators blinded to the original version. The resulting translation has been sent to the original author for final approval. <i>Results and conclusion</i>: The Chinese version of the CRS-R is now available for use in clinical practise. Further investigations will nevertheless be needed in order to show that its psychometric properties are identical to the original English version.</p

Additional file 1: of Personalized objects can optimize the diagnosis of EMCS in the assessment of functional object use in the CRS-R: a double blind, randomized clinical trial

CONSORT 2010 checklist of information to include when reporting a randomised trial. (DOC 217 kb