Transcranial magnetic stimulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reduces cocaine use: A pilot study

n/

Early and long-term outcomes of carotid endarterectomy in the very elderly: An 18-year single-center study

ObjectiveTo evaluate the perioperative (30-day) and long-term outcomes of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in elderly patients with severe symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid disease. Although the efficacy of CEA in preventing stroke in selected patients has been clearly demonstrated, concern has been expressed about the role of CEA in people over 80 years old.MethodsAn analysis was conducted on a prospectively compiled computerized database of all primary CEAs performed at our institution from 1990 to 2007. Descriptive demographic data, risk factors, surgical details, perioperative strokes and deaths, and other complications were recorded. All patients underwent postoperative duplex ultrasound scanning and clinical follow-up at one, six, and 12 months, and yearly thereafter. Survival analyses were performed using Kaplan-Meier life-tables. Long-term relative survival after CEA was assessed against age- and gender-matched controls.ResultsIn all, 1769 CEAs were performed in 1562 patients, 193 of them (207 CEAs; group I) were ≥ 80 years old and 1371 were younger (1562 CEAs; group II). All CEA procedures were performed with patients under deep general anesthesia with continuous perioperative EEG monitoring for selective shunting. No strokes or deaths occurred in group I, whereas there were 11 perioperative strokes and three deaths in group II (1%). A complete follow-up (median, 5.2 years) was obtained in 185 elderly patients: no late occlusions or restenoses were detected, while the seven-year freedom from stroke and death were 96.6% and 52.4%, respectively. The relative seven-year survival rate was 99.8%.ConclusionsCEA in elderly patients proved safe and effective, with an excellent long-term durability. The long-term relative survival after CEA in elderly patients was better than in an age-and gender-matched population, so the likelihood of living long enough to benefit from CEA is not jeopardized by being very elderly

An Exploratory Study of Field Failures

Field failures, that is, failures caused by faults that escape the testing phase leading to failures in the field, are unavoidable. Improving verification and validation activities before deployment can identify and timely remove many but not all faults, and users may still experience a number of annoying problems while using their software systems. This paper investigates the nature of field failures, to understand to what extent further improving in-house verification and validation activities can reduce the number of failures in the field, and frames the need of new approaches that operate in the field. We report the results of the analysis of the bug reports of five applications belonging to three different ecosystems, propose a taxonomy of field failures, and discuss the reasons why failures belonging to the identified classes cannot be detected at design time but shall be addressed at runtime. We observe that many faults (70%) are intrinsically hard to detect at design-time

Morte cerebrale

Il testo \ue8 strutturato in maniera logica, partendo dalla semeiotica clinica e laboratoristica per passare poi alla trattazione pi\uf9 dettagliata delle malattie neurologiche divise sia su base anatomica che patofisiologica

Ictal visual hallucinations due to frontal lobe epilepsy in a patient with bipolar disorder

In ictal psychosis with complex visual hallucinations (VHs), widespread functional changes of cortical networks have been suggested. We describe the clinical and EEG findings of a patient with bipolar disorder who manifested complex VHs associated with intense emotional symptoms caused by frontal epileptic seizures. This description highlights the challenges of diagnosing the epileptic nature of new psychotic phenomena in patients with previous psychiatric disorders and shines light into the role of the frontal cortex in the genesis of complex VHs

Epilessia

Il testo \ue8 strutturato in maniera logica, partendo dalla semeiotica clinica e laboratoristica per passare poi alla trattazione pi\uf9 dettagliata delle malattie neurologiche divise sia su base anatomica che patofisiologica

Carotid endarterectomy in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients aged 75 years or more: Perioperative mortality and stroke risk rates.

The aim of this retrospective study was to determine whether age per se constitutes a contraindication to surgery in the elderly patient undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) with regard to operative mortality and stroke risk morbidity. During an 8-year period, 96 patients aged 75 years or more underwent 103 CEAs. The age range was 75 to 89 years, with a median age of 79 and a mean age of 79.4 years. Fifty-nine CEAs with patch closure and 44 carotid eversion endarterectomies and reimplantation were performed for symptomatic (70.9%) and asymptomatic (29.1%) carotid lesions under general anesthesia and with continuous perioperative electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring. In light of the efficacy and success achieved in this experience, advanced age does not seem in itself to contraindicate the performance of CEA; the surgical risk for elderly patients appears sufficiently low to justify the operation. A more aggressive approach may be warranted in elderly patients because of the morbidity and cost of the disease that it effectively prevents