Successful Treatment of Essential Palatal Tremor Lasting Over a Long Term with a Rare Application of Botulinum Toxin in a Child

 AbstractHow to Cite This Article: Eryılmaz A, Başal Y, Günel C, Ozkul A, Tosun A. Successful Treatment of Essential Palatal Tremor LastingOver a Long Term with a Rare Application of Botulinum Toxin in a Child. Iran J Child Neurol. Autumn 2015;9(4): 75-77.AbstractObjectiveAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders. In recent years, the impacts of various micronutrients on ADHD have been studied. However, vitamin D has received much less attention. This study was aimed at evaluating the association and level ofserum vitamin D in children with ADHD.Materials & MethodsThis case-control study was carried out, in 2012, on 6 to 12 yr-old children. Thirty-seven were children with ADHD in the cases group and another 37 healthy children were in the control group. Venous blood sample was drawn from each child to measure the serum level of vitamin D. Other variables were compared as well.ResultsThe mean serum vitamin D level of children with ADHD (19.11±10.10 ng/ml) was significantly lower than that of the control group (28.67±13.76 ng/ml) (P<0.001).ConclusionDeficiency of vitamin D has been proved in various psychiatric diseases. This study evidenced a significantly low level of serum vitamin D in children with ADHD. This suggests the need for regularly monitoring of serum vitamin D levels and treatment of patients with vitamin D deficiencies

Cervicothoracic Arachnoid Cyst Causing Cervical Myelopathy: A Case Report

Several types of intraspinal cyst develop within the spinal canal from the craniovertebral junction to the sacrum. These lesions occur in both children and adults. Arachnoid cysts are one of them and are more frequent in the paediatric population, being a relatively uncommon lesion in adults. The arachnoid cyst may be located intradurally or extradurally. The intradural type may be congenital or from spinal trauma, infection or spondylosis. Although intradural arachnoid cysts are often asymptomatic, they may give early symptoms when they exist with synchronous pathologies constricting the spinal canal gradually as in cervical spondylosis.  In this report, a 60-year-old man with an arachnoid cyst of the cervicothoracic spine is presented. His cyst remained undiagnosed because of the nonspecific nature of the symptoms. It was only when he developed right hemiparesis that a posterior fluid collection compressing the spinal cord was found in Magnetic resonance imaginig. An intradural extramedullary cyst was removed with successful surgery and cord compression and symptoms were reversed. We discuss radiological diagnosis and surgical treatment of an arachnoid cyst in this report

Spontaneous Regression of an Incidental Spinal Meningioma

AIM: The regression of meningioma has been reported in literature before. In spite of the fact that the regression may be involved by hemorrhage, calcification or some drugs withdrawal, it is rarely observed spontaneously.CASE REPORT: We report a 17 year old man with a cervical meningioma which was incidentally detected. In his cervical MRI an extradural, cranio-caudal contrast enchanced lesion at C2-C3 levels of the cervical spinal cord was detected. Despite the slight compression towards the spinal cord, he had no symptoms and refused any kind of surgical approach. The meningioma was followed by control MRI and it spontaneously regressed within six months. There were no signs of hemorrhage or calcification. CONCLUSION: Although it is a rare condition, the clinicians should consider that meningiomas especially incidentally diagnosed may be regressed spontaneously

The Effect of Vascular Graft and Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived CD34+ Stem Cell on Peripheral Nerve Healing

AIM: There are many trials concerning peripheral nerve damage causes and treatment options. Unfortunately, nerve damage is still a major problem regarding health, social and economic issues. On this study, we used vascular graft and human cord blood derived stem cells to find an alternative treatment solution to this problem. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used 21 female Wistar rats on our study. They were anesthetized with ketamine and we studied right hind limbs. On Group 1, we did a full layer cut on the right sciatic nerve. On Group 2, we did a full layer cut on the right sciatic nerve, and we covered synthetic vascular graft on cut area. On Group 3, we did a full layer cut on right sciatic nerve, and we covered the area with stem cell applied vascular graft. RESULTS: At the end of postoperative 8. weeks, we performed EMG on the rats. When we compared healthy and degenerated areas as a result of EMG, we found significant amplitude differences between the groups on healthy areas whereas there was no significant difference on degenerated  areas between the groups. Then we re-opened the operated area again to reveal the sciatic nerve cut area, and we performed electron microscope evaluation. On the stem cell group, we observed that both the axon and the myelin sheet prevented degeneration. CONCLUSION: This study is a first on using synthetic vascular graft and cord blood derived CD34+ cells in peripheral nerve degeneration. On  the  tissues  that  were  examined  with  electron  microscope,  we  observed  that  CD34+  cells  prevented  both  axonal  and  myelin  sheath degeneration. Nerve tissue showed similar results to the control group, and the damage was minimal

Malignant Catatonia

Catatonia is a syndrome characterized by mutism, immobility, negativism, stereotypy, mannerisms, echophenomena, perseveration and passive obedience. The underlying causes can be psychiatric or may be associated with general medical status or neurological diseases. Additionally catatonia has two subtypes as malignant and nonmalignant catatonia. Main symptoms of malignant catatonia are hyperthermia and autonomic symptoms such as tachycardia, tachypnea and hyperhidrosis. It is important to make the diagnosis as early as possible for an appropriate medical treatment. Clinicians should be aware of the fatal outcome of the disease

İNME KLİNİK PRATİĞİNDE NOAK KULLANIMI:TÜRK BEYİN DAMAR HASTALIKLARI DERNEĞİ UZMAN GÖRÜŞÜ

Non-vitamin K oral antikoagülanların (NOAK) atrial fibrilasyonda inmenin önlenmesi amacıyla on yılı aşan bir süredirbaşarı ile kullanıldığı açıktır. Varfarine göre belirgin derecede az kanamaya yol açmaları ve inmeyi de eşit veya daha fazlaoranda önleyebilmeleri yanı sıra kolay kullanım özellikleri primer proflakside atrial fibrilasyona bağlı inmeyi azaltmakonusunda öne çıkmaktadır. Bunlar aynı zamanda genel inme prevalansının azalması anlamına gelmektedir. Yani AFnedenli inmenin engellenmesi toplum sağlığı için çağdaş bir gereklilik olarak algılanmalıdır. İnme klinik pratiğindekardiyoloji uzmanları ile birlikte bu bağlamda çaba sarf eden nöroloji uzmanları için Türk Beyin Damar HastalıklarıDerneği bu uzman görüşünü hazırladı. Görüşler NOAK grubu ilaçların kullanımında sıkça karşılaşılan sorunlar ve buproblemler için güncel çözüm önerilerini içermektedir.It is clear that nonvitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have been used successfully for more than ten years to preventstroke in atrial fibrillation. In addition to the fact that they cause significantly less bleeding compared to warfarin and canprevent stroke equally or more, their easy-to-use features stand out in reducing stroke due to atrial fibrillation in primaryprophylaxis. These also mean a decrease in the overall prevalence of stroke. For sure, prevention of AF-induced strokeshould be perceived as a contemporary requirement for public health. Turkish Society of Cerebrovascular Diseases hasprepared this expert opinion for neurologists who strive for this purpose together with cardiologists in the clinicalpractice of stroke. The article contains frequently encountered problems in the use of NOACs and current solutions forthese problems

Process development for an effective COVID-19 vaccine candidate harboring recombinant SARS-CoV-2 delta plus receptor binding domain produced by Pichia pastoris

Abstract Recombinant protein-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are needed to fill the vaccine equity gap. Because protein-subunit based vaccines are easier and cheaper to produce and do not require special storage/transportation conditions, they are suitable for low-/middle-income countries. Here, we report our vaccine development studies with the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Plus strain (RBD-DP) which caused increased hospitalizations compared to other variants. First, we expressed RBD-DP in the Pichia pastoris yeast system and upscaled it to a 5-L fermenter for production. After three-step purification, we obtained RBD-DP with > 95% purity from a protein yield of > 1 g/L of supernatant. Several biophysical and biochemical characterizations were performed to confirm its identity, stability, and functionality. Then, it was formulated in different contents with Alum and CpG for mice immunization. After three doses of immunization, IgG titers from sera reached to > 106 and most importantly it showed high T-cell responses which are required for an effective vaccine to prevent severe COVID-19 disease. A live neutralization test was performed with both the Wuhan strain (B.1.1.7) and Delta strain (B.1.617.2) and it showed high neutralization antibody content for both strains. A challenge study with SARS-CoV-2 infected K18-hACE2 transgenic mice showed good immunoprotective activity with no viruses in the lungs and no lung inflammation for all immunized mice