Rileyjennings1333

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The detection and diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) is of paramount importance for optimal treatment and for participation in disease-modifying trials. The present study assesses the diagnostic accuracy of the Baylor Functional Assessment Scale (BFAS), a self-administered screening instrument, designed to distinguish between patients with PD, other disorders (OD), and healthy controls (HC).

Using the BFAS, we screened a total of 265 individuals including patients diagnosed at the Baylor College of Medicine Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic (PDCMDC) with PD (N=63) and with OD (N=47), and HC (N=155) participants recruited from the PDCMDC and community health fairs.

Significant group differences in BFAS total scores were found (F=172.6; p<0.001) between patients with PD and those with OD and both groups endorsed more items than the HC group. A cut-point of 3 on the BFAS total score maximized the sensitivity (85.7%, 95%CI 74.61% to 93.25%) and the specificity (87.7%, 05% Ci 81.52% to 92.46%) for distinguishing PD from HC with a negative predictive value (NPV) of 93.8% and a negative likelihood ratio (NLR) of 0.16. At a cut-point of 5, the BFAS maximized sensitivity (76%, 95% CI 63.79% to 86.02%) and specificity (72%, 95% CI 57.36% to 84.38%) for distinguishing PD from OD with a NPV of 69.4% and a NLR of 0.33.

In this pilot study, the BFAS provides a sensitive and specific screening tool for PD that helps differentiate individuals with PD from HC and from those with other disorders. Through future validation studies, the BFAS may be a useful instrument for identifying individuals with PD and for recruitment into PD clinical trials.

In this pilot study, the BFAS provides a sensitive and specific screening tool for PD that helps differentiate individuals with PD from HC and from those with other disorders. Through future validation studies, the BFAS may be a useful instrument for identifying individuals with PD and for recruitment into PD clinical trials.Stroke is a major public health issue in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the emergence of new effective interventions for acute stroke care, uptake remains slow and largely inaccessible to patients in LMICs, where health systems response has been inadequate. In this paper, we propose a policy framework to optimise access to acute stroke care in LMICs. read more We draw on evidence from relevant primary studies, such as availability of evidence-based acute stroke care interventions, barriers to uptake of interventions for stroke care and insights on stroke mortality and morbidity burden in LMICs. Insights from review of secondary studies, principally systematic reviews on evidence-based acute stroke care; and the accounts and experiences of some regional experts on stroke and other NCDs have been taken into consideration. In LMICs, there is limited availability and access to emergency medical transport services, brain imaging services and best practice interventions for acute stroke care. Availabigs, this list can provide a platform as well serve as the starting point for advocacy and prioritisation of interventions depending on context.

To identify a parsimonious set of markers that optimally predicts subsequent clinical progression from normal to mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

250 clinically normal adults (mean age=73.6years, SD=6.0) from the Harvard Aging Brain Study were assessed at baseline on a wide set of markers, including magnetic resonance imaging markers of gray matter thickness and volume, white matter lesions, fractional anisotropy, resting state functional connectivity, positron emission tomography markers of glucose metabolism and β-amyloid (Aβ) burden, and a measure of vascular risk. Participants were also tested annually on a battery of clinical and cognitive tests (median follow-up=5.0years, SD=1.66). We applied least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox models to determine the minimum set of non-redundant markers that predicts subsequent clinical progression from normal to MCI, adjusting for age, sex, and education.

23 participants (9.2%) progressed to MCI over the study period (mean years of followratification by identifying clinically normal individuals who are most likely to develop clinical symptoms and would likely benefit most from therapeutic intervention.The present study investigated functional connectivity and white matter integrity of the fronto-parietal network (FPN) to reveal the neural mechanisms that underlie late-life depression (LLD). Fifty patients with LLD and 40 non-depressed controls were included in the study. A multi-parametric approach was used by applying independent component analysis (ICA) to estimate functional connectivity of the FPN and by applying tract-based spatial statistics to examine white-matter integrity in tracts to the FPN. Patients with LLD exhibited functional abnormalities in the right inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal gyrus and lower white matter fractional anisotropy in the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, anterior thalamic radiation, and uncinate fasciculus. Alterations of functional connectivity and white matter fractional anisotropy in these regions were negatively correlated with the severity of symptomatic anxiety in LLD patients. The right inferior frontal gyrus might be a crucial hub in transferring information between these abnormal regions. Significant correlations were found between anxiety symptoms and brain alterations, suggesting that impairments in the FPN network might be involved in symptomatic anxiety in elderly individuals with depression.

This is a brief report of a systematic review and meta-analysis which examined the effectiveness of early childhood educational programs for preventing teenage pregnancy by synthesizing randomized control trials.

The search terms included 'children', 'early childhood intervention', and 'teen pregnancy'. Databases, bibliographies, grey literature, and policy reports were searched in February and March 2018 and included studies with interventions implemented with participants from birth to 5 years old.

Only four randomized control trials were eligible for inclusion. Individually, only two of the studies reported a significant effect of early childhood education. There was a significant effect for the primary outcome of teenage pregnancy prevention in the meta-analysis (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.54-0.89). However, the evidence was very weak. The meta-analysis results were weighted heavily by one study. Additionally, the included studies were conducted decades ago, lacked rigor, and varied considerably by curriculum, enrollment age, length, and intensity.