Identification of New Antiseizure Medication Candidates in Preclinical Animal Studies.

Epilepsy is a multifactorial neurologic disease that often leads to many devastating disabilities and an enormous burden on the healthcare system. Until now, drug-resistant epilepsy has presented a major challenge for approximately 30% of the epileptic population. The present article summarizes the validated rodent models of seizures employed in pharmacological researches and comprehensively reviews updated advances of novel antiseizure candidates in the preclinical phase. Newly discovered compounds that demonstrate antiseizure efficacy in preclinical trials will be discussed in the review. It is inspiring that several candidates exert promising antiseizure activities in drug-resistant seizure models. The representative compounds consist of derivatives of hybrid compounds that integrate multiple approved antiseizure medications, novel positive allosteric modulators targeting subtype-selective γ-Aminobutyric acid type A receptors, and a derivative of cinnamamide. Although the precise molecular mechanism, pharmacokinetic properties, and safety are not yet fully clear in every novel antiseizure candidate, the adapted approaches to design novel antiseizure medications provide new insights to overcome drug-resistant epilepsy.

Ischemic stroke in a young patient with Fahr's disease: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Fahr's disease is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by diffuse intracranial calcium deposition and associated cell loss mainly in bilateral basal ganglia and dentate nuclei of the cerebellum. Subarachnoid hemorrhage and epileptic syncope had been reported as acute presentation of Fahr's disease. We here report a 36-year-old male Indonesian diagnosed as Fahr's disease presenting with young-onset ischemic stroke. CASE PRESENTATION: A 36-year-old male Indonesian without prior systemic disease or neurologic disorder presented with young-onset ischemic stroke involving the right posterior limb of internal capsule. Brain computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated symmetric calcifications in bilateral basal ganglia, internal capsules, cerebellar dentate nuclei, thalami, cerebral white matter, which were all consistent with Fahr's disease. The laboratory studies excluded the presence of other pathologic processes leading to secondary intracranial calcification. Other young stroke surveys were unremarkable. After medical treatment and sustained physical rehabilitation for 3 months, he recovered to carry out daily activities independently. CONCLUSION: We present ischemic stroke in a young patient with sporadic Fahr's disease. The differentiation between Fahr's disease and Fahr's syndrome is specially highlighted when brain CT exhibits diffuse, symmetric calcifications in bilateral basal ganglia, thalami, cerebellar dentate nuclei and cerebral white matter. The association between nonarteriosclerotic vascular calcification and cerebrovascular disease is worth special attention and further investigation.

[Study on the soil salinization monitoring based on synthetical hyperspectral index].

The present paper selected the spectral reflectivity of saline soil and vegetation of Weigan-Kuqa River Delta Oasis in the northern margin of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang as objects, and used various spectral transforms to process the data with continum removed methods, derivate spectra, reciprocal, first order differential and root mean square etc, then analyzed the spectrum features and decided the most sensitive band ranges most relevant to salinization, and used field hyperspectral vegetation index, soil salinity index and measured synthetical spectral index to respectively establish hyperspectral quantitative models which could evaluate the soil salinization degrees. By comparing various spectral transformations of hyperspectral data the result showed that the first derivative of measured soil and vegetation hyperspectral were most sensitive to soil salinization degrees. The hyperspectral quantitative model based on measured synthetical spectral index could monitor soil salinization accurately and was better than the models simply based on vegetation index or soil salinity index. The research provided some scientific basis with soil salinization detection.

Short sleep duration associated with a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome in an apparently healthy population.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome in an apparently healthy Chinese population. METHOD: The baseline data were collected from a health examination center in Tainan, Taiwan, from October 1, 2006, to August 31, 2009. A total of 7100 adults were recruited. Subjects were classified into three groups according to their sleep duration: short (<6 h), normal (6-8 h), and long sleepers (>8 h). RESULTS: There were significant differences in age, gender, education level, fasting plasma glucose, and the proportion of smoking status and exercise frequency among different sleep groups. Based on multiple logistic regression, short sleepers were positively associated with metabolic syndrome (OR=1.28, 95% CI: 1.01-1.63) in males but not in females (OR=1.04, 95% CI: 0.72-1.51). Long sleepers were not related with metabolic syndrome in both genders. Short sleep duration was independently related to hyperglycemia (OR=1.39, 95% CI: 1.10-1.74) also in males only. Other components such as hypertriglyceridemia, low high density lipoprotein cholesterol, high blood pressure and central obesity were not associated with short sleep duration. CONCLUSION: Males with short sleep duration are positively associated with metabolic syndrome and they also exhibited a higher prevalence of hyperglycemia.

Who can pass the ISCD professional certification course? The 8-yr experience in Taiwan.

The International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) launched the professional certification course in early 1996 and was introduced to Taiwan by the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association in 2002. Disclosing the associated factors of passing the certification examination would be valuable to advance the teaching skill of faculties and clinical excellence of professionals. From June 2002 to July 2009, 732 attendees (male/female=621/111) of 12 professional certification courses (11 courses delivered in Chinese) were enrolled for analysis. All subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire including demographics and professional experience at the time of course registration. After certification examination, subjects were dichotomized as either pass or fail group for analyzing the determinants of pass rate statistically. The average pass rate of the 12 examinations was 75.3% (n=551). In univariate analysis, the age (p<0.001) and hospital level (p<0.001) showed significant differences between the pass and fail groups. However, in the multivariate logistic analysis, only the age (odds ratio [OR]=0.907, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.867-0.949, p<0.001) and clinical experience (attending physician vs resident: OR=3.210, 95% CI: 1.215-8.485, p=0.019) were the independent determinants for passing the course. Professionals who are relatively younger or attending physicians have higher pass rate of ISCD course in Taiwan. The fact that only limited predisposing factors might influence the pass rate reflects the efficient design of course delivering. For any knowledge level of professionals who have interest in the excellence of osteoporosis diagnosis and management, the ISCD course is recommended.