Hypothyroidism and Cardiovascular Disease: A Review.

Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder more commonly in older adults. Simultaneously, this population has an increased incidence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease, which remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Thyroid hormones (THs) promote adequate function of the cardiovascular system as they exert their effects through receptors located in the myocardium and the vasculature. In hypothyroidism, this homeostasis is disrupted, which leads to the emergence of pathogenic pathways that accelerate the progression of cardiovascular disease and aggravate its outcomes in these individuals. This article has reviewed existing literature on the relationship between hypothyroidism and cardiovascular disease (CVD). We have explored the pathogenic mechanisms linking both conditions and highlighted the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors as well as the increased incidence of cardiovascular events in overt and subclinical diseases. Furthermore, indications of hormone replacement therapy in subclinical disease and its efficacy in reducing CVD morbidities in a particular subset of patients have been discussed.

Behind the Mask: Parkinson's Disease and Depression.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common, prevalent neurodegenerative disease. It is mainly characterized by motor symptoms such as rigidity, tremors, and bradykinesia, but it can also manifest with non-motor symptoms, of which depression is the most frequent. The latter can impair the quality of life, yet it gets overlooked and goes untreated because of the significant overlap in their clinical features, hence making the diagnosis difficult. Furthermore, there is limited data on the availability of appropriate criteria for making the diagnosis of depression in PD patients, as it can occur with varying expressions throughout the course of PD or it can also precede it. This review article has included a brief discussion on the diagnosis of depression in PD patients and their overlapped clinical manifestations. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the disease processes of PD and depression and the pathways interconnecting them gives better knowledge on devising treatment options for the patients. Only studies from Pubmed were included and all other databases were excluded. Studies from the last 50 years were included. Suitable references included in these studies were also extracted. Thus, depression in PD and PD in depression, along with their pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options, have been discussed.

Antipyretic Use in Noncritically Ill Patients With Fever: A Review.

Antipyretics are one of the most frequently used agents in medicine. Numerous pharmacological agents, such as acetaminophen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs), salicylates, and selective cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) inhibitors, and nonpharmacological treatment modalities, such as tepid sponging and cooling blankets, are available for temperature reduction. There is a scarcity of definitive clinical guidelines on the choice of various agents in noncritically ill febrile patients. Our review examined the various modalities available for antipyresis and compared their safety and efficacy. The rationale for the choice of a particular pharmacological agent and route of administration were scrutinized. Our review also envisaged the perceived beneficial effects of antipyretics against the harmful side effects, including the evaluation of morbidity or mortality advantage conferred by antipyretics. The various toxicities associated with these agents were also highlighted.

Interstitial Lung Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Review.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorder. Although the joints are typically the first area affected in RA, it can also involve extra-articular regions. This article provides an overview on rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD), a component of the disease manifestations leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Managing these pulmonary symptoms in people with RA poses a number of difficulties for medical professionals. In this review article, we shed light on the prevalence of RA-ILD and the common pulmonary manifestations of RA, while focusing on the evolving pathogenesis concepts that link them to RA's autoimmune cascade. We also address the diagnostic challenges and the available screening modalities that aid in the early recognition and effective management of these pulmonary complications. Furthermore, glucocorticoids, disease-modifying antirheumatic medications, immunosuppressive medications, and biological agents are among the pharmacological approaches that have been explored in this review study.

The Relation Between Arterial Hypertension and Cognitive Impairment: A Literature Review.

The global increase in dementia cases, driven by improved life expectancy and reduced elderly mortality rates, presents a significant public health challenge. Dementia, characterized by a gradual and irreversible decline in cognitive abilities, affects individuals aged 65 and older, disrupting lives and straining healthcare systems. Hypertension significantly influences dementia development. Research consistently links midlife hypertension to cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia, but findings in older adults vary. While some studies suggest that late-life hypertension accelerates cognitive decline and dementia risk, others propose a protective effect. The impact of hypertension on cognition varies across age groups, spanning from childhood to late life. High blood pressure during midlife and earlier life stages consistently predicts poorer cognitive outcomes. Executive function, attention, and motor speed are the cognitive domains most affected by hypertension, particularly in subcortical diseases. Memory impairments in hypertension-related dementias are complex, often overlapping with other causes. Understanding the inconsistent findings in older adults regarding hypertension, cognitive decline, and dementia risk requires comprehensive exploration of methodological and biological factors. Addressing hypertension and its management may hold the key to reducing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, especially in midlife and earlier life stages.

Minimally Invasive Resection of Spinal Tumors with Tubular Retractor: Case Series, Surgical Technique, and Outcome.

BACKGROUND: Traditional laminectomy for excision of spinal tumors involves extensive dissection of the midline spinous ligaments, greater blood loss, and risk of delayed segmental instability. The minimally invasive technique of spinal tumor resection using tubular retractors can achieve safe and complete tumor resection while preserving the structural and functional integrity. The authors present their experience of minimally invasive spinal surgery for spinal tumors in this case series. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed 41 consecutive spinal tumor cases operated by the MISS-Key Hole technique using the tubular retractor system at Sree Utharadom Thirunal Hospital, Kerala, India between January 2015 and January 2020. Preoperative clinical findings, surgical technique, operative statistics, complications, and patient outcomes were analyzed in detail. RESULTS: We could successfully achieve gross total resection in 39 cases (95.12%) and subtotal resection in 2 cases. There were 4 cervical, 1 craniovertebral junction, 20 thoracic, 14 lumbar, and 2 sacral lesions, of which 4 were extradural, 1 extradural foraminal, 33 intradural, and 3 dumbbell lesions. The Modified McCormick Scale at 12 weeks had improved by 1-2 scales in all but 2 patients. There was no cerebrospinal fluid leak, pseudomeningocele, or infection in our series. CONCLUSIONS: This series demonstrates the feasibility, safety and effectiveness of the keyhole approach for excision of intradural and extradural spinal tumors extending up to 2 levels. Careful case selection, good preoperative planning, meticulous microsurgical resection, and watertight dural closure are crucial for successful outcome. Early mobilization, less blood loss, and avoidance of delayed instability are the advantages of minimally invasive spinal surgery when compared with open surgery.

Hypoglossal Nerve Schwannoma With Severe Brainstem Compression: Microsurgical Excision by Extreme Lateral Approach: 2-Dimensional Operative Video.

A 37-yr-old male presented with a history of left-sided tongue atrophy and fasciculations and weakness of upper limbs for 3 mo. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a large, partially cystic tumor with severe compression of the brainstem and spinal cord, with expansion and erosion of the hypoglossal canal. Computed tomography (CT) angiography showed the left vertebral artery to be anteriorly displaced by the tumor. A retrosigmoid craniotomy and craniectomy were performed followed by mastoidectomy with unroofing the posterior aspect of the sigmoid sinus. The foramen magnum was completely unroofed. The hypoglossal canal was exposed with a diamond drill and an ultrasonic bone curette, and a tumor was seen within the expanded canal. C1 lamina was removed partially in the lateral aspect, and the occipital condyle was partially removed. After opening the dura mater, the tumor was found to be stretching the eleventh cranial nerve. The tumor was debulked, and dissected from the cranial nerve fibers. The vertebral artery, anterior spinal artery, and other branches displaced by the tumor were carefully preserved. The tumor was removed from the hypoglossal canal with a curette. The patient recovered well, with the resolution of his upper limb weakness. Patient modified Rankin Scale was 1 at 6-mo follow-up. The postoperative MRI showed a small remnant inside the hypoglossal canal, and it was treated by radiosurgery. This 2-dimensional video demonstrates the technique of complete microsurgical removal of a complex tumor with preservation of cranial nerves and vertebral artery. Informed consent was obtained from the patient prior to the surgery, which included videotaping of the procedure and its distribution for educational purposes. Also, all relevant patient identifiers have been removed from the video and accompanying radiology slides.

Cavernous Sinus Meningioma: Tumor Decompression for Trigeminal Neuralgia and Anterior Tibial Artery Graft High-Flow Bypass for Brain Ischemia: 2-Dimensional Operative Video.

A 62-yr-old man with left cavernous sinus tumor presented with atypical trigeminal neuralgia refractory to medical treatment. He received Gamma Knife (Elekta) radiation for the tumor. However, the facial pain worsened after radiation. Neuropsychological testing done for memory problems had revealed mild neurocognitive disorder. Neurological examination showed trigeminal distribution numbness and partial abducens nerve paralysis. Imaging revealed an enhancing left cavernous sinus and supra-cavernous mass. Angiography revealed severe stenosis of the left cavernous internal carotid artery (ICA). Computed tomography (CT) perfusion study showed diminished blood flow on the left side, and ischemic changes were seen in fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Surgical resection of the tumor was preferred over ablative treatment for trigeminal neuralgia because of its effectiveness in improving cranial nerve (CN) function.1 The patient underwent staged surgeries. In the first stage, the tumor was partially excised with decompression of the trigeminal ganglion and nerve root in the lateral cavernous sinus wall, Meckel's cave. Postoperatively, MR angiography revealed worsening of the left ICA caliber. Therefore, a high-flow bypass from the external carotid artery to the middle cerebral artery (MCA) was performed with an anterior tibial artery graft. The patient recovered initially but developed enterococcus meningitis postoperatively, which was promptly identified and treated with antibiotics. At 1-yr follow-up, the graft was patent, and the patient had significant relief of his facial pain and cognitively improved. This 2-dimensional video demonstrates the technique of partial excision of cavernous sinus meningioma with CN decompression, and the technique of a high-flow bypass from the external carotid artery to M2 MCA segment using an anterior tibial artery graft. The patient gave informed consent for surgery and video recording. All relevant patient identifiers have been removed from the video and accompanying radiology slides.

Complex Chiari Malformation Presenting with Bulbar Symptoms in an Adult: Single-stage Posterior Fusion and Foramen Magnum Decompression: A Rare Case Report.

Complex Chiari malformation (CCM) is a spectrum of congenital bony and soft tissue abnormalities, which includes Chiari 1.5 malformation, medullary kinking, retroflexed odontoid, abnormal clival-cervical angle (CXA), occipitalization of the atlas, basilar invagination, syringomyelia, and scoliosis. CCM usually manifests in the pediatric age group and is a challenging entity to treat. It requires detailed evaluation of craniometric indices to decide the appropriate surgical management. Patients with maximum perpendicular distance of dens to the line from the basion to the inferoposterior part of the C2 body (pBC2 line) of more than 9 mm and CXA <125° require a posterior fixation and will benefit from a single-stage posterior fusion and foramen magnum decompression (FMD). We report a rare case of CCM manifesting in a 32-year-old male with brainstem compression and bulbar symptoms. We could realign the craniovertebral junction with only a C1-C2 fixation by a modified distraction, compression, extension, and reduction technique and also relieve the neural compression by FMD and tonsillar resection in a single surgery with a good outcome. The authors find it to be an effective alternative to avoid the occipital fixation.

Women in Neurosurgery (WIN): Barriers to Progress, World WIN Directory and the Way Forward.

Women in Neurosurgery (WIN) have come a long way and are making inroads in every neurosurgical subspecialty. There has been a worldwide increase in the number of female neurosurgeons both in the training and practice. Although this is a welcome trend, gender equality at work in terms of opportunities, promotions, and pay scales are yet to be attained. This is more apparent in the developing and underdeveloped nations. Barriers for a female neurosurgeon exist in every phase before entering residency, during training, and at workplace. In the neurosurgical specialty, only a few women are in chief academic and leadership positions, and this situation needs to improve. WIN should be motivated to pursue fellowships, sub-specialty training, research, and academic activities. Furthermore, men should come forward to mentor women, only then the gender debates will disappear and true excellence in neurosurgery can be attained. This article reviews the issues that are relevant in the present era focusing on the barriers faced by female neurosurgeons in the developing and underdeveloped countries and the possible solutions to achieve gender equality in neurosurgery. The authors also present the data from the World WIN Directory collected as a part of Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons-WINS project 2019. These numbers are expected to grow as the WIN progress and add value to the neurosurgical community at large.

Demystifying White Matter Injury in the Unconscious Patients with Diffusion Tensor Imaging.

BACKGROUND: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) provide a noninvasive window to study the neural connectivity and reconstruct the tracts. Detection of white matter injury (WMI) by DTT is a recent application being used in stroke, diffuse axonal injury, and neurodegenerative disorders. Fiber tracking in patients with brain hemorrhage can detect loss of fibers and anatomical disruption of the tracts, which can be useful in the prognostication of patient outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DTI and fiber tracking was done in four patients admitted at Fujita Health University Banbuntane Hospital, Japan, with decreased consciousness following brain hemorrhage (3 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and one patient with bifrontal hemorrhage), and WMI was analyzed. We also reviewed the literature on tractography in patients with brain hemorrhage and its correlation with consciousness. RESULTS: We found significant frontal WMI in the form of thinning and anatomical disruption in all four cases. The frontal white matter tracts form an important component of the limbic system and ascending reticular activating system and frontal WMI correlated with the poor conscious level and cognitive dysfunction. Structural damage to the fiber tracts demonstrated as thinning, reduction in the volume or absence on tractography with corresponding reduction in the mean fractional anisotropy values in the frontal white matter of the affected side. CONCLUSION: DTI can be useful as a critical tool for revealing the anatomical basis for the cognitive dysfunction and unconsciousness and can be possibly used to prognosticate patient recovery. Early detection of WMI by DTI can also help in tailored rehabilitation. The authors believe that DTT could have a crucial role in the future for detecting structural changes which lead to cognitive dysfunction and further studies are needed to arrive at a specific protocol for detecting WMI.

Comparative Outcome Analysis of Enterprise and Neuroform Stent-Assisted Coiling of Cerebral Aneurysms: A Review of the Literature.

INTRODUCTION: One of the popular treatment strategies for complex cerebral aneurysms with wide necks or low dome-to-neck ratios is stent-assisted coiling. The most widely used intracranial stents for stent-assisted coiling are Neuroform (NF) and Enterprise (EP) stents. The purposes of this study are to review the recent literature of the past 5 years to compare outcomes between the EP and NF stent-assist coiling systems so as to comment on the safety, efficacy, complications, and recurrence rate of stent-assisted coiling in general. METHODS: PubMed was used to search for all published literature of NF or EP stent-assisted coiling of unruptured cerebral aneurysms from January 2014 to August 2019 with the search terms of "Enterprise stent-assisted coiling," "Neuroform stent," and "Neuroform vs. Enterprise stent." RESULTS: Twenty two publications met the inclusion criteria which encompass 1764 patients and 1873 aneurysms. Out of these 1873 aneurysms, 1007 aneurysms were treated with EP stent and 866 aneurysms were treated with NF stent. The overall outcome was low rates of thromboembolic complications (4.37%) and intracranial hemorrhage (1.13%), low permanent morbidity (1.70%) and mortality (0.40%), and lower rate of recanalization (11%). Data analysis shows an overall higher rate of complication and recurrence of aneurysm and lower overall rate of aneurysmal occlusion in the patients where EP stent was used in comparison to NF stent. However, this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The review of two stent-assisted coiling devices using EP and NF stents including 1873 aneurysms in 1764 patients revealed that overall, it is safe and effective with comparable outcomes.

Primary Intracranial Ewing's Sarcoma (Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumour of Parietal Bone) with Spinal and Pelvic Metastasis in a Young Female Child: Rare Case Report and Review

Introduction The Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumour (pPNET)/Ewing's sarcoma family tumor (ESFT) group is a recently redefined term which includes all small round cell tumors of bone, soft tissue, and nerve with a common neuroectodermal origin. These highly aggressive pediatric soft tissue tumors occur less frequently in the craniospinal axis. Primary cranial lesion associated with spinal and pelvic metastasis is a rare presentation. Clinical Presentation A 9-year old girl was hospitalized with features of progressive increase in intracranial pressure with quadriparesis. The patient had ⅘ quadriparesis with bilateral papilledema. Brain MRI showed a large, hetero intense, contrast enhancing right parietal bony lesion infiltrating the dura with mass effect over the brain. Brain CT showed bony expansion and multiple calvarial lytic lesions. MRI cervical spine revealed collapsed fourth cervical vertebral body with extensive paravertebral and paraspinal soft tissue components with cord compression. Metastatic workup revealed a lytic lesion in the left iliac bone and left lung. The patient underwent a surgically challenging C4 corpectomy with cage fixation followed by craniotomy and excision of parietal bony lesion with titanium mesh cranioplasty in the same sitting. Histopathology revealed pPNET and was confirmed by CD99 positivity. Conclusion This rare multiple site tumor presentation was carefully planned and effectively managed by a combined single-stage surgical approach involving total excision of primary parietal bone and metastatic cervical spine tumors with primary titanium mesh cranioplasty and cervical spine stabilization, followed with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which resulted in good recovery and improved the overall prognosis for the patient.

Introdução O grupo 'tumor neuroectodérmico primitivo periférico (pPNET) / tumor da família dos sarcomas de Ewing (ESFT)' é um termo recentemente redefinido o qual inclui todos as pequenas arredondadas células de tumor ósseo, tecidos moles e nervos com origem neuroectodérmica comum. Estes tumores pediátricos de tecido mole altamente agressivos ocorrem com menor frequência no eixo cranioespinal. Lesões primárias do crânio associadas a metástase espinhal e pélvica são raras. Relato de Caso Criança de 9 anos de idade hospitalizada com fraturas e pressão intracraniana crescente com quadriparesia. A paciente teve ⅘ de quadriparesia com papiledema bilateral. RM do cérebro por contraste mostrou uma lesão óssea parietal direita extensa e hétero-intensa infiltrando a dura-máter com efeito maciço sobre o cérebro. TC do cérebro mostrou expansão óssea e múltiplas lesões líticas na calota craniana. RM da espinha cervical revelou colapso da quarta vertebra cervical com componentes paravertebral e paraespinal de tecido mole com compressão da medula. Workup metastático revelou uma lesão lítica no ilíaco esquerdo e pulmão esquerdo. A paciente foi submetida a difícil corpectomia da C4 com fixação de cage seguida de craniotomia e excisão da lesão parietal óssea com cranioplastia com malha de titânio na mesma posição. Histopatologia revelou pPNET, confirmada por positividade de CD99. Conclusão Este raro caso com apresentação de múltiplos tumores foi cuidadosamente planejado e eficazmente conduzido por acessos cirúrgicos combinados em fase única envolvendo excisão total do osso parietal primário e tumores metastáticos da espinhal cervical com cranioplastia com malha de titânio e estabilização da espinha cervical, seguida de radioterapia e quimioterapia, resultando em boa recuperação e melhora no prognóstico geral da paciente.