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BACKGROUND: Current clinical assessments of motor function in Huntington's Disease (HD) rely on subjective ratings such as the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating scale (UHDRS). The ability to track disease progression using simple, objective, inexpensive, and robust measures would be beneficial.METHODS: One objective measure of motor performance is hand-tapping. Over the last 14 years we have rou

The 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) neurotoxic lesion of the midbrain dopamine (DA) system is one of the most widely used techniques for modelling Parkinson's disease in rodents. The majority of studies using this approach, however, largely limit their analysis to lesioning acutely, and looking at behavioural deficits and the number of surviving tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-stained cells in the midbrain.

Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) has become an increasing area of research as treatments for the motor features of Parkinson's disease (PD) have improved and the population of patients with PD grows and ages. If predictors could be used to identify a sub-population of patients at risk of developing an early PDD then research into its neuropathological basis and treatment could be more effectivel

Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) are common in patients with established Parkinson's disease (PD) and have a major impact upon quality of life. We investigated the significance of NMS in relation to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with newly diagnosed PD. Patients and healthy controls were recruited as part of the Incidence of Cognitive Impairment in Cohorts with Longitudinal Evaluation

Finding new therapies for Parkinson's disease (PD) is a slow process. We assembled an international committee of experts to examine drugs potentially suitable for repurposing to modify PD progression. This committee evaluated multiple drugs currently used, or being developed, in other therapeutic areas, as well as considering several natural, non-pharmaceutical compounds. The committee prioritized

Cognitive features, which begin before manifestation of the motor features, are an integral part of Huntington's disease and profoundly affect quality of life. A number of neuropsychological batteries have been used to assess this aspect of the condition, many of which are difficult to administer and time consuming, especially in advanced disease. We, therefore, investigated a simple and practical

BACKGROUND: Personality traits influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Further, an individual's personality traits can influence the strategies they use to cope with a particular stressful situation. However, in PD, the interplay between personality traits, choice of coping strategy, and their subsequent effect on HRQoL remains unclear.OBJECTIVE: The objective

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease is a common disorder among older people. Accurate epidemiological information is essential to identify possible aetiological factors, plan health services and set priorities for medical research.OBJECTIVE: to determine the incidence of idiopathic Parkinson's disease in a defined geographical area in the North-East of England.METHODS: using a prospective, longitudina

BACKGROUND: Clinicians normally use subjective rating scales to estimate the impairment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). More objective and quantitative methods of assessment would greatly aid our understanding of the disease. One promising approach is to measure reaction time: the large amount of data recorded in a short period provides precise, reproducible evaluation of the underlying

BACKGROUND: Prognosis in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains poorly understood due to a lack of unbiased data on the natural history of treated PD. The CamPaIGN study has been the first to prospectively track disease evolution from diagnosis in an unselected population-representative incident cohort. We now report the 10-year follow-up data, focusing on three key irreversible milestones: postural ins

Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological

Acknowledging that the composition and structure of personal networks is affected by meeting opportunities, social distance, and national origin similarity, we aim to disentangle their association with triadic closure in the core of personal networks. We use data (collected 2009) on the core networks of three groups of Swedes (all born in 1990): native Swedes, and firstand second-generation immigr

OBJECTIVES: Up to 50% of patients qualified for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) have documented atrial fibrillation (AF) prior to CRT-implantation. This finding is associated with worse prognosis but few studies have evaluated the importance of post-implant device-detected AF. This study aimed to assess the prognostic impact of device-detected atrial high rate episodes (AHRE), as a surroga

BACKGROUND: Primary prophylactic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy is indicated for patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). We aimed to determine if preoperative clinical risk profiling can predict long-term benefit, and if clinical risk scores can be applied and improved in a patient cohort outside the clinical trial setting.METHODS: Using registry data

Although cardiac resynchronization therapy improves morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and electrical dyssynchrony, the rate of nonresponders using standard indications and implant techniques is still high. Optimal coronary sinus lead positioning is important to increase the chance of successful resynchronization. Patient factors such as cause of heart failure,

BACKGROUND: Prolongation of the baseline ECG PR interval is frequently encountered among cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) recipients. There are conflicting data regarding the association of a prolonged PR interval with long-term clinical outcome in this patient group.OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare clinical outcomes and response to CRT in patients with normal (<200 ms) v