Virginia Commonwealth University

About: Virginia Commonwealth University is a education organization based out in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 23822 authors who have published 49587 publications receiving 1787046 citations. The organization is also known as: VCU.

Traumatic acute subdural hematoma: major mortality reduction in comatose patients treated within four hours.

Abstract: To discover which factors contributed to recovery after surgical intracranial decompression, we reviewed the records of 82 consecutive comatose patients with traumatic acute subdural hematoma (ASDH) who were treated in a single center under a uniform protocol. The delay from injury to operation was the factor of greatest therapeutic importance. Patients who underwent surgery within the first four hours had a 30 per cent mortality rate, as compared with 90 percent in those who had surgery after four hours (P less than 0.0001). Other important prognostic variables included results of the initial neurologic examination, sex, multimodality-evoked potentials, and postoperative intracranial pressure (ICP). If all patients with traumatic ASDH were taken directly to hospitals equipped to diagnose and remove the hematoma within four hours of injury, mortality rates could be reduced considerably.

Consensus Statement on the classification of tremors. from the task force on tremor of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Abstract: Background Consensus criteria for classifying tremor disorders were published by the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society in 1998. Subsequent advances with regard to essential tremor, tremor associated with dystonia, and other monosymptomatic and indeterminate tremors make a significant revision necessary. Objectives Convene an international panel of experienced investigators to review the definition and classification of tremor. Methods Computerized MEDLINE searches in January 2013 and 2015 were conducted using a combination of text words and MeSH terms: “tremor”, “tremor disorders”, “essential tremor”, “dystonic tremor”, and “classification” limited to human studies. Agreement was obtained using consensus development methodology during four in-person meetings, two teleconferences, and numerous manuscript reviews. Results Tremor is defined as an involuntary, rhythmic, oscillatory movement of a body part and is classified along two axes: Axis 1—clinical characteristics, including historical features (age at onset, family history, and temporal evolution), tremor characteristics (body distribution, activation condition), associated signs (systemic, neurological), and laboratory tests (electrophysiology, imaging); and Axis 2—etiology (acquired, genetic, or idiopathic). Tremor syndromes, consisting of either isolated tremor or tremor combined with other clinical features, are defined within Axis 1. This classification scheme retains the currently accepted tremor syndromes, including essential tremor, and provides a framework for defining new syndromes. Conclusions This approach should be particularly useful in elucidating isolated tremor syndromes and syndromes consisting of tremor and other signs of uncertain significance. Consistently defined Axis 1 syndromes are needed to facilitate the elucidation of specific etiologies in Axis 2. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Contribution of copy number variants to schizophrenia from a genome-wide study of 41,321 subjects

Abstract: Copy number variants (CNVs) have been strongly implicated in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). However, genome-wide investigation of the contribution of CNV to risk has been hampered by limited sample sizes. We sought to address this obstacle by applying a centralized analysis pipeline to a SCZ cohort of 21,094 cases and 20,227 controls. A global enrichment of CNV burden was observed in cases (odds ratio (OR) = 1.11, P = 5.7 × 10-15), which persisted after excluding loci implicated in previous studies (OR = 1.07, P = 1.7 × 10-6). CNV burden was enriched for genes associated with synaptic function (OR = 1.68, P = 2.8 × 10-11) and neurobehavioral phenotypes in mouse (OR = 1.18, P = 7.3 × 10-5). Genome-wide significant evidence was obtained for eight loci, including 1q21.1, 2p16.3 (NRXN1), 3q29, 7q11.2, 15q13.3, distal 16p11.2, proximal 16p11.2 and 22q11.2. Suggestive support was found for eight additional candidate susceptibility and protective loci, which consisted predominantly of CNVs mediated by nonallelic homologous recombination.