ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND@#Reviving patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (DOCs) has always been focused and challenging in medical research. Owing to the limited effectiveness of available medicine, recent research has increasingly turned towards neuromodulatory therapies, involving the stimulation of neural circuits. We summarised the progression of research regarding neuromodulatory therapies in the field of DOCs, compared the differences among different studies, in an attempt to explore optimal stimulation patterns and parameters, and analyzed the major limitations of the relevant studies to facilitate future research.@*METHODS@#We performed a search in the PubMed database, using the concepts of DOCs and neuromodulation. Inclusion criteria were: articles in English, published after 2002, and reporting clinical trials of neuromodulatory therapies in human patients with DOCs.@*RESULTS@#Overall, 187 published articles met the search criteria, and 60 articles met the inclusion criteria. There are differences among these studies regarding the clinical efficacies of neurostimulation techniques for patients with DOCs, and large-sample studies are still lacking.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Neuromodulatory techniques were used as trial therapies for DOCs wherein their curative effects were controversial. The difficulties in detecting residual consciousness, the confounding effect between the natural course of the disease and therapeutic effect, and the heterogeneity across patients are the major limitations. Large-sample, well-designed studies, and innovations for both treatment and assessment are anticipated in future research.
Subject(s)
Humans , Clinical Trials as Topic , Consciousness , Consciousness Disorders/therapy , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Amiodarone can lead to a series of thyroid dysfunction in antiarrhythmic patients, including hypothyroidism(AIH) or hyperthyroidism(AIT), which will lead to irreversible injury and even life-threatening. Therefore, the diagnosis,classification and management of amiodarone-related thyroid dysfunction is challenging, and standardized management is imperative. Combined with the basic viewpoints of the guidelines and evidence-based, in particular the”guidelines for the use of amiodarone” and the “guidelines for the management of 2018 ETA amiodarone-related thyroid dysfunction”, the diagnosis and treatment of amiodarone-related thyroid dysfunction is systematically described, Some opinions and suggestions were put forward to solve the clinical problems of amiodarone related thyroid dysfunction.
ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the commonly used consciousness scales according to longitudinal study on small-sample patients with minimally conscious state. Method Eleven patients with minimally consciousness, who were scanned using fMRI, were selected and scored by the commonly used consciousness scales in Wujing Hangzbeu Hospital. The 11 patients were classified into 2 groups according to the scores of CRS-R scale couple with the results of the fMRI study. The One-Way ANOVA method was used to analyze the inter-group difference of the commonly used consciousness scales and their subscales. Results Despite the communicative subscale of the CRS-R scales, other iterms lack of statistic significance in classification of the conscious state. Among the commonly used consciousness scales, the Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) scale presented the highest diagnostic value in consciousness state, whereas the Chinese Vegetative State Scale (CVSS) presented the lowest diagnostic value. Conclusions It indicated that the total scores of the consciousness scales and the scores of subscales of them presented poor diagnostic value in general, and big discrepancy of diagnostic value existed between the iterms of the scales by using objective tools.