ABSTRACT
The objective of this research is to identify the relationship between the neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) of patients with major neurocognitive disorder (mNCD), their quality of life, illness intrusiveness and the caregiver's burden. We assessed 131 patients with mNCD. Examination methods included WHO well-being index short version, illness intrusiveness rating scale, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cog, Mini Mental State Examination and neuropsychiatric inventory. The results were analysed using standard statistical tests. In our sample, the prevalence of NPSs is 100%. A significant correlation (p < 0.0001) was observed with quality of life and illness intrusiveness. Additionally, a strong relationship was observed between NPSs and the caregiver's burden (r = 0.9). The result is significantly twice as much stronger in comparison to the relationship between NPS and cognitive symptoms (r = 0.4). This is the first study in Hungary to assess the impact of NPS on the burden of relatives and quality of life. NPS had twice stronger impact on caregivers' burden than cognitive decline. However, further studies are needed to assess the sub-syndromes in mNCD in relation to NPS.
ABSTRACT
Xenon-induced neuroprotection has been well studied both in vivo and in vitro. In this study, the neuroprotective properties of the other noble gases, namely, krypton, argon, neon and helium, were explored in an in vitro model of neuronal injury. Pure neuronal cultures, derived from foetal BALB/c mice cortices, were provoked into injury by oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD). Cultures were exposed to either nitrogen hypoxia or noble gas hypoxia in balanced salt solution devoid of glucose for 90min. The cultures were allowed to recover in normal culture medium for a further 24h in nitrogen or noble gas. The effect of noble gases on cell reducing ability in the absence of OGD was also investigated. Cell reducing ability was quantified via an MTT assay and expressed as a ratio of the control. The OGD caused a reduction in cell reducing ability to 0.56+/-0.04 of the control in the absence of noble gas (p<0.001). Like xenon (0.92+/-0.10; p<0.001), neuroprotection was afforded by argon (0.71+/-0.05; p<0.01). Neon and krypton did not have a protective effect under our experimental conditions. Helium had a detrimental effect on the cells. In the absence of OGD, krypton reduced the reducing ability of uninjured cells to 0.84+/-0.09 (p<0.01), but argon showed an improvement in reducing ability to 1.15+/-0.11 (p<0.05). Our data suggest that the cheap and widely available noble gas argon may have potential as a neuroprotectant for the future.
