Short- and long-term effects of imatinib in hospitalised COVID-19 patients: A randomised trial.

OBJECTIVES: We studied the short- and long-term effects of imatinib in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. METHODS: Participants were randomised to receive standard of care (SoC) or SoC with imatinib. Imatinib dosage was 400mg daily until discharge (max 14 days). Primary outcomes were mortality at 30 days and 1 year. Secondary outcomes included recovery, quality of life and long COVID symptoms at 1 year. We also performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials studying imatinib for 30-day mortality in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. RESULTS: We randomised 156 patients (73 in SoC and 83 in imatinib). Among patients on imatinib, 7.2% had died at 30 days and 13.3% at 1 year and in SoC 4.1% and 8.2% (adjusted HR 1.35, 95% CI 0.47-3.90). At 1-year, self-reported recovery occurred in 79.0% in imatinib and in 88.5% in SoC (RR 0.91, 0.78-1.06). We found no convincing difference in quality of life or symptoms. Fatigue (24%) and sleep issues (20%) frequently bothered patients at one year. In the meta-analysis, imatinib was associated with a mortality risk ratio of 0.73 (0.32-1.63; low certainty evidence). CONCLUSIONS: The evidence raises doubts regarding benefit of imatinib in reducing mortality, improving recovery and preventing long COVID symptoms in hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Respiratory brain impulse propagation in focal epilepsy.

Respiratory brain pulsations pertaining to intra-axial hydrodynamic solute transport are markedly altered in focal epilepsy. We used optical flow analysis of ultra-fast functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to investigate the velocity characteristics of respiratory brain impulse propagation in patients with focal epilepsy treated with antiseizure medication (ASM) (medicated patients with focal epilepsy; ME, n = 23), drug-naïve patients with at least one seizure (DN, n = 19) and matched healthy control subjects (HC, n = 75). We detected in the two patient groups (ME and DN) several significant alterations in the respiratory brain pulsation propagation velocity, which showed a bidirectional change dominated by a reduction in speed. Furthermore, the respiratory impulses moved more in reversed or incoherent directions in both patient groups vs. the HC group. The speed reductions and directionality changes occurred in specific phases of the respiratory cycle. In conclusion, irrespective of medication status, both patient groups showed incoherent and slower respiratory brain impulses, which may contribute to epileptic brain pathology by hindering brain hydrodynamics.

Effect of remdesivir post hospitalization for COVID-19 infection from the randomized SOLIDARITY Finland trial.

We report the first long-term follow-up of a randomized trial (NCT04978259) addressing the effects of remdesivir on recovery (primary outcome) and other patient-important outcomes one year after hospitalization resulting from COVID-19. Of the 208 patients recruited from 11 Finnish hospitals, 198 survived, of whom 181 (92%) completed follow-up. At one year, self-reported recovery occurred in 85% in remdesivir and 86% in standard of care (SoC) (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.47-1.90). We infer no convincing difference between remdesivir and SoC in quality of life or symptom outcomes (p > 0.05). Of the 21 potential long-COVID symptoms, patients reported moderate/major bother from fatigue (26%), joint pain (22%), and problems with memory (19%) and attention/concentration (18%). In conclusion, after a one-year follow-up of hospitalized patients, one in six reported they had not recovered well from COVID-19. Our results provide no convincing evidence of remdesivir benefit, but wide confidence intervals included possible benefit and harm.

Increased very low frequency pulsations and decreased cardiorespiratory pulsations suggest altered brain clearance in narcolepsy.

Background: Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disease characterized by daytime sleep attacks, cataplexy, and fragmented sleep. The disease is hypothesized to arise from destruction or dysfunction of hypothalamic hypocretin-producing cells that innervate wake-promoting systems including the ascending arousal network (AAN), which regulates arousal via release of neurotransmitters like noradrenalin. Brain pulsations are thought to drive intracranial cerebrospinal fluid flow linked to brain metabolite transfer that sustains homeostasis. This flow increases in sleep and is suppressed by noradrenalin in the awake state. Here we tested the hypothesis that narcolepsy is associated with altered brain pulsations, and if these pulsations can differentiate narcolepsy type 1 from healthy controls. Methods: In this case-control study, 23 patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) were imaged with ultrafast fMRI (MREG) along with 23 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). The physiological brain pulsations were quantified as the frequency-wise signal variance. Clinical relevance of the pulsations was investigated with correlation and receiving operating characteristic analysis. Results: We find that variance and fractional variance in the very low frequency (MREGvlf) band are greater in NT1 compared to HC, while cardiac (MREGcard) and respiratory band variances are lower. Interestingly, these pulsations differences are prominent in the AAN region. We further find that fractional variance in MREGvlf shows promise as an effective bi-classification metric (AUC = 81.4%/78.5%), and that disease severity measured with narcolepsy severity score correlates with MREGcard variance (R = -0.48, p = 0.0249). Conclusions: We suggest that our novel results reflect impaired CSF dynamics that may be linked to altered glymphatic circulation in narcolepsy type 1.

Increased interictal synchronicity of respiratory related brain pulsations in epilepsy.

Respiratory brain pulsations have recently been shown to drive electrophysiological brain activity in patients with epilepsy. Furthermore, functional neuroimaging indicates that respiratory brain pulsations have increased variability and amplitude in patients with epilepsy compared to healthy individuals. To determine whether the respiratory drive is altered in epilepsy, we compared respiratory brain pulsation synchronicity between healthy controls and patients. Whole brain fast functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 40 medicated patients with focal epilepsy, 20 drug-naïve patients and 102 healthy controls. Cerebrospinal fluid associated respiratory pulsations were used to generate individual whole brain respiratory synchronization maps, which were compared between groups. Finally, we analyzed the seizure frequency effect and diagnostic accuracy of the respiratory synchronization defect in epilepsy. Respiratory brain pulsations related to the verified fourth ventricle pulsations were significantly more synchronous in patients in frontal, periventricular and mid-temporal regions, while the seizure frequency correlated positively with synchronicity. The respiratory brain synchronicity had a good diagnostic accuracy (ROCAUC = 0.75) in discriminating controls from medicated patients. The elevated respiratory brain synchronicity in focal epilepsy suggests altered physiological effect of cerebrospinal fluid pulsations possibly linked to regional brain water dynamics involved with interictal brain physiology.

Respiratory-related brain pulsations are increased in epilepsy-a two-centre functional MRI study.

Resting-state functional MRI has shown potential for detecting changes in cerebral blood oxygen level-dependent signal in patients with epilepsy, even in the absence of epileptiform activity. Furthermore, it has been suggested that coefficient of variation mapping of fast functional MRI signal may provide a powerful tool for the identification of intrinsic brain pulsations in neurological diseases such as dementia, stroke and epilepsy. In this study, we used fast functional MRI sequence (magnetic resonance encephalography) to acquire ten whole-brain images per second. We used the functional MRI data to compare physiological brain pulsations between healthy controls (n = 102) and patients with epilepsy (n = 33) and furthermore to drug-naive seizure patients (n = 9). Analyses were performed by calculating coefficient of variation and spectral power in full band and filtered sub-bands. Brain pulsations in the respiratory-related frequency sub-band (0.11-0.51 Hz) were significantly (P < 0.05) increased in patients with epilepsy, with an increase in both signal variance and power. At the individual level, over 80% of medicated and drug-naive seizure patients exhibited areas of abnormal brain signal power that correlated well with the known clinical diagnosis, while none of the controls showed signs of abnormality with the same threshold. The differences were most apparent in the basal brain structures, respiratory centres of brain stem, midbrain and temporal lobes. Notably, full-band, very low frequency (0.01-0.1 Hz) and cardiovascular (0.8-1.76 Hz) brain pulses showed no differences between groups. This study extends and confirms our previous results of abnormal fast functional MRI signal variance in epilepsy patients. Only respiratory-related brain pulsations were clearly increased with no changes in either physiological cardiorespiratory rates or head motion between the subjects. The regional alterations in brain pulsations suggest that mechanisms driving the cerebrospinal fluid homeostasis may be altered in epilepsy. Magnetic resonance encephalography has both increased sensitivity and high specificity for detecting the increased brain pulsations, particularly in times when other tools for locating epileptogenic areas remain inconclusive.

Variants p.Q1236H and p.E1143G in mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma POLG1 are not associated with increased risk for valproate-induced hepatotoxicity or pancreatic toxicity: A retrospective cohort study of patients with epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have suggested that heterozygous variants p.Q1236H and p.E1143G in mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (POLG1) increase the risk for liver injury for patients on valproate (VPA) therapy. We assessed the prevalence of these common variants and seven other pathogenic mutations in POLG1 and determined the occurrence of VPA-induced hepatotoxicity (VHT) or pancreatic toxicity in a cohort of patients with epilepsy. METHODS: Patients with epilepsy (N = 367) were retrospectively identified from medical record files and screened for mutations in POLG1. Patients who had received VPA monotherapy and carried either of the two variants, p.Q1236H or p.E1143G, without other pathogenic mutations in POLG1 (n = 33, variant group) and patients without these variants (n = 28, nonvariant group) were included in the study. Clinical data on epilepsy, characteristics of VPA treatment, risk factors for VHT, laboratory data on liver and pancreas functions, and adverse effects were collected. RESULTS: A total of 122 patients had either the POLG1 p.Q1236H (n = 99) or p.E1143G (n = 24) variant in the heterozygous or homozygous state. Transient liver dysfunction was identified in three (n = 33, 9.1%) variant group patients and in one (n = 28, 3.6%) nonvariant group patient (P = 0.62). Mild to moderate elevations in liver enzymes were encountered in both groups. Furthermore, two patients on VPA polytherapy developed acute pancreatitis, and two pediatric patients with heterozygous p.Q1236H variants and mutations in IQSEC2 and GLDC, respectively, had elevated levels of VPA metabolites in urine, elevated plasma glycine, and/or increased acylglycine excretion. SIGNIFICANCE: POLG1 p.Q1236H and p.E1143G variants could not be identified as statistically significant risk factors for VHT or pancreatic toxicity. We suggest that VPA treatment could be suitable for patients who harbor these common variants in the absence of other pathogenic mutations in POLG1.

Altered physiological brain variation in drug-resistant epilepsy.

INTRODUCTION: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG-fMRI) has become a major tool in mapping epilepsy sources. In the absence of detectable epileptiform activity, the resting state fMRI may still detect changes in the blood oxygen level-dependent signal, suggesting intrinsic alterations in the underlying brain physiology. METHODS: In this study, we used coefficient of variation (CV) of critically sampled 10 Hz ultra-fast fMRI (magnetoencephalography, MREG) signal to compare physiological variance between healthy controls (n = 10) and patients (n = 10) with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). RESULTS: We showed highly significant voxel-level (p < 0.01, TFCE-corrected) increase in the physiological variance in DRE patients. At individual level, the elevations range over three standard deviations (σ) above the control mean (µ) CVMREG values solely in DRE patients, enabling patient-specific mapping of elevated physiological variance. The most apparent differences in group-level analysis are found on white matter, brainstem, and cerebellum. Respiratory (0.12-0.4 Hz) and very-low-frequency (VLF = 0.009-0.1 Hz) signal variances were most affected. CONCLUSIONS: The CVMREG increase was not explained by head motion or physiological cardiorespiratory activity, that is, it seems to be linked to intrinsic physiological pulsations. We suggest that intrinsic brain pulsations play a role in DRE and that critically sampled fMRI may provide a powerful tool for their identification.

Medical students' experience of emotions and success in neurological studies - What do they tell us?

BACKGROUND: There is a need to develop effective educational experience in neurology to improve the students' skills in diagnosing and managing patients with neurological symptoms or disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the medical students' attitudes and emotions towards neurology before and after the four week clinical course at two Finnish Universities in order to find elements to improve effective learning by decreasing the emotional stress in medical studies. METHODS: In this two-stage study, 58 medical students participated in an internet survey with open-ended questions after completing a clinical neurology course. In the content analysis of this survey 20 students (35%) were identified with negative anticipation towards neurology before undertaking the clinical neurology course. In the second phase of the study, the narrative analysis method was used to analyse the face-to-face interviews. Two of these interviews are described in this paper and represent cases who expressed negative emotions in both online survey and narrative interview. RESULTS: According to the content analysis, the principal emotions that were experienced at the beginning of the clinical neurology course were insecurity about personal performance (n = 19, 95%) anxiety (n = 9, 45%) and fear (n = 6, 30%). During the course the combined negative emotions (insecurity, anxiety, and fear) decreased in 80% of students (16/20 cases), remained unchanged in 15% (3/20) and could not be evaluated in 1 (5%) case. The main reasons for the observed negative anticipation were the complexity of neurology and challenges in the interpretation of clinical findings. Based on content analysis and narratives, elements that were evaluated as the most significant contributors in reducing this included small group teaching with real patients, teachers' expertise and the increase in self-confidence. CONCLUSION: Teaching with appropriate didactic methodology and feedback, and plenty of practical training can improve effective learning in neurology. We suggest that the pedagogic competence of the clinical teacher influences a student's motivation and proficiency and reduce stress in neurology-related learning tasks.

Psychiatric and neurological disorders are associated with bullous pemphigoid - a nationwide Finnish Care Register study.

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune blistering skin disease with increasing incidence. BP is associated with neurological disorders, but it has not been established, what subtypes of dementia and stroke are associated with BP, and what is the temporal relation between these diseases. Also, the association between BP and psychiatric disorders is controversial. We conducted a retrospective nationwide study, using the Finnish Care Register for Health Care diagnoses between 1987 and 2013. The study population of 4524 BP patients were compared with 66138 patients with basocellular carcinoma (BCC), neurological and psychiatric comorbid disorders were evaluated for both groups, and associations were estimated by Cox regression and logistic regression analyses. The strongest risk of developing BP was found after diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) (OR=5.9, 95% CI 3.9-8.5). Among psychiatric diseases, the corresponding risk was strongest in schizophrenia (OR=2.7, 95% CI 2.0-3.5), and as a novel finding, also personality disorders (OR=2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.3) preceded BP. In conclusion, many psychiatric disorders, especially schizophrenia, carry heightened risk for BP. Furthermore, several neurological diseases which cause central nervous system inflammation or degeneration were related to BP, and the association was strongest between MS and BP.

Antiepileptic medications and the risk for sudden cardiac death caused by an acute coronary event: a prospective case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is associated with sudden death, but the reasons for this association are not well known. Objective We studied the role of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) as a factor contributing to sudden cardiac death (SCD) in The Finnish Study of the Genotype and Phenotype Characteristics of Sudden Cardiac Death (FinGesture). METHODS AND RESULTS: The FinGesture study compares the characteristics of victims of SCD caused by an autopsy-verified acute coronary event (cases) vs. survivors of an acute coronary event (ACS) (controls). The study population comprised 3737 cases (mean age 64 ± 12 y) and 3081 controls (mean age 66 ± 12 y). The use of AED was obtained from death certificates, autopsy/hospital records, national drug imbursement register, and interviews with the relatives. AEDs were more commonly used by the victims of SCD vs. controls (5.5% vs. 2.2%, adjusted odds ratio 2.7, 95% CI; 1.9-3.9; p < 0001). The use of AED for non-epilepsy indications was also more common in the cases than in controls (1.5% vs. 1.0%, p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: A higher rate of AED was observed in victims of SCD than in a control group of ACS patients. Concomitant use of AED could be responsible for a small fraction of deaths due to acute coronary events. Key message Epilepsy has been associated with sudden cardiac death. The use of antiepileptic drugs seems to be associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death during a coronary event. Physicians should be aware of the risk related to antiepileptic drugs especially when used for other reasons than epilepsy.

Epilepsy, excess deaths and years of life lost from external causes.

We systematically quantified excess mortality in epilepsy patients by cause of death using the population-attributable fraction and epilepsy-attributable years of potential life lost (YPLL) by age 75 years at ages 15 and over. We updated and undertook a re-review of mortality studies from our previous systematic review following PRISMA guidelines to identify cohort studies of general epilepsy populations reporting a relative risk (RR) of death by cause relative to the background rates in the population. Studies on epilepsy prevalence were identified through published reviews. Country-specific mortality figures were obtained from the WHO World Mortality Database. We performed a pooled analysis with the DerSimonian-Laird random effects method. In countries with very high Human Development Indices, epilepsy contributed to 0.5-1.1 % of all deaths in the total population. Among external causes, suicides (RR 2.9, 95 % confidence interval 2.2-3.8; I(2) 52 %) were the major contributor to YPLL, corresponding to 6.7 % and 4.2 % of excess YPLL due to epilepsy in the United States (US) and in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2010, with 541 (346-792) and 44 (28-65) excess suicide cases, respectively. Fatal accidental falls were more common, with 813 (610-1064) and 95 (71-125) excess deaths in the US and in the UK, but these caused only 2.0 % of excess YPLL as they occurred in older age groups. Suicides were the most important external cause of death in epilepsy patients in terms of excess YPLL, whereas other external causes were either more common in older ages or caused less excess deaths.

Epilepsy-related clinical characteristics and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: We systematically synthesized the epidemiologic literature on mortality in patients with epilepsy (PWE) by epilepsy-related clinical characteristics with an aggregate data meta-analysis. METHODS: We systematically searched 15 electronic databases, browsed reference lists of pertinent publications, and contacted authors in the field. We were interested in cohort studies that reported the relative risk of death in representative epilepsy populations relative to the general population, with exclusion of highly selected subpopulations of PWE, such as patients with intellectual disabilities or epilepsy surgery series. Search, data abstraction, and study quality assessment with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale were all performed in duplicate. RESULTS: Pooled mortality was threefold (relative risk 3.33, 95% confidence interval 2.83-3.92) in 38 epilepsy cohorts including 165,879 patients (79.6% from Nordic countries). Among incident cases, idiopathic epilepsies did not associate with materially increased mortality (1.29, 0.75-2.20; 4 studies), whereas mortality was almost twofold in cryptogenic epilepsy (1.75, 1.20-2.54; 5 studies), and highly elevated in patients with symptomatic epilepsy (4.73, 3.27-6.83; 12 studies) and especially in epilepsies due to congenital or developmental causes (10.3, 4.03-26.2; 2 studies). Newly diagnosed patients who attained seizure freedom did not have elevated mortality (0.97, 0.73-1.30; 2 studies). CONCLUSION: Excess mortality was highly related to the etiology of epilepsy in all ages. In adult patients without neuroradiologic abnormalities or other identifiable cause of epilepsy, only patients with cryptogenic epilepsy exhibited excess mortality. Risk of premature death was lowest in idiopathic epilepsy and in PWE who attained seizure freedom.

Autoimmunity-related immunological serum markers and survival in a tertiary care cohort of adult patients with epilepsy.

We evaluated mortality in relation to a panel of autoimmunity-related immunological serum markers in adult patients with epilepsy (PWE), seen in 1996-1997 at the Department of Neurology, Oulu University Hospital in Finland. Blood samples were drawn from 968 volunteers, and baseline measurements included serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, and IgM), and the following antibodies: anticardiolipin, antinuclear, antimitochondrial, antigliadin (IgA and IgG classes), IgA tissue transglutaminase, and IgA endomysial. Hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause mortality in PWE with abnormal immunological markers relative to 413 patients with normal findings were evaluated with adjustment for confounders during a follow-up of nine years. Borderline statistically significant associations were found only for elevated IgA (HR 2.09, 95% CI 0.99-4.42) and for having two or more abnormal antibody titers (HR 1.58, 95% CI 0.98-2.56). The findings of this exploratory study suggested that elevated serum IgA might be associated with excess mortality in PWE.

[Update on Current Care Guideline: epilepsies (adult]. / Epilepsiat (aikuiset).

First epileptic seizure is an indication for an urgent referral to a neurology care unit. Diagnosis of epilepsy is based on medical history and clinical examination, supplemented with MRI, EEG and laboratory tests. Exact diagnosis of the epilepsy type and etiology are the basis of the treatment. Patient education improves outcomes. The goal is complete long-term seizure control without significant adverse effects. Antiepileptic medication is usually initiated after the second epileptic seizure. If the patient does not respond to two appropriate drug schedules, patient should be evaluated for surgical treatment options.

Neurological comorbidity and survival in multiple sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: There is increasing interest in the survival of multiple sclerosis (MS). MS itself may decrease life expectancy; however, several other comorbid diseases may also influence survival. We aimed to evaluate frequency of other neurological conditions and survival in the population-based Finnish Northern Ostrobothnia MS cohort. METHODS: The frequencies of neurological comorbid diseases and their associations with gender, clinical course, disability level (EDSS) and duration of MS were evaluated in population based cohort of 491 patients with clinically definite MS that was diagnosed between 1990 and 2010. The survival rate of the patients was also analysed. RESULTS: One or more neurological comorbid disease was present in 17.1% of patients (n=84). The prevalence of epilepsy in MS patients was 4.7%, which is greater than that in the general population. Migraine was significantly more common in women with a benign MS course when compared to other types of MS (p=0.046). A significant association between peripheral nervous system disorders and primary progressive MS was found (p=0.027). The 21-year survival rate from time of diagnosis was 90.5%. Stroke decreased the 21-year survival rate of the patients (p=0.003). An association between stroke prevalence and the duration of MS disease was also detected (p=0.023). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of multifaceted neurological comorbidities in MS patients. Neurological comorbidity is rather common in MS. However, only the prevalence of epilepsy was increased in MS patients compared to the general population. An association between peripheral nervous system disorders and primary progressive MS was also found. The 21-year survival rate was greater in the present population based cohort compared in other studies, but stroke seems to decrease the survival rate in MS patients.

Long-term mortality risk by cause of death in newly diagnosed patients with epilepsy in Finland: a nationwide register-based study.

To estimate long-term mortality by cause of death in a nationwide, register-based cohort of newly diagnosed patients with epilepsy (PWE). All noninstitutionalized Finnish PWE aged 10-74 years (n = 10,818) eligible for reimbursement for antiepileptic medication for the first time between 1990 and 1994 were identified in the database of Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Mortality was compared against a population-based reference cohort (n = 43,894). Hazard ratios (HR) and their 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) during a follow-up of 18 years were estimated using proportional hazards modeling. Potential years of life lost (PYLL) and excess fraction of causes of death attributable to epilepsy were estimated. PWE contributed 137,610 person-years of observation and there were 3,558 deaths. Mortality remained elevated up to 18 years post-diagnosis (HR 3.21, 95 % CI 3.07-3.35). Ischemic heart disease mortality in PWE was two-fold (HR 2.31, 95 % CI 2.09-2.54), and remained constantly elevated during entire follow-up in both men and women. Most premature mortality in terms of PYLL was attributable to brain cancer (17 %), other cancers (15 %), ischemic heart disease (11 %), as well as cerebrovascular diseases (10 %). The percentage of deaths in PWE statistically attributable to epilepsy was 3.9 % for accidents, 3.4 % for alcohol-related diseases, and 1.6 % for suicides. PWE had substantial excess mortality from non-communicable diseases, which did not disappear by 18 years. Diseases of the circulatory system and cancers, especially brain cancer, were the most important causes of death almost regardless of the mortality indicator.