ABSTRACT
Resumen ANTECEDENTES: Los tumores intracraneales se diagnostican con una frecuencia muy baja durante el embarazo. Entre los síntomas iniciales destacan: cefalea, náuseas y vómitos frecuentes que, a su vez, son característicos del embarazo, de ahí la necesidad de establecer un diagnóstico diferencial correcto. CASO CLÍNICO: Paciente primigesta, de 25 años, 11+4 semanas de embarazo, con un cuadro de vómitos, cefalea, vértigo e inestabilidad, de inicio subagudo en los últimos dos meses. Antecedentes de interés: cefalea de características tensionales en comparación con migraña crónica no estudiada previamente. Durante la exploración se advirtió enlentecimiento en el lenguaje, nistagmo evocado por la mirada de manera bilateral y dolor periocular izquierdo, junto con vómitos incoercibles que no cedían, pese a la dieta absoluta y administración pautada de metoclopramida y pantoprazol. La resonancia magnética nuclear cerebral con contraste mostró una masa tumoral centrada en el cuarto ventrículo. Con base en lo anterior se procedió a la craniectomía suboccipital con exéresis subtotal del tumor y diagnóstico anatomopatológico de ependimoma de fosa posterior grupo A. Se propuso, y la paciente aceptó, la interrupción del embarazo con el propósito de completar el tratamiento coadyuvante con radioterapia. La intervención quirúrgica le dejó importantes secuelas neurológicas que ameritaron un proceso de rehabilitación. CONCLUSIONES: El momento del diagnóstico es decisivo para indicar el tratamiento de las tumoraciones intracraneales, sobre todo si son de naturaleza maligna, puesto que habrá que establecer un equilibrio entre la salud de la madre y la viabilidad de la gestación. En tanto se trata de pacientes con una afección compleja, su atención médica debe ser multidisciplinaria para disminuir los riesgos para la madre y el feto.
Abstract BACKGROUND: Intracranial tumours are diagnosed very rarely during pregnancy. The initial symptoms include headache, nausea and frequent vomiting, which are characteristic of pregnancy, so a correct differential diagnosis is necessary. CLINICAL CASE: Primigravida patient, 25 years old, 11+4 weeks pregnant, with a history of vomiting, headache, dizziness and instability of subacute onset in the last two months. History of interest: tension-type headache compared with chronic migraine, not previously studied. On examination, slowed speech, bilateral gaze-evoked nystagmus and left periocular pain were noted, together with incoercive vomiting that did not resolve despite a strict diet and prescribed metoclopramide and pantoprazole. A contrast-enhanced MRI of the brain showed a tumour mass centred in the fourth ventricle. Based on the above, a suboccipital craniectomy was performed with subtotal excision of the tumour and anatomopathological diagnosis of group A posterior fossa ependymoma. The interruption of pregnancy was proposed and accepted by the patient to complete the adjuvant treatment with radiotherapy. The surgical intervention left her with significant neurological sequelae that merited rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: The time of diagnosis is crucial in the management of intracranial tumours, especially if they are malignant, as a balance must be struck between the health of the mother and the viability of the pregnancy. As these are patients with a complex condition, their medical care must be multidisciplinary in order to reduce the risks to the mother and foetus.
ABSTRACT
Although steady fixation is a key aspect of a proper visual function, it is only subjectively assessed in young and uncooperative children. In the present study, we characterize the development of fixational behavior throughout childhood in a large group of healthy children 5 months of age and up, recruited in five geographically diverse sites. In order to do it, we examined 802 healthy children from April 2019 to February 2020. Their oculomotor behavior was analyzed by means of an automated digital system, based on eye-tracking technology. Oculomotor outcomes were gaze stability, fixation stability and duration of fixations (for both long and short fixational tasks), and saccadic reaction time. Ninety-nine percent of all recruited children were successfully examined. Fixational and saccadic performance improved with age throughout childhood, with more pronounced changes during the first 2 years of life. Gaze and fixation tended to be more stable with age (p < 0.001 for most the outcomes), and saccades tended to be faster. In a multivariate analysis, including age and ethnicity as independent variables and adjusting by data quality, age was related with most fixational outcomes. Our automated digital system and eye-tracking data allow us to quantitatively describe the development of oculomotor control during childhood, assess visual fixation and saccadic performance in children 5 months of age and up, and provide a normative reference of fixational outcomes for clinical practice.
Subject(s)
Saccades , Sensation , Child , Humans , Child, Preschool , Eye-Tracking Technology , Fixation, Ocular , Multivariate AnalysisABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Around 70% to 80% of the 19 million visually disabled children in the world are due to a preventable or curable disease, if detected early enough. Vision screening in childhood is an evidence-based and cost-effective way to detect visual disorders. However, current screening programmes face several limitations: training required to perform them efficiently, lack of accurate screening tools and poor collaboration from young children.Some of these limitations can be overcome by new digital tools. Implementing a system based on artificial intelligence systems avoid the challenge of interpreting visual outcomes.The objective of the TrackAI Project is to develop a system to identify children with visual disorders. The system will have two main components: a novel visual test implemented in a digital device, DIVE (Device for an Integral Visual Examination); and artificial intelligence algorithms that will run on a smartphone to analyse automatically the visual data gathered by DIVE. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a multicentre study, with at least five centres located in five geographically diverse study sites participating in the recruitment, covering Europe, USA and Asia.The study will include children aged between 6 months and 14 years, both with normal or abnormal visual development.The project will be divided in two consecutive phases: design and training of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to identify visual problems, and system development and validation. The study protocol will consist of a comprehensive ophthalmological examination, performed by an experienced paediatric ophthalmologist, and an exam of the visual function using a DIVE.For the first part of the study, diagnostic labels will be given to each DIVE exam to train the neural network. For the validation, diagnosis provided by ophthalmologists will be compared with AI system outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study will be conducted in accordance with the principles of Good Clinical Practice. This protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Aragón, CEICA, on January 2019 (Code PI18/346).Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated in scientific meetings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN17316993.
Subject(s)
Artificial Intelligence , Vision Disorders/diagnosis , Vision Screening/methods , Adolescent , Amblyopia/diagnosis , Asia , Child , Child, Preschool , Clinical Trials as Topic , Cost-Benefit Analysis , Europe , Humans , Infant , Multicenter Studies as Topic , Smartphone , United States , Vision Screening/economicsABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate early changes in visual function and visual quality parameters after Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) and to compare the outcomes with healthy controls. METHODS: Thirteen patients who underwent DMEK and 14 controls were evaluated. All subjects underwent visual function evaluation, including visual acuity under photopic and mesopic lighting conditions and contrast sensitivity (CSV) tests CSV 1000 and Pelli-Robson. Corneal parameters were assessed with Oculus Pentacam. Corneal mean keratometry (Km), corneal densitometry values, and low and high order aberrations (LOA and HOA) were recorded. In DMEK patients, all tests were performed before surgery and 1 and 6 months after surgery. RESULTS: In patients who underwent DMEK, photopic visual acuity improved from 0.59 to 0.31 at 1 month (p=0.013) and 0.13 at 6 months (p=0.008); mesopic visual acuity and all contrast sensitivity values (both CSV and Pelli-Robson test) improved significantly in the first month (p < 0.005). A significant decrease was observed in corneal density in the 0-2 mm ring (from 43.83 to 35.60, p=0.043) and mean posterior Km (from -5.84 to -6.80, p=0.005) in the first month. Corneal HOAs and all corneal densities improved at 6 months after DMEK (p < 0.05). All visual function parameters and corneal aberrations remained lower and higher, respectively, compared with healthy controls (p < 0.05). Corneal densities were comparable with controls at 6 months after DMEK (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing DMEK present visual function improvement and a decrease in corneal density at 1 month after surgery. Decrease in corneal posterior HOAs can be observed at 6 months. However, visual function outcomes and corneal aberrations remained worse compared with healthy controls.
