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Aims: This study aimed to investigate the causal interaction between significant sensorimotor network (SMN) regions and other brain regions in Parkinson's disease patients with drooling (droolers). Methods: Twenty‐one droolers, 22 PD patients without drooling (non‐droolers), and 22 matched healthy controls underwent 3T‐MRI resting‐state scans. We performed independent component analysis and Granger causality analysis to determine whether significant SMN regions help predict other brain areas. Pearson's correlation was computed between imaging characteristics and clinical characteristics. ROC curves were plotted to assess the diagnostic performance of effective connectivity (EC). Results: Compared with non‐droolers and healthy controls, droolers showed abnormal EC of the right caudate nucleus (CAU.R) and right postcentral gyrus to extensive brain regions. In droolers, increased EC from the CAU.R to the right middle temporal gyrus was positively correlated with MDS‐UPDRS, MDS‐UPDRS II, NMSS, and HAMD scores; increased EC from the right inferior parietal lobe to CAU.R was positively correlated with MDS‐UPDRS score. ROC curve analysis showed that these abnormal ECs are of great significance in diagnosing drooling in PD. Conclusion: This study identified that PD patients with drooling have abnormal EC in the cortico‐limbic‐striatal‐cerebellar and cortio‐cortical networks, which could be potential biomarkers for drooling in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aim to explore the capacity of perioperative pupillary variables to predict acute pain in the post‐anesthesia care unit (PACU). Methods: Patients scheduled to undergo thoracic or abdominal surgery under general anesthesia between April 2021 and June 2021 were enrolled. We measured the pupil diameter, pupillary light reflex (PLR), and pupillary reflex dilatation 5 min before anesthesia induction (T1), 5 min after intubation (T2), at the end of anesthesia (T3), immediately before extubation (T4), and 5 min after extubation (T5). We assessed the early postoperative pain intensity in the PACU using Numeric Rating Scales (NRS) at recovery, 5 min after recovery, and 10 min after recovery. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between perioperative pupillary variables and postoperative pain intensity. Results: Fifty‐one patients were enrolled, 50 of whom were included in the final analysis. A total of 13 patients (26%) needed remedial analgesia in the PACU. Pupil parameters at T1, T2, T3, and T5 were not associated with NRS in the PACU. Multiple logistic regression models and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicated that only latency of PLR at T4 can predict postoperative acute pain. The ROC analysis showed that the cutoff value for latency of PLR at T4 was 0.29 s to discriminate between no pain and pain, and the area under the curve was 0.778 (95% CI 0.634–0.922, p = 0.002) with sensitivity 50.0% and specificity 91.7%. Conclusion: The latency of PLR immediately before extubation may be a useful predictor for postoperative acute pain in the PACU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant genetic disease characterized by hamartomas in multiple organ systems. This study was performed in one familial and two sporadic cases with TSC. Two novel mutations (c.1884_1887delAAAG and c.5266A>G) and two previously reported mutations (c.4258_4261delTCAG and c.1960G>C) were identified by direct DNA sequencing. Of the four mutations, c.1884_1887delAAAG and c.1960G>C were found in a family and identified in the same allele by TA cloning sequencing. However, c.1960G>C was reported to be non‐pathogenic. Furthermore, correlations between genotypes and phenotypes of Chinese Han patients since 2014 were performed by paired χ2‐tests in our published work review, which has not been reported. The results showed that patients with TSC2 mutations had a higher frequency of mental retardation and there were no significant differences of seizures and skin lesions with TSC1 mutations. Genetically, they had a higher frequency of familial inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This study aimed to explore the relationship between cancer-related fatigue (CRF) and personality in patients with breast cancer after chemotherapy. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to study the relationship between CRF and personality in breast cancer patients after chemotherapy. CRF and personality were measured by the cancer fatigue score and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, respectively. Results A total of 300 breast cancer patients who had received chemotherapy were recruited to this study. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire scores of psychoticism, introversion, and extroversion in the patients were lower than the norm level ( p < 0.01), but those of neuroticism and lie were higher than the norm level ( p < 0.01). Multivariate analyses showed positive correlation between psychoticism and affective fatigue, neuroticism and total fatigue, and physical fatigue and cognitive fatigue. Multivariate analyses also showed negative correlation between introversion or extroversion and total fatigue, physical fatigue or affective fatigue, and lie and total fatigue or cognitive fatigue. Conclusions There was CRF in patients with breast cancer after chemotherapy. Psychoticism, extroversion/introversion, neuroticism, and lie are correlated with CRF in breast cancer patients after chemotherapy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]