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Objectives We investigated epicardial adipose tissue thickness (EATT), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and lipid profile in adult patients with epilepsy (PWE) taking anti-seizure medication(s) (ASM) and compared with those of the healthy population. We also investigated whether duration of follow-up and number of ASM(s) (mono- vs. polytherapy) affect these risk factors. Methods Twenty PWE older than 18 years of age were recruited at the outpatient epilepsy clinic and compared to twenty controls. Patients who were 18 years old and younger, those with cardiovascular risk factors, and patients with follow-up duration less than 2 years were excluded from the study. Results Epicardial adipose tissue thickness and CIMT were thicker compared to controls. While patients’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were higher than controls, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels were lower, the levels were in normal ranges. Those patients with duration of follow-up more than five years had thicker EATT. The 5-year LDL was in normal ranges while HDL was abnormally low. Number of ASM(s) was not associated with increased risks of atherosclerosis. Increased CIMT in patients taking ASM(s) was independent of their lipid profile. Conclusion Anti-seizure medications contribute to accelerated atherosclerosis in people with epilepsy. Chronic use of ASMs may increase this chance. It is appropriate to use ASM(s) with lower chances of atherosclerosis in people with epilepsy and encourage them to change their lifestyle in order to modify cardiovascular risk factors. Meantime, it is reasonable to assess the risk of atherosclerosis periodically in these patients by noninvasive methods including lipid profile, CIMT, and EATT.

Stroke is one of the most common neurological disorders with a high incidence in Middle-eastern regions. We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of neurovascular ultrasound to detect of cerebral artery stenosis compared to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as a gold standard method. Eighty patients presenting with symptoms of cerebral ischemia were enrolled in the study. They were examined by cervical color Doppler ultrasound and TCCS to determine stenosis of extracranial and intracranial arteries, respectively. DSA was performed 24–48 h after the initial examination. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, positive predictive value, and accuracy of neurovascular ultrasound in comparison to DSA were calculated. The agreement between the two methods was determined by kappa statistics. Eighty patients (60% male, 40% female) with a mean age of 61.32 ± 12.6 years were included. In 65% of patients, stenosis in carotid artery caused ischemic symptoms. We did not observe any stenosis in anterior cerebral artery, posterior cerebral artery and basilar artery in patients. The agreement between the neurovascular ultrasound and DSA in various arterial vessels was 0.9 for common carotid artery, 0.86 for internal carotid artery, 0.78 for middle cerebral artery, and 0.86 for vertebral artery. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy, and kappa value of the neurovascular ultrasound for detecting stenosis regarding the arterial segments were 84.8%, 81%, 92.6%, 65.4%, 83.8, and 0.71, respectively. In conclusion, the neurovascular ultrasound is a valuable, non-invasive, and repeatable method to investigate cerebral artery stenosis with high diagnostic accuracy.

Background: Stroke is the most common neurological disorder with a high incidence in Middle-eastern regions. We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of transcranial color-coded duplex sonography (TCCS) for detection of cerebral artery stenosis compared to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as a gold standard method.Methods: Eighty patients presenting with symptoms of cerebral ischemia were enrolled in the study. They were examined by color-coded Doppler and TCCS to determine stenosis of extracranial and intracranial arteries, respectively. DSA was performed 24-48 hours after the initial examination. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV), and accuracy of TCCS in comparison to DSA was calculated. The agreement between the two methods was determined by kappa statistics. Results: Eighty patients (60% male, 40% female) with a mean age of 61.32±12.6 years were included. In 65% of cases, pathology in carotid artery was responsible for ischemia. We did not observe any abnormalities in the anterior cerebral artery (ACA), posterior cerebral artery (PCA) as well as basilar artery (BA). The agreement between TCCS and DSA in various arterial vessels were 0.9 for common carotid artery (CCA), 0.86 for internal carotid artery (ICA), 0.78 for middle cerebral artery (MCA), and 0.86 for vertebral artery (VA). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, accuracy, and kappa value of TCCS for detection of stenosis regarding the arterial segments were 84.8%, 81%, 92.6%, 65.4%, 83.8, and 0.71, respectively. Conclusion: TCCS is a valuable, non-invasive, and repeatable method to investigate cerebral artery stenosis with high diagnostic accuracy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than 22 million people worldwide. Although much has been learned about COVID-19, we do not know much about its neurological features and their outcome. This observational study was conducted on the patients of Imam Hossein Hospital, and 361 adult patients (214 males) with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 from March 5, 2020 to April 3, 2020, were enrolled. Data was gathered on age, sex, comorbidities, initial symptoms, symptoms during the disease course, neurological symptoms, and outcome. The mean age of the patients was 61.90 ± 16.76 years. The most common initial symptoms were cough, fever, and dyspnea. In 21 patients (5.8%), the initial symptom was neurological. History of dementia was associated with severe COVID-19 disease (odds ratio = 1.28). During the course of the disease, 186 patients (51.52%) had at least one neurological symptom, the most common being headache (109 [30.2%]), followed by anosmia/ageusia (69, [19.1%]), and dizziness (54, [15%]). Also, 31 patients had neurological complications (8.58%). Anosmia, ageusia, dizziness, and headache were associated with favorable outcome (P

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has significant morbidity, mortality and is the major cause of disability in individuals younger than 35...

Objective The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected healthcare systems around the globe and massively impacted patients with various non-infectious, life-threatening conditions. Stroke is a major neurological disease contributing to death and disability worldwide, and is still an ongoing issue during the pandemic. Here we investigate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak on stroke manifestations, treatment courses, the outcome of stroke patients, and the hospitalization rate in a referral center for stroke management in Tehran, Iran. Methods We extracted data regarding 31 stroke patients (10 patients with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019) and compared the demographic and pathological characteristics of the patients with or without coronavirus disease 2019 infection. The association of demographic/pathological characteristics of stroke patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and a corresponding period during the previous year (49 patients) and an earlier period during the same year as the pandemic (50 patients) was also evaluated. Results The absolute number of admissions decreased about 40% during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Except for the stroke severity (P = 0.002), there were no significant changes in the demographic and pathological characteristics of the stroke patients during the three studied periods. A significantly higher mean of age (75.60 ± 9.54 versus 60.86 ± 18.45; P = 0.007), a significant difference in the type of stroke (P = 0.046), and significantly higher stroke severity (P = 0.024) were observed in stroke patients with coronavirus disease 2019 compared with those of stroke patients without coronavirus disease 2019. Treatment approaches, duration of hospitalization, and mortality rates did not differ significantly. Conclusions This report shows that the pandemic caused the number of acute stroke admissions to plummet compared to other periods. Although the pandemic did not affect the treatment plans and care of the patients, stroke cases with coronavirus disease 2019 had higher age, more large vessel ischemic stroke, and more severe stroke. Further studies are urgently needed to realize the probable interaction of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and the neurologic disease.

Ischaemic stroke represents one of the main causes of disability. According to the broad investigations, it is widely assumed that the contribution of inflammatory mediators is strongly involved in its pathogenesis. Hence, it seems that stroke treatment needs more efficient and inflammatory-targeted compounds to modulate inflammatory-related pathways. Such strategies paved the way to achieve better clinical outcomes along with conventional therapies. Boswellic acids (BAs), the main bioactive compounds of Boswellia sp. resin; are triterpenoids with well-documented anti-inflammatory properties. Compared with NSAIDs, BAs cross blood–brain barrier yet they do not cause serious gastrointestinal adverse effects. Considering BAs anti-inflammatory features, we conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled pilot trial of these compounds as a supplementary therapy. This trial randomized 80 ischaemic stroke patients (40–80-years old) with a 4–20 score according to the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), within 72 h of neurological sign onset, in 1-month follow-up period. We assessed NIHSS as primary and plasma levels of TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IFN-γ, IP-10, MCP-1, 8-isoprostane, and PGE2 as secondary outcomes. According to NIHSS evaluation, patients who were allocated to BA group had a significant recovery in neurological function during the 1-month follow-up, compared with the placebo. The levels of plasma inflammatory markers were significantly decreased in BA group after 7 days of intervention in TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and PGE2. As a preliminary controlled trial in ischaemic stroke, BAs could improve clinical outcome in the early phases of stroke along with promising changes in plasma inflammatory factors. Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.irct.ir Unique identifier: IRCT20170315033086N5. IRCT is a primary registry in the WHO registry network (https://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune disease with increasing prevalence. Many factors have been assessed in relation to its development and its worldwide geographical and racial distribution. Therefore, we decided to conduct a nationwide case-control matched study to estimate the possible influence of putative risk factors on MS status in an Iranian MS population. Between January 2008 and September 2013, 1403 patients diagnosed with MS according to the Poser or McDonald criteria and 883 controls were studied. Of all patients, there were 921 women and 296 men (ratio 3.1:1) with a mean age of 32.6 ± 8.7 years. In the multivariate model adjusted for sex and age (±2years), we found associated risk factors of MS to be: history of any allergic condition (Odds ratio (OR): 1.92, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.55-2.47, p0.001), and smoking (OR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.31-2.73, p0.001). Sunlight exposure ⩾ 3 hours was found to be associated with a reduced risk of MS (OR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.15-0.31, p0.001). As expected, cases were more likely to have a positive family history of MS than controls (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.33-2.75, p0.001). A significant association was found between family history of other autoimmune diseases and MS risk (OR: 1.57, 95% CI: 1.18-2.09, p=0.002). These results support the hypothesis that sun exposure is associated with a decreased risk of MS while smoking, autoimmune family history, MS family history, and personal allergy history are risk factors for MS susceptibility.

Exposure to cigarette smoke is emerging as an environmental risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS). We investigated the possible association between environmental tobacco smoke, its cumulative exposure, and MS risk. We used data from the Iranian Multiple Sclerosis Registry to identify a case-control of 662 patients who had MS and a comparison group of 394 patients. Information regarding current smoking status, including the number of cigarettes smoked per day, duration, and smoking pack-years indicative of cumulative dose of tobacco smoked was obtained. We analyzed the incidence of MS among ever–smokers who had been smokers during their disease course and prior to disease onset in comparison with never–smokers who had never been exposed by calculating the odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) employing logistic regression. Of the 662 MS patients, there were 523 women (79.0%) and 139 men (21.0%), with a mean age of 31 ± 10.0 years at disease onset. The risk for MS was increased among ever–smokers (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.22–2.59, p = 0.03) compared to never–smokers. As compared with never smokers, the OR for patients with 6–10 pack years was 2.91 for men (95% CI = 1.11–9.47, p = 0.03) and 1.69 for women (95% CI = 1.02–6.45, p = 0.04). Our results demonstrate that cigarette smoking is significantly associated with an increased risk for MS. The risk effects of smoking were more noticeable in male patients and at higher tobacco doses.

Background and aims An increase in the intracranial pressure (ICP) might aggravate patient outcomes by inducing neurologic injuries. In patients with increased ICP the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) increases due to its close association with the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. The present study was an attempt to evaluate the efficacy of sonographic ONSD in estimating ICP of patients who are candidates for lumbar puncture (LP). Materials and methods In this descriptive prospective study, the ONSD was measured before LP using an ultrasonography in 50 nontraumatized patients who were candidates for LP due to varies diagnoses. Immediately after the sonography, the ICP of each patient was measured by LP. Correlation tests were used to evaluate the relationship between ICP and the sonographic diameter of the optic nerve sheath. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to find the optimal cut-off point in order to diagnose ICP values higher than 20 cm H 2 O. Results The means of the ONSD were 5.17 ± 1.01 and 5.19 ± 1.06 mm on the left and right sides, respectively ( P = .552). The mean ONSD for the patients with increased ICP and normal individuals were 6.66 ± 0.58 and 4.60 ± 0.41 mm, respectively ( P P r = 0.88). The ONSD of greater than 5.5 mm predicted an ICP of ≥20 cm H 2 O with sensitivity and specificity of 100% (95% CI, 100-100) ( P Conclusion The sonographic diameter of the optic nerve sheath might be considered a strong and accurate predicting factor for increased intracranial pressure.

Background: Migraine is one of the most debilitating medical conditions and has a high socioeconomic burden. As conventional therapeutic methods do not entirely alleviate the symptoms, new alternatives are being considered. Objectives: This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of zonisamide compared with sodium valproate in the management of migraine headaches. Patients and Methods: In the current double-blind, parallel, randomized, controlled trial, 96 patients with a migraine diagnosis based on the international headache society (HIS) criteria were selected. They were divided randomly into two groups; the case group was given zonisamide, and sodium valproate was given to a control group. In addition to the side effects of the drugs, the severity, duration, and frequency of migraine attacks were evaluated at baseline and at three months. Results: The 96 selected patients were divided randomly into two treatment groups (zonisamide n = 48, sodium valproate n = 48). Seven patients were excluded from analysis because of early dropout, leaving 89 (n = 45; n = 44) patients for analysis. While using zonisamide, six (13%) patients complained of fatigue, and two (4%) patients encountered noticeable appetite and weight loss. In the control group, five (11%) patients reported dizziness, and four (9%) patients faced obvious appetite and weight gain. Both drugs were considerably efficient in reducing further attacks. There was no statistically significant correlation between frequency or severity of migraine attacks and the drug used for treatment in three months of follow-up. Conclusions: Both medications are effective in reducing migraine attacks. It will be important to consider the drugs’ adverse effects and availability and patients’ medical and socioeconomic condition to select the appropriate treatment.

Background: Vertigo imposes considerable health restrictions with significant impact on the patient's quality of life. The most effective antivertigo agent is undetermined thus far. Objective: This study was performed to assess whether promethazine has superior vertigo reduction compared with lorazepam in ED patients. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, parallel group trial 184 patients were assigned (1:1 ratio) to receive either promethazine, 25 mg intravenously, or lorazepam, 2 mg intravenously. Primary endpoint was mean change in vertigo intensity at 2 hours measured using visual analog scale (VAS). Secondary endpoints were mean change in nausea score, need for second dose of study medications, and adverse events (AEs). Results: Promethazine was associated with significantly more reduction (46.5 mm) in vertigo than lorazepam (25.7 mm, p< 0.001). Mean change in nausea score 2 hours after drug injection on the VAS was 28.7 mm for promethazine and 22.8 for lorazepam (p=0.002). The most frequently reported AEs were lethargy (14.1% in lorazepam group, 4.3% in promethazine group, p=0.013) and drowsiness (10.8% for promethazine, 2.1% for lorazepam, p=0.017). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the evidence that promethazine is superior to lorazepam in management of peripheral vertigo and vertigo-related nausea in ED adults.

To determine the effects of different prognostic factors, including previous antiplatelet therapy, admission data, and radiographic findings on discharge and 3-month neurological condition using modified Rankin scale (mRS) and mortality at 30 days and 3-month follow-up in patients presenting to the emergency department with spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage (sICH). Between January and July 2012, 120 consecutive patients (males 62%, females 38%), who were admitted within 48 h of symptoms onset, were included. We recorded the following data on admission: demographics; functional scores of ICH, Glasgow Coma Scale, and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; vital signs; smoking status; use of illicit drug; preadmission antiplatelet treatment; results of laboratory tests (platelet count, serum glucose, sodium and creatinine levels, and prothrombin time); and primary neuroimaging findings [intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), midline shift, and hydrocephalus]. In multivariate analysis using adjusted model for demographics and prior antiplatelet therapy; functional scores, laboratory results, and diabetes history correlated with mortality during 30 days after the event. Moreover, the parameters on the initial computed tomography scan significantly increased 30-day fatality rate and was correlated with increase in the discharge mRS score of survivors. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of early mortality associated with IVH presentation was 2.34 (CI 1.76-3.02, p = 0.003). The corresponding ORs in those with midline shift displacement and hydrocephalus were 2.18 (95% CI 2.08-3.80, p = 0.01) and 1.62 (95% CI 1.01-2.63, p = 0.02), respectively. In patients with ICH, prognostic factors, include various clinical parameters and paraclinical findings of admission time.