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Objective Corticospinal tract (CST) dysfunction is common in the pre-ataxic stage of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) but quantitative assessment of its progression over time has not been explored. The aim of this study was to quantify the progression of CST dysfunction in pre-ataxic SCA2 using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Methods Thirty-three pre-ataxic SCA2 mutation carriers and a 33 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were tested at baseline and 2-years follow-up by standardized clinical exams, validated clinical scales, and TMS. Results Pre-ataxic SCA2 mutation carriers showed a significant increase of resting motor thresholds (RMT) to abductor pollicis brevis (APB) and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles, and of central motor conduction time (CMCT) to TA at 2-years follow-up, over and above changes in healthy controls. The changes in the pre-ataxic SCA2 mutation carriers were independent of the presence of clinical signs of CST dysfunction at baseline, and independent of conversion to clinically definite SCA2 at 2-years follow-up. Conclusions TMS markers of CST dysfunction progress significantly during the pre-ataxic stage of SCA2. Significance TMS measures of CST dysfunction may provide biomarkers of disease progression prior to clinical disease expression that have potential utility for monitoring neuroprotective therapies in future clinical trials.

Background Cognitive decline is a common non-motor feature characterizing Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 2 (SCA2) during the prodromal stage, nevertheless a reduced number of surrogate biomarkers of these alterations have been described. Objective To provide insights into cognitive dysfunction in SCA2 patients using P300 event-related potentials (ERP) and to evaluate these measures as biomarkers of the disease. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed with 30 SCA2 patients, 20 preclinical carriers and 33 healthy controls, who underwent visual, auditory P300 ERPs, and neurological examinations and ataxia scoring. Results SCA2 patients showed significant increase in P300 latencies and decrease of P300 amplitudes for visual and auditory stimuli, whereas preclinical carriers exhibit a less severe, but significant prolongation of P300 latencies. Multiple regression analyses disclosed a significant effect of SARA score on visual P300 abnormalities in patients as well as of the time to ataxia onset on visual P300 latencies in preclinical carriers. Conclusions This paper demonstrated the role of P300 ERP for the study of attentional, discriminative and working memory abnormalities in SCA2 patients and for the search of surrogate biomarkers from prodromal to the symptomatic stages. Moreover, our findings provide psychophysiological evidences supporting the cerebellar involvement in cognitive processes and allows us to identify promising outcome measures for future trials focusing on cognitive dysfunction.

El Grupo de Prevencion Cardiovascular del Programa de Actividades Preventivas y de Promocion de la Salud (PAPPS) de la Sociedad Espanola de Medicina de Familia y Comunitaria (semFYC) presenta la octava actualizacion de las recomendaciones preventivas cardiovasculares1-8 que desde el ano 1997 viene publicando. El objetivo de este trabajo es ofrecer recomendaciones de cribado, control y tratamiento de las actividades preventivas cardiovasculares, centrandonos en actualizar los factores de riesgo cardiovascular (RCV) mas importantes como la hipertension arterial (HTA), la dislipemia y la diabetes, habida cuenta de que el tabaquismo se aborda en otro apartado del documento. Tambien se presenta, como en ediciones anteriores, una guia clinica resumida de actuacion sobre la HTA y la dislipemia. El contenido de cada actividad preventiva trata de resolver de forma resumida distintas cuestiones esenciales para la prevencion, diagnostico y tratamiento de los factores de riesgo. En la tabla 1 se muestran los aspectos abordados en cada uno de los apartados y los tipos de estudios de referencia en los que se ha basado la recomendacion. Se ha hecho especial hincapie en emitir recomendaciones practicas para aplicar al paciente a partir de la evidencia. La clasifi cacion de la evidencia se ha realizado utilizando una descripcion literal de la gradacion, para facilitar la lectura del documento buscando como resultado principal la reduccion de la morbilidad y mortalidad cardiovasculares (tabla 2). De esta forma hay recomendaciones con mayores evidencias sustentadas en ensayos clinicos y metaanalisis de reduccion de la morbilidad y mortalidad cardiovascular o total que ocurren en diferentes grupos de poblacion, o bien estudios de cohortes bien disenados en el apartado de la prueba diagnostica. Tambien estaria el grupo de las recomen daciones con menos evidencias o utiles en determinadas circunstancias, como pueden ser las que estan fundamentadas en ensayos clinicos limitados a poblaciones muy especifi cas o a pocos casos o estudios; en este apartado se ha incluido la periodicidad de las pruebas de cribado que se basan en la opinion de grupos de expertos. En otro grado se encontrarian las cuestiones que no tienen sufi ciente evidencia para demostrar la reduccion de la enfermedad cardiovascular (ECV) y no es posible decidirse por una recomendacion. Por ultimo estarian las intervenciones que generarian mas dano que benefi cio.

Background Further research is needed to improve the evidence regarding determinants of physical activity (PA) as a crucial step to plan higher effective intervention strategies. The goal of the present study is to identify socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of primary care (PHC) insufficiently active patients that are associated with longitudinal changes in the level of physical activity. Methods Longitudinal analysis of baseline socio-demographic and clinical predictors of physical activity change in insufficiently active PHC patients who participated in a PA-promoting multi-centre randomized clinical trial conducted from October 2003 through March 2006. The primary outcome measure was the self-reported physical activity assessed with the 7-day Physical Activity Recall (PAR), at baseline, 6, 12 and 24 months. Baseline covariates included sex, age, social class, anthropometric measures and other cardiovascular risk factors or associated diseases (Diabetes, HTA, tobacco use, etc.), and stage of readiness to change PA. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate longitudinal association of studied variables on PA change over the three follow-up measurements. Results A total of 3691 patients (85% of the 4317 recruited in the trial) with at least one follow-up measurement were included in the longitudinal analysis. At baseline, analysed patients (mean age: 50.6 years; 64.6% women) devoted 34.7 minutes and 2.36 metabolic equivalent hours per week (MET.h/week) to moderate and vigorous physical activity. Older age, male gender, higher social class, lower BMI, diagnosis of diabetes or hypertension, and measurement season were significant predictors of PA longitudinal change. The effect of baseline readiness to change on PA dose was modified by time, showing a positive gradient in favour of those with more readiness to change that increases significantly at 12 and 24 months (p-value interaction < .0001). Conclusions Identified baseline characteristics such as readiness to change and risk factors can guide physicians to prioritize time and intervention efforts for maximizing their impact on insufficiently active PHC patients.