Biomedical subjects

E Sancisi

Publications and source records attributed to E Sancisi.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Which therapy for which patient?

Prophylactic treatment is mainly intended to reduce the frequency of migraine attacks, enhance response to acute medications, improve patient function and reduce disability. Sufficient evidence and consensus exist to recommend propranolol, timolol, amitriptyline, pizotifen, divalproex, sodium valproate and topiramate as first line agents for migraine prevention. These drugs can halve the frequency of attacks in 50% of patients. The anticipated benefit must be weighed against the adverse effects associated with each agent in determining the optimal preventive regimen for individual patients considering any comorbid conditions that are often present. The decision to treat and the choice of prophylactic drug must be taken with the patient. It is important to balance expectations and therapeutic realities for each particular drug. Recent data on the effect of prophylactic treatment on trigeminovascular activation and on cortical spreading depression emphasise the importance of developing research on migraine-preventive drugs.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗

PubMed2006

Chronic daily headache: risk factors and pathogenetic considerations.

Chronic daily headache (CDH) is a major clinical concern, although it is still plagued by difficulties with classification and definitions. CDH usually evolves from an episodic headache, mainly migraine. Drug overuse and other somatic or psychological traits are considered risk factors for CDH. The neurobiology underlying this clinical evolution is incompletely understood. There is evidence of a progressive dysfunction of central pain systems in some individuals probably genetically predisposed.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMed2004

The role of cardiac diseases in the comorbidity between migraine and stroke.

Several case-control and cohort studies have suggested an association between migraine and stroke. A significantly higher risk for stroke was found in women under the age of 45 years and for the subgroup with migraine with aura, the posterior circulation being significantly more frequently involved. The link between cardiac diseases and the comorbidity migraine-stroke has been evaluated considering both possible relationships: a higher prevalence of a vascular disease involving both heart and brain in migraineurs, or a cardiac disorder, more prevalent in migraineurs, with a possible aetiological role in migraine attacks.

Aortic Aneurysm↗

PubMed2001

Unreliability of automatic scoring of MESAM 4 in assessing patients with complicated obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Portable devices are used for unattended recording of patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). The MESAM 4 (MAP; Martinsried, Germany) is a computerized ambulatory polysomnographic system that records four parameters: breathing noise, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation (SaO(2)), and body position. DESIGN AND METHOD: We evaluated the reliability of the oxygen desaturation index (ODI) automatically calculated by the MESAM 4 device in evaluating patients with "complicated" OSAS. These patients present SaO(2) drops due to apneas associated with a fall in baseline SaO(2) during sleep, as occurs in the "overlap syndrome." Ten patients with complicated OSAS underwent nocturnal MESAM 4 recordings, and we compared the visual and automatic scorings of the ODI. RESULTS: The ODI obtained with visual scoring was significantly higher than ODI automatically calculated by the MESAM 4 in all patients. In some patients, this difference was so significant that it could bias clinical judgment of OSAS severity. We demonstrated that the system did not identify those desaturation events that were superimposed on a fall in baseline SaO(2). The error depends on the algorithm by which the device recognizes the desaturation events and calculates the baseline SaO(2). CONCLUSION: Automatic analysis of MESAM 4 recordings may be misleading in evaluating OSAS patients who have a fall in baseline SaO(2) during sleep. In this case, visual scoring performed by a trained polysomnographer is recommended.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sleep complaints in periodic paralyses: a web survey.

Neuronal potassium conductance has been shown to influence the sleep-wake cycle and REM sleep homeostasis. The periodic paralyses (PP) are characterized by episodes of muscular weakness associated with changes in serum potassium levels and, therefore, with possible alterations in extracellular neuronal potassium conductance. We submitted a sleep questionnaire to the members of Periodic Paralysis International Listserv, an on-line support and information group for subjects with PP. Three control groups were made up of patients with untreated depression, patients with depression under treatment and healthy subjects. Both subjects with PP and those with untreated depression had a higher frequency of self-reported insufficient sleep quality and a higher number of nocturnal awakenings than patients with depression under treatment and healthy controls. PP subjects had more self-reported daytime sleepiness, sleep-related hallucinations and nightmares/abnormal dreams than the other three groups. Patients affected by PP may have disrupted sleep architecture and homeostasis. In particular, we suggest that the stereotypical abnormal dreams reported by several patients may reflect oneiric elaboration of nocturnal episodes of flaccid paralysis, while the increased frequency of sleep-related hallucinations may be due to enhanced REM sleep expression associated with alterations of neuronal potassium conductance.

Adolescent↗