Dronedarone in high-risk permanent atrial fibrillation

Dronedarone restores sinus rhythm and reduces hospitalization or death in intermittent atrial fibrillation. It also lowers heart rate and blood pressure and has antiadrenergic and potential ventricular antiarrhythmic effects. We hypothesized that dronedarone would reduce major vascular events in high-risk permanent atrial fibrillation.

The Long-Term Multicenter Observational Study of Dabigatran Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation (RELY-ABLE) Study

During follow-up of between 1 and 3 years in the Randomized Evaluation of Long-term Anticoagulation Therapy (RE-LY) trial, 2 doses of dabigatran etexilate were shown to be effective and safe for the prevention of stroke or systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation. There is a need for longer-term follow-up of patients on dabigatran and for further data comparing the 2 dabigatran doses.

Distinct roles of cortical and pallidal β and γ frequencies in hemiparkinsonian and dyskinetic rats.

Enhanced β band (βB) activity, which is suppressed by levodopa (LD) treatment, has been demonstrated within the basal ganglia (BG) of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. However, some data suggest that Parkinsonian symptoms are not directly related to this brain frequency and therefore, its causative role remains questionable. A less explored phenomenon is the link between the γ band (γB) and PD phenomenology. Here, we monitored the development of the oscillatory activity during chronic LD depletion and LD treatment in Parkinsonian and levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) in rats. We found a significant and bilateral power increase in the high βB frequencies (20-30Hz) within the first 10days after 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion, which was in accordance with a significant depletion of dopaminergic fibers in the striatum. We also observed a clear-cut γB increase during LD treatment. The development of LID was characterized by a slight increase in the cumulative power of βB accompanied by a large augmentation in the γB frequency (60-80Hz). This latter effect reached a plateau in the frontal cortex bilaterally and the left globus pallidus after the second week of LD treatment. Our data suggest that the βB parallels the emergence of Parkinsonian signs and can be taken as a predictive sign of DA depletion, matching TH-staining reduction. On the other hand, the γB is strictly correlated to the development of LID. LD treatment had an opposite effect on βB and γB, respectively.