Chronic illness, life style and emotional health in adolescence: results of a cross-sectional survey on the health of 15-20-year-olds in Switzerland.

The objective was to evaluate the prevalence of chronic conditions (CC) in adolescents in Switzerland; to describe their behaviour (leisure, sexuality, risk taking behaviour) and to compare them to those in adolescents who do not have CC in order to evaluate the impact of those conditions on their well-being. The data were obtained from the Swiss Multicentre Adolescent Survey on Health, targeting a sample of 9268 in-school adolescents aged 15 to 20 years, who answered a self-administered questionnaire. Some 11.4% of girls and 9.6% of boys declared themselves carriers of a CC. Of girls suffering from a CC, 25% (versus 13% of non carriers; P=0.007) and 38% of boys (versus 25%; P=0.002) proclaimed not to wear a seatbelt whilst driving. Of CC girls, 6.3% (versus 2.7%; P=0.000) reported within the last 12 months to have driven whilst drunk. Of the girls, 43% (versus 36%; P=0.004) and 47% (versus 39%; P=0.001) were cigarette smokers. Over 32% of boys (versus 27%; P=0.02) reported having ever used cannabis and 17% of girls (versus 13%; P=0.013) and 43% of boys (versus 36%; P=0.002) admitted drinking alcohol. The burden of their illness had important psychological consequences: 7.7% of girls (versus 3.4%; P=0.000) and 4.9% of boys (versus 2.0%; P=0.000) had attempted suicide during the previous 12 months. CONCLUSION: experimental behaviours are not rarer in adolescents with a chronic condition and might be explained by a need to test their limits both in terms of consumption and behaviour. Prevention and specific attention from the health caring team is necessary.

Schizophrenia connectivity: correlation between cognitive deficits and reduced thalamo-cortical fibers

Introduction: Schizophrenia is associated with multiple neuropsychological dysfunctions, such as disturbances of attention, memory, perceptual functioning, concept formation and executive processes. These cognitive functions are reported to depend on the integrity of the prefrontal and thalamo-prefrontal circuits. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that schizophrenia is related to abnormalities in neural circuitry and impaired structural connectivity. Here, we report a preliminary case-control study that showed a correlation between thalamo-frontal connections and several cognitive functions known to be impaired in schizophrenia. Materials and Methods: We investigated 9 schizophrenic patients (DSM IV criteria, Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies) and 9 age and sex matched control subjects. We obtained from each volunteer a DT-MRI dataset (3 T, _ _ 1,000 s/mm2), and a high resolution anatomic T1. The thalamo- frontal tracts are simulated with DTI tractography on these dataset, a method allowing inference of the main neural fiber tracks from Diffusion MRI data. In order to see an eventual correlation with the thalamo-frontal connections, every subject performs a battery of neuropsychological tests including computerized tests of attention (sustained attention, selective attention and reaction time), working memory tests (Plane test and the working memory sub-tests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), a executive functioning task (Tower of Hanoï) and a test of visual binding abilities. Results: In a pilot case-control study (patients: n _ 9; controls: n _ 9), we showed that this methodology is appropriate and giving results in the excepted range. Considering the relation of the connectivity density and the neuropsychological data, a correlation between the number of thalamo- frontal fibers and the performance in the Tower of Hanoï was observed in the patients (Pearson correlation, r _ 0.76, p _ 0.05) but not in control subjects. In the most difficult item of the test, the least number of fibers corresponds to the worst performance of the test (fig. 2, number of supplementary movements of the elements necessary to realize the right configuration). It's interesting to note here that in an independent study, we showed that schizophrenia patients (n _ 32) perform in the most difficult item of the Tower of Hanoï (Mann-Whitney, p _ 0.005) significantly worse than control subjects (n _ 29). This has been observed in several others neuropsychological studies. Discussion: This pilot study of schizophrenia patients shows a correlation between the number of thalam-frontal fibers and the performance in the Tower of Hanoï, which is a planning and goal oriented actions task known to be associated with frontal dysfonction. This observation is consistent with the proposed impaired connectivity in schizophrenia. We aim to pursue the study with a larger sample in order to determine if other neuropsychological tests may be associated with the connectivity density.

Macaulay style formulas for sparse resultants

We present formulas for computing the resultant of sparse polyno- mials as a quotient of two determinants, the denominator being a minor of the numerator. These formulas extend the original formulation given by Macaulay for homogeneous polynomials.

Long-term cognitive profile and incidence of dementia after STN-DBS in Parkinson's disease

An effect of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) on cognition has been suspected but long-term observations are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term cognitive profile and the incidence of dementia in a cohort of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients treated by STN-DBS. 57 consecutive patients were prospectively assessed by the mean of a neuropsychological battery over 3 years after surgery. Dementia (DSM-IV) and UPDRS I to IV were recorded. 24.5% of patients converted to dementia over 3 years (incidence of 89 of 1,000 per year). This group of patients cognitively continuously worsened over 3 years up to fulfilling dementia criteria (PDD). The rest of the cohort remained cognitively stable (PD) over the whole follow-up. Preoperative differences between PDD and PD included older age (69.2 +/- 5.8 years; 62.6 +/- 8 years), presence of hallucinations and poorer executive score (10.1 +/- 5.9; 5.5 +/- 4.4). The incidence of dementia over 3 years after STN-DBS is similar to the one reported in medically treated patients. The PDD presented preoperative risk factors of developing dementia similar to those described in medically treated patients. These observations suggest dementia being secondary to the natural evolution of PD rather than a direct effect of STN-DBS.

Iowa State Fair Campgrounds: Country Comfort, Big City Style, 2007

This brochure describes the campground and facilities on the Iowa State Fairgrounds. It also includes a map and contact information.

Attention-related potentials allow for a highly accurate discrimination of mild cognitive impairment subtypes.

The three most frequent forms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are single-domain amnestic MCI (sd-aMCI), single-domain dysexecutive MCI (sd-dMCI) and multiple-domain amnestic MCI (md-aMCI). Brain imaging differences among single domain subgroups of MCI were recently reported supporting the idea that electroencephalography (EEG) functional hallmarks can be used to differentiate these subgroups. We performed event-related potential (ERP) measures and independent component analysis in 18 sd-aMCI, 13 sd-dMCI and 35 md-aMCI cases during the successful performance of the Attentional Network Test. Sensitivity and specificity analyses of ERP for the discrimination of MCI subgroups were also made. In center-cue and spatial-cue warning stimuli, contingent negative variation (CNV) was elicited in all MCI subgroups. Two independent components (ICA1 and 2) were superimposed in the time range on the CNV. The ICA2 was strongly reduced in sd-dMCI compared to sd-aMCI and md-aMCI (4.3 vs. 7.5% and 10.9% of the CNV component). The parietal P300 ERP latency increased significantly in sd-dMCI compared to md-aMCI and sd-aMCI for both congruent and incongruent conditions. This latency for incongruent targets allowed for a highly accurate separation of sd-dMCI from both sd-aMCI and md-aMCI with correct classification rates of 90 and 81%, respectively. This EEG parameter alone performed much better than neuropsychological testing in distinguishing sd-dMCI from md-aMCI. Our data reveal qualitative changes in the composition of the neural generators of CNV in sd-dMCI. In addition, they document an increased latency of the executive P300 component that may represent a highly accurate hallmark for the discrimination of this MCI subgroup in routine clinical settings.