Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0038454 (stroke)
 147,016 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Aniracetam is a pyrrolidinone-type cognition enhancer that has been clinically used in the treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia following stroke and in Alzheimer's disease. New discoveries in the behavioral pharmacology, biochemistry and pharmacokinetics of aniracetam provided new indications for this drug in the treatment of various CNS disorders or disease states. This article reviews these new findings and describes the effects of aniracetam in various rodent models of mental function impairment or cerebral dysfunction. Also, several metabolites of aniracetam have been reported to affect learning and memory in animals. It is, therefore, conceivable that major metabolites of aniracetam contribute to its pharmacological effects. The animal models, used in pharmacological evaluation of aniracetam included models of hypoattention, hypovigilance-arousal, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, fear and anxiety, depression, impaired rapid-eye movement sleep, disturbed temporal regulation, behavioral performance, and bladder hyperactivity. These are models of clinical disorders or symptoms that may include personality disorders, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and sleep disorders. At present, there is no convincing evidence that promising effects of aniracetam in the animal models will guarantee its clinical efficacy. It is conceivable, however, that clinical trials will demonstrate beneficial effects of aniracetam in the above listed disease states. New findings regarding the mechanism of action of aniracetam, its central target sites, and its effects on signal transduction are also discussed in this review article.
 ...
PMID:Aniracetam: its novel therapeutic potential in cerebral dysfunctional disorders based on recent pharmacological discoveries. 1207 May 27

Stroke is a disease with well-defined modifiable risk factors such as arterial hypertension, smoking, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and atrial fibrillation. The need of new risk factors is based on the fact that only half the cardiovascular disease risk is explained by conventional risk factors. Inflammatory markers, infection, homocysteine and sleep-disordered breathing rank as the four most important new risk factors in cerebral atherosclerosis. C-reactive protein is the inflammatory marker that has been most thoroughly studied. Elevated concentrations of C-reactive protein increase the risk of heart disease and thromboembolic stroke in men and women. The role of Chlamydia pneumoniae is still controversial. Influenza vaccination is a simple and effective preventive measure against stroke. Despite the potential relationship between homocysteine and stroke, we should wait to the results of the ongoing trials to know if the reduction of homocysteine levels with vitamin therapy is of clinical benefit. Sleep-disordered breathing is a potential new risk factor with an effective therapy. Neurologists should not forget to look for sleep disorders in their stroke patients and probably manage them with breathing therapy from the acute phase.
 ...
PMID:Cerebral ischemia: new risk factors. 1469 79

Breathing-related sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, have been largely undiagnosed in people with cardiovascular disease, probably due to limited health care provider awareness of the association between the two conditions. Solid evidence is emerging that the apneic events that occur during sleep lead to acute and chronic hemodynamic changes during wake time, including elevated sympathetic tone, decreased stroke volume and cardiac output, increased heart rate, and changes in circulating hormones that regulate blood pressure, fluid volume, vasoconstriction, and vasodilation. Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with known cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and hyperlipidemia, and is considered by many sleep clinicians to be an independent risk factor for hypertension. Additionally, sleep apnea has been implicated in the pathogenesis of heart failure and stroke. Treatment with positive airway pressure during sleep eliminates the apneic events and the ensuing acute hemodynamic changes. Improvements in daytime blood pressure and left ventricular function also have been noted in persons with hypertension and heart failure. Because effective treatment is available for sleep apnea, this condition needs to be diagnosed and treated in persons with cardiovascular disease.
 ...
PMID:Sleep-disordered breathing and the association with cardiovascular risk. 1501 52

My aim is to examine the relation between some sleep disorders and neurological diseases; to analyse their mutual interactions in order to achieve new practical data for clinical use. In the theoretical part I summarise some main points of sleep physiology concentrating on the associations of sleep regulation and neurological diseases. In my examinations, besides clinical methods, the most important tools used are sleep analyses performed by polysomnography and MESAM IV as well as brain imaging methods. To assess clinical state of my stroke patients I utilised NIH Stroke Scale. I found pathological sleep apnoea frequency in more than half of the patients in any type (bleeding/infarction) of acute stroke. In a prospective study, sleep apnoea parameters remain permanent during 3 months in the ischaemic group; on the other hand, sleep apnoea improves during follow up after brain haemorrhages. I showed pathological sleep apnoea frequency in myasthenia gravis among male patients without daytime respiration complaint. I looked for the link between the mechanism of the sleep disorder and the underlying organic lesion in two cases. In this analyses I took into account the function of the affected structure in sleep regulation. I found a basal forebrain tumour, affecting sleep regulating centres underlying severe insomnia and I suggest a neuro-vascular compression of the lateral preoptic area of the hypothalamus being the reason of sleep related painful erection, a parasomnia of unknown origin.
 ...
PMID:Neurological aspects of some sleep disorders. 1513 14

Driving motor vehicles is a complex visuomotor task that challenges normal nervous system functioning. Indemnity of sensory organs and intact alertness are essential. In addition, safe driving is extremely sensitive to disturbances of attention as well as to some forms of cortical dysfunction. Epilepsy, cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, stroke and sleep disorders, among other conditions, may interfere with driving through different mechanisms. The individual rights to maintain important privileges such as having a driver's license may enter in conflict with a society demanding safer regulations. Current trends favor more liberal restrictions and may provide specific limits on an individual basis to patients with impairments caused by neurological diseases. So far, there is no information on the consequences in terms of rate of accidents following newly introduced changes in driver license regulations for neurological patients.
 ...
PMID:[The neurologist and patients driving motor vehicles]. 1571 89

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder in adults. It is becoming increasingly recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Knowing the pathophysiologic effects that occur during obstructive apnea assists in understanding how chronic complications and sequelae develop. OSA is also being recognized as associated with glucose intolerance and motor vehicle accidents. Polysomnography in a sleep laboratory remains the diagnostic method of choice. Treatment options are somewhat limited in scope, but nasal continuous positive airway pressure is the first line and has been shown to clearly improve many of the symptoms and sequelae of the syndrome. Cardiovascular physicians require a working knowledge of OSA and its complications, as many of the diseases they manage have shown links to this sleep disorder.
 ...
PMID:Obstructive sleep apnea: what does the cardiovascular physician need to know? 1572 38

Sleep is an important modulator of cardiovascular function, both in physiological conditions and in disease states. In individuals without a primary sleep disorder, sleep may exert significant effects on the autonomic nervous system, systemic hemodynamics, cardiac function, endothelial function, and coagulation. Some of these influences can be directly linked to specific modulatory effects of sleep stages per se; others result from the natural circadian rhythm of various physiological processes. There is a temporal association between physiological sleep and occurrence of vascular events, cardiac arrhythmias, and sudden death. Epidemiological and pathophysiological studies also indicate that there may be a causal link between primary sleep abnormalities (sleep curtailment, shift work, and sleep-disordered breathing) and cardiovascular and metabolic disease, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, sudden death, obesity, and the metabolic syndrome. Finally, sleep disturbances may occur as a result of several medical conditions (including obesity, chronic heart failure, and menopause) and may therefore contribute to cardiovascular morbidity associated with these conditions. Further understanding of specific pathophysiological pathways linking sleep disorders to cardiovascular disease is important for developing therapeutic strategies and may have important implications for cardiovascular chronotherapeutics.
 ...
PMID:Sleep and cardiovascular disease. 1630 Oct 95

Peripheral arterial disease in the legs represents a subset of atherosclerosis that manifests a particularly sinister profile. A predominance of sympathetic activity in the periphery favors the development of neurogenic atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis may then produce flow derangements and decreased physical activity that serves to escalate sympathetic bias in a vicious cycle. Restoration of normal flow in peripheral arterial disease may not only produce local benefit due to improved perfusion, but also represent a gateway to correcting many systemic conditions that may at first glance appear unrelated but share a common etiology of autonomic dysfunction, such as gout, acute coronary syndromes, stroke, sleep apnea, arrhythmias, depression, erectile dysfunction, inflammation, hypercoagulability, sleep disorders, bowel dysfunction, renal failure, and aging.
 ...
PMID:Peripheral arterial disease: a manifestation of evolutionary dislocation and feed-forward dysfunction. 1670 60

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of closure of the upper airway during sleep, and is highly prevalent among overweight individuals. A significant percentage of patients with OSA remain undiagnosed. This condition creates chronic nighttime hypoxemia that can result in significant complications including systemic and pulmonary hypertension, cor pulmonale, and stroke. Polysomnography is still the most widely used method for diagnosing OSA. Studies have shown that in the majority of patients with OSA the airway obstruction involves the retroglossal region. Upon performing esophagogastroduodenoscopy on patients with a wide range of body mass indices (from 21 to 63), we noticed a gradual increase in the concavity of the posterior epiglottal surface as the BMI increases. Upon following some of the patients who underwent laparoscopic gastric banding and lost significant weight, we noticed a dramatic change in the shape of the epiglottis. This reflects a relief in the pressure on the epiglottis created by the collapsing airways in periods of apnea. Thus, the deformity in the shape of the epiglottis reflects the chronic airway collapse in obese patients, and improvement in this deformity after weight loss indicates a relief of the chronic upper airway obstruction.
 ...
PMID:The shape of the epiglottis reflects improvement in upper airway obstruction after weight loss. 1683 1

Aim of this study is to investigate the QoL older people making regular use of BDZ. All subjects aged 65-84 years attending their General Practitioners were invited to fill in a questionnaire about their consumption of BDZ and all the subjects consuming BDZ to fill in the Medical Outcome Measures Short Form-36 (MOS SF-36) and the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) questionnaires. A total of 2,246 subjects used BDZ and 1,109 (49.4%) of them filled in the MOS SF-36 questionnaire. 1,005 of these participants also completed the PRIME-MD questionnaire (90.6%). The presence of sleep disorders and the characteristics of the BDZ used were not associated with any score in the MOS SF-36 questionnaire, whereas the Prime diagnosis was the most important predictor, since subjects with depression and/or anxiety had a lower mean score on each scale than subjects without disorders. Among a sample of Italian seniors taking BDZ, QoL was associated with the presence of anxiety and/or depression. Age, gender, education and the presence of cardiovascular diseases or stroke were associated with specific aspects of QoL, when anxiety and depression were controlled for.
 ...
PMID:Health-related quality of life in older people using benzodiazepines: a cross-sectional study. 1706 30


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>