Late preterm infants (born between 34+0 and 36+6 weeks gestation) account for the recent striking increase in premature birth and they carry a higher vulnerability to suffer brain insults compared to term infants. These babies can develop any kind of known brain lesions including those affecting the most premature babies (i.e.an intraventricular haemorrhage) and lesions affecting more typically...

Modern-day cardiac surgery, made possible by the advent of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) almost six decades ago, continues to be challenged by the risk of neurologic injury. While catastrophic injury was common in the early days of CPB, advances in perfusion, anesthetic and surgical techniques now allow the vast majority of patients to undergo surgery without major morbidity or mortality. Howeve...

The author reviews reports of neuropathology resulting from electroconvulsive therapy in experimental animals and humans. Although findings of petechial hemorrhage, gliosis, and neuronal loss were well established in the decade following the introduction of ECT, they have been generally ignored since then. ECT produces characteristic EEG changes and severe retrograde amnesia, as well as other m...

5205. 322haematologica | 2012; 97(2)Letters to the Editor

Introduction. Caesarean section is the commonest operation carried out in females of the reproductive age group. Spinal anaesthesia is commonly used for caesarean section with its risk. Permanent paralysis of the lower limbs following subarachnoid block is a rare complication but can occur even in the best of hands. Case Summary. This is a 29-year-old final-year university student now 34 years ...

Cerebral damage remains a major hazard of open-heart surgery. A one-year follow-up investigation of 100 consecutive patients who underwent open-heart operation for valve replacement revealed an incidence of postoperative cerebral disorders of 37%. The occurrence of brain damage was clearly related to the presence of a history of previous neurological diseases, to operative hypoxia, and to unexp...

Endogenous adenosine acting at the adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) can modify brain injury in a variety of neurological disorder models. However, both A2AR activation and inactivation have been shown to be neuroprotective in different situations, raising the intriguing possibility that A2ARs in distinct cellular elements may have different and even opposing effects. In this study, we developed th...

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) represents a considerable health problem with an incidence of 6-7 per 100.000 individuals per year in Western society. We investigated the long-term consequences of SAH on behavior, neuroinflammation and gray- and white-matter damage using an endovascular puncture model in Wistar rats. Rats were divided into a mild or severe SAH group based on their acute neurologi...

This editorial reviews the impact of iodine deficiency (1) on thyroid function in pregnant women and neonates and (2) on the neurointellectual development of infants and children. All degrees of iodine deficiency (mild: iodine intake of 50-99 microg/day, moderate: 20-49 microg/day, and severe: <20 microg/day) affect thyroid function of the mother and the neonate as well as the mental developmen...

I is required for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. These hormones, in turn, are required for brain development, which occurs during fetal and early postnatal life. The present paper reviews the impact of I deficiency (1) on thyroid function during pregnancy and in the neonate, and (2) on the intellectual development of infants and children. All extents of I deficiency (based on I intake (micr...