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Objective: It has been shown that pain, depression, and fatigue related to Obstructive Sleep Apnea syndrome (OSAS) results in a significant socioeconomic burden. We aimed to determine the prevalence, demographic, and clinical properties of pain symptoms in OSAS patients. Materials and Methods: We evaluated 84 OSAS patients diagnosed after full-night polysomnography with the Brief Pain Inventory, Beck Depression Rating scale (BDS), Pittsburg Sleep Quality index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness scale (ESS), Fatigue Impact scale (FIS), and Fatigue Severity scale (FSS). Results: A total of 84 patients (62 males, 22 females) with a mean age of 54.37±11.03 years were included. Headache in 25 (43.1%), myofascial pain in 22 (37.9%), and other types of pain in 11 patients were defined. ESS, FSS, FIS total, physical, cognitive, and psychosocial scores were found to be significantly higher in patients with pain. The presence of pain did not differ according to the severity of OSAS, and no significant difference was found in any parameters between mild, moderate, and severe OSAS except for minimal O2 saturation. A positive correlation between last week pain severity and BDS scores, a negative correlation between PSQI scores and the decrease in pain rate as a result of the treatment, and a weak positive correlation between FIS-cognitive sub-score and pain intensity scores were found. Conclusion: In our study, excessive daytime sleepiness and the impact and severity of fatigue were found to be higher in patients with pain than in those without pain. The most obvious difference was seen in terms of cognitive, and psychosocial fatigue. Contrary to expectations, it was observed that OSAS severity did not affect pain according to our data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a common neurological disorder that affects patients' sleep, emotional state and daily life negatively. In this study it was aimed to determine the sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and depression frequency in patients with RLS and their relation with duration and severity of illness. Materials and Methods: In our center, 41 patients with primary RLS diagnosis were included in the study. Patients were divided into groups as mild, moderate, severe and very severe, according to the RLS severity scale of the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory were filled in by all the patients, including identity and sociodemographic data with illness information. Statistical analysis was performed among groups divided according to disease severity. Depressive symptoms of the disease duration and its relation with sleep problems were investigated. Results: In this study 41 patients, 30 (73.2%) female, 11 (26.8%) male, were included. Of the patients participating in the study, 2 patients (4.9%) had mild RLS while 7 (17.1%) were very severely ill. Fourteen patients (34.1%) had moderate disease and 18 (43.9%) had severe disease. Bad sleep quality was found in 68.3% (n=28) of patients with RLS, excessive daytime sleepiness in 14.6% (n=6) severe depression in 7.3% (n=3) and totally 29.3% of patients (n=12) depressive symptoms were observed. As the severity of illness increased, sleep quality deteriorated and depressive symptoms increased (p<0.01). Conclusion: Most of the RLS patients had poor sleep quality, a significant amount of daytime excessive sleepiness, and about one third of them had depression. As the duration and severity of the disease increases, the intensity of depressive symptoms increases. Remembering that RLS may have serious consequences and effective treatment of depression when accompanied should be planned without losing time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archives of Neuropsychiatry / Nöropsikiyatri Arşivi is the property of Turkish Association of Neuropsychiatry and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: This study aims to determine the bifid median nerve (BMN) frequency in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and to investigate the possible association between CTS and BMN in this patient population. Patients and methods: A total of 194 wrists of 131 patients in whom CTS was diagnosed clinically and electrophysiologically and 73 healthy volunteers without any symptom or sign of CTS were examined with ultrasonography. Results: Bifid median nerve was detected in 22 wrists (11.3%) in CTS group and 15 wrists (10.2%) in the control group. There was no statistically significantly difference in the incidence of BMN among patients with CTS and healthy volunteers (p=0.891). Conclusion: Our study results showed that the incidence of BMN was similar among CTS patients and healthy volunteers. Therefore, we conclude that BMN may not be a predisposing factor for CTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Journal of Neurology / Turk Noroloji Dergisi is the property of Galenos Yayinevi Tic. LTD. STI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Dusunen Adam: Journal of Psychiatry & Neurological Sciences is the property of KARE Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by motor dysfunction, and is also a non-motor disorder. Olfactory dysfunction (OD) is a non-motor symptom in PD. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether OD varies among subtypes of PD. Material and Method: Patients comprised 28 patients with idiopathic PD (23 male and 5 female) with a mean age of 64.96 ± 7.49 years. The patients were divided into tremor-dominant type (TDT), akinetic-rigid type (ART) and mixed type (MT) by means of part III of Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Patients were asked whether they had a relative with tremor or PD. University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test-40 (UPSIT-40) was used to test olfactory function. Patients with any factor that may influence olfactory function were excluded. Results: Fourteen patients were classified as TDT, 12 as ART, and 2 as MT. There were no significant differences in mean age, UPDRS part III, and UPDRS total scores. The UPSIT scores were the highest in the MT group and lowest in the ART group, but there was no statistically significant difference. Discussion: Our results do not prove a difference in OD between subtypes of PD, but suggest that ART patients might have a poor ability to identify odors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Recent studies showed high plasma homocysteine levels in patients treated with Levodopa for Parkinson's disease (PD). Homocysteine, due to its exotoxic effect, might be the cause of polyneuropathy seen in PD. In this study, our aim was to show the correlation between high concentration of plasma homocysteine levels and polyneuropathy associated with PD. Material and Methods: Forty-one patients with PD receiving levodopa treatment (patient group) and 30 healthy subjects (control group) were included in this study. We compared the two groups in terms of electrophysiological findings. Twelve patients had high plasma homocysteine levels and 29 of them had low plasma homocysteine levels. Results: Six of the 41 patients had sensorial polyneuropathy and decreased compound muscle action potantiel amplitude compared to controls. Two patients had high plasma homocysteine levels, two patients had nearly high plasma homocysteine levels, two patients had low plasma homocysteine levels who had sensorial polyneuropathy. Conclusion: Although in our study, we did not show any correlation between polyneuropathy and high plasma homocysteine levels, further studies including homogeneous groups of younger patients with PD are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Medical Bulletin of Haseki / Haseki Tip Bulteni is the property of Galenos Yayinevi Tic. LTD. STI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Wernicke's encephalopathy is a neurological syndrome that develops due to thiamine deficiency. Although it has a significantly high mortality rate, it responds well to thiamine treatment, especially in its early stages. Because of its common association with alcoholism and the fact that its clinical triad is seen in only a small portion of patients (10-20%), diagnosis is difficult, especially in cases without a history of alcoholism. Herein we present a patient that drank bleach (sodium carbonate) in an effort to commit suicide and developed pyloric stenosis, which was followed by confusion, ophthalmoparesis, and ataxia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Olfactory dysfunction is an early and common symptom in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Recently, the relation between olfactory dysfunction and cognitive loss in IPD has been reported. In our study, we aimed to investigate the relation between olfactory dysfunction and cognitive impairments in early IPD related with this theory., Methods: In this study, we included 28 patients with stage 1 and stage 2 IPD according to the Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) scale and 19 healthy participants. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was performed for evaluating olfactory function. For cognitive investigation in participants, the clock drawing test, Stroop test, verbal fluency test, Benton face recognition test (BFR), Benton line judgment orientation test (BLO), and Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) were performed., Results: We found significantly lower UPSIT scores in the patient group compared to controls (p=.018). In the neuropsychological investigation, only Stroop test and BLOT test scores were significantly lower in the patient group compared to controls (p=.003, p=.002, respectively). We found a negative correlation between UPSIT scores and Stroop time (p=.033) and Stroop error (p=.037) and a positive correlation between UPSIT scores and SBST long-term memory scores (p=.016) in patients., Conclusion: In our study, we found mild cognitive impairment related with visuospatial and executive functions in early-stage IPD compared to controls. But, in the patient group, we detected a different impairment pattern of memory and frontal functions that correlated with hyposmia. This different pattern might be indicating a subgroup of IPD characterized by low performance in episodic verbal memory, with accompanying olfactory dysfunction in the early stage., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: The authors reported no conflict of interest related to this article.