International Clinical Neuroscience Journal

miRNAs are endogenous small noncoding RNAs that can regulate many cellular processes. Different expression levels of several miRNAs have been detected in glioblastomas. Function of miRNAs and targets have been well studied in recent years. According to these studies, the role of miRNAs in glioblastoma pathogenesis have been defined. miRNAs have affected many processes in GBM such as apoptosis, proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion and cell cycle regulation. In this review, we summarize the information of different miRNAs functions in glioblastoma.

Background: Motorcycle accidents and sport accidents lead yearly to many head injuries like head fractures and concussion. So finding the most proper helmet for reducing the injuries to head can be very helpful for head protection in such cases.

Methods: After 3D modeling of the helmet and head and meshing the model, a compressive impacting load of 1.31MPa was exerted on head and the model was analyzed using FEM. The helmet was considered as a two-layered helmet composing of an inner and an outer layer. Skull and CSF were considered as external layers of head. The analysis was repeated for a helmet with an inner layer made of extruded polystyrene (XPS), a helmet with an inner layer of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and finally a helmet with two internal layers of XPS and EPS.

Results: The amounts of maximum displacement of the outer layer in the helmet with a XPS inner layer, the helmet with an EPS inner layer and the helmet with two internal layers were 2.82, 3.15 and 2.98mm, respectively and the respective amounts of stress were 32.05, 43.38 and 34.3MPa. The amounts of maximum stress in the inner and outer layer of the helmet with a XPS inner layer were respectively 16.4% and 6.6% less than those in the helmet with two internal layers.

Discussion: Since the helmet with a XPS inner layer reduces the stress more than the helmet with two internal layers, it is the most optimal model for mitigating the head injury due to an impacting load. It should be noted that for simplifying the models, the dura was modeled together with the skull and the thicknesses of the XPS and EPS foam layers were considered to be equal.

Background and Purpose: Cancer is considered as one of the most radical hygienic issues in children. It threats the health and active lives of children and their parents causing numerous personal, familiar and social damages in physical, mental and social dimensions. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of stress management with cognitive-behavioral approach on the anxiety sensitivity of the mothers with cancerous children.

Methods: In a quasi-experimental with pretest- posttest study, 30 mothers with cancerous children were selected using purposeful sampling and divided into case and control groups. Both groups were given pretest using the 16 questions questionnaire of anxiety sensitivity. Then, the skills of stress management with cognitive-behavioral approach were taught to the case group for 8 sessions and the control group didn’t receive any intervention. Finally both groups were given posttest and the data were analyzed using one-way and single variable variance analysis through SPSS21 software.

Results: Mothers in case group showed reduction in the anxiety compared to the control one and it was maintained in the following period (p < 0.01). The highest reduction was in the parameter of the fear of physical concerns (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Teaching the methods of coping with stress with cognitive-behavioral approach is an effective strategy for helping mothers with cancerous children due to its high efficiency especially when it is held in groups.

Background and Purpose: There has been no report in which preoperative evaluation of ADC for prediction of post therapeutic outcome was presented. The aim of our study was to retrospectively evaluation the use of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) for the prediction of malignancy and the outcome of malignant astrocytic tumors.

Methods: We reviewed MRI of 26 male and 14 female patients with a pathologic diagnosis of a malignant astrocytic tumor.

Results: There was a relatively significant correlation between Ki-67 LI and minimum ADC was noted for the asterocitoma group (r=−0.701, P<0.001) or the oligodendroglioma group (r=−0.634, P =0.027) and more significantly in oligoastrocitoma group (r=−1.000) separately. There was a significant negative correlation between these parameters for the malignant glial and oligodenroglial tumors as a whole (r=−0.634, P =0.027).

Conclusion: The ADC analysis could be considered as one of the clinically accessible techniques used for prediction of outcome of malignant astrocytic tumors, and it might be useful for planning primary treatment modality in patients with these malignant tumors.

Background and Purpose: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is believed to be an immune-mediated disorder that develops from an interaction of the individual's genetic and as yet unidentified environmental causes. The prevalence of auto-antibodies in multiple sclerosis patients and their clinical associations vary in various studies. The aim of this study was to determine serum auto antibodies in multiple sclerosis patients.

Methods: This cross-sectional case-control study investigated anti-phospholipids antibody (APLA), antinuclear antibody (ANA), anti-cardiolipin antibody (ACLA), anti-neutrophilic antibodies (ANCA), anti-beta-2-glycoprotein I (anti β2GPI), and anti-double strand DNA (anti-ds-DNA) in 54 consecutive patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) who were referred to Imam Reza outpatient clinic of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The results were compared with 25 healthy individuals as the control group.

Results: Among 54 patients with relapsing-remitting MS or clinically isolated syndrome, at least one abnormal tests were found in 15 patients (27.9%), 6 (11.1%) had positive antinuclear antibodies, 3 (5.6%) had positive anti cardiolpin antibody (ACLA) and P-ANCA was positive in 2(3.7%) of patients and C-ANCA was positive in 1(1.9%) of patients. None of the patients had any clinical manifestations other than MS symptoms. In the patient group, anti-ds-DNA antibody was positive in 5.6% of cases; statistically it had no significant difference with the control group (0%) (P=0.7), but anti- phospholipids antibody (APLA) and B2GPI were negative in all patient and control groups. The females had more positive auto-antibodies in comparison to males, but statistically their difference was not significant.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that a significant number of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and clinically isolated syndrome have positive serum auto-antibodies tests (including ANA, ANCA and ACLA) without clinical expression of any other autoimmune disease.

Background and Purpose: Cancer and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) are two most common causes of mortality and morbidity in the elderly. Patients with brain tumor can be highly affected by postsurgical stroke. CVA may be the first manifestation in these patients . Therefore, we aimed to assess the epidemiological factors affecting CVA after brain surgery.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study we enrolled 241 patients admitted for brain surgery due to a brain tumor during April 2009 to March 2013 in Tohid Hospital, Sanandaj, Iran, using the convenient sampling method.

Results: The mean±SD age of the patients was 48.1±21.3 years. 5 patients (2%) were complicated with CVAs(4ischemic stroke and one haemorrhagic). The frequency of CVA was not different regarding age,sex,type of tumor, tumor site,hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and type of intervention.Type of tumor was meningioma in 2 patients, Oligodendroglioma in 2 patients, and metastatic cancer in 1 patient. Of the 5 patients with CVA, 2 were in middle fossa (1.9% of middle fossa tumors), 2 in anterior fossa (2.5%), and one in the meningeal membrane (3.3%).

Conclusion:Despit low incidence of stroke in this study,it seems there is a considerable rate of mortality and morbidity of cerebral vascular diseases, especially in people with underlying chronic medical conditions such as brain tumors necessitates regular follow-up of patients with brain tumors for assessing risk factors to be able to increase survival rate and reduce disease-related complications.

Background: Arachnoid cysts are cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fluid-filled sacs that are located between the brain and spinal cord. Spinal column arachnoid cysts are rare and mostly asymptomatic, being mostly located in intradural regions. We reported a patient who presented with neurological deficits and mid-thoracic extradural arachnoid cyst treated with en-bloc resection.

Case Presentation: Patient was a 34-year-old female who presented with progressive back pain, lower extremity weakness and paresthesia in her lower limbs. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study revealed an extradural hyperintense signal lesion in T2-weighted, extending from T7 to T9, which did not enhance on T1-weighted post-contrast MRI. Patient underwent T6-T10 laminectomy and en-bloc resection of the lesion which was compatible with arachnoid cyst after histopathological examination. Patient did not experience worsening of neurological symptoms and lesion recurrence in clinical and imaging evaluation during 2-year follow-up.

Conclusion: Clinical and neuroimaging evaluation of every patient with progressive neurological deficits should be carried out in detail. This report suggests that rare spinal lesion, as extradural spinal arachnoid cyst in this case, may cause neurologic deficits and en-bloc resection of the lesion is feasible and may prevent local recurrence.