No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Aims: The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between impaired fine motor skills in Parkinson disease (PD) patients and their cognitive status, and to determine whether fine motor skills are more impaired in PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) than in non-MCI patients. Methods: Twenty PD MCI and 31 PD non-MCI patients (mean age 66.7 years, range 50-84, 36 males/15 females), all right-handed, took part in a motor performance test battery. Steadiness, precision, dexterity, velocity of arm-hand movements, and velocity of wrist-finger movements were measured and compared across groups and analyzed for confounders (age, sex, education, severity of motor symptoms, and disease duration). Statistical analysis included t tests corrected for multiple testing, and a linear regression with stepwise elimination procedure was used to select significant predictors for fine motor function. Results: PD MCI patients performed significantly worse in precision (p < 0.05), dexterity (p < 0.05), and velocity (arm-hand movements; p < 0.05) compared to PD non-MCI patients. The fine motor function skills were confounded by age. Conclusions: Fine motor skills in PD MCI patients are impaired compared to PD non-MCI patients. Investigating the relation between the fine motor performance and MCI in PD might be a relevant subject for future research.

Vascular diseases constitute a global health issue due to the increasing number of cases of patients with these diseases. The pathogenesis of the majority of these diseases, including atherosclerosis and thrombosis, is complex and not yet fully understood. One of the major causes for their occurrence can be immune disorders resulting in the development of a chronic inflammation within the vessels. In recent years, studies have placed emphasis on the role of neutrophils in the development of these diseases, i.e., the discovery of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) demonstrated that the structures released by the cells may contribute to the enhancement of inflammatory reactions and cell damage. This article summarizes current knowledge on the role of NETs during atherosclerosis, thrombosis and small-vessel vasculitis, especially in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated small-vessel vasculitis (AAV).