Background: There is a general consensus that another influenza pandemic is inevitable. Although health care workers (HCWs) are essential to the health system response, there are few studies exploring HCW attitudes to pandemic influenza. The aim of this study was to explore HCWs knowledge, attitudes and intended behaviour towards pandemic influenza.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is reportedly highly heritable, even though a recognized genetic cause is often absent. To explain this contradiction, we explored the "strength" of family history in FTD, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and controls. Clinical syndromes associated with heritability of FTD and AD were also examined. FTD and AD patients were recruited from an FTD-specific research clinic, and patients were further sub-classified into FTD or AD phenotypes. The strength of family history was graded using the Goldman score (GS), and GS of 1-3 was regarded as a "strong" family history. A subset of FTD patients underwent screening for the main genetic causes of FTD. In total, 307 participants were included (122 FTD, 98 AD, and 87 controls). Although reported positive family history did not differ between groups, a strong family history was more common in FTD (FTD 17.2 %, AD 5.1 %, controls 2.3 %, P < 0.001). The bvFTD and FTD-ALS groups drove heritability, but 12.2 % of atypical AD patients also had a strong family history. A pathogenic mutation was identified in 16 FTD patients (10 C9ORF72 repeat expansion, 5 GRN, 1 MAPT), but more than half of FTD patients with a strong family history had no mutation detected. FTD is a highly heritable disease, even more than AD, and patients with bvFTD and FTD-ALS drive this heritability. Atypical AD also appears to be more heritable than typical AD. These results suggest that further genetic influences await discovery in FTD.

Conclusion Acute causes of bilateral ophthalmoplegia include Wernicke's encephalopathy, Miller-Fisher Syndrome (MFS) variant of Guillain Barre Syndrome, brainstem stroke, myasthenia gravis and botulism. Of these, only MFS and botulism will cause both internal and external ophthalmoplegia.

ObjectivesEndovascular clot retrieval (ECR) is now the standard of care for selected patients with acute stroke,1 however there are few centres where it is performed. Nepean Hospital is a tertiary hospital located over 50 km from the major ECR centres in Sydney. We aimed to review the feasibility, process, and outcomes for ECR referrals from our facility.MethodsCase series of patients referred for ECR between 1 February 2016 and 1 February 2017.ResultsData was available for 10 patients, of whom eight patients (80%) underwent ECR following transfer. The mean patient age was 64.5 years (range 42–78) and mean baseline NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) was 11.8 (range 0–20). Six patients (60%) received intravenous alteplase (tPA) prior to transfer with a median onset-to-needle time of 187 min (IQR 123–223). IV tPA was contraindicated in the other four patients. The median time from neuroimaging to transfer acceptance was 70 min (IQR 50–95), with a further wait of 50 min (IQR 29–62) for ambulance transport to depart. The median road transport time was 59 min (IQR 55–60). Median onset-to-groin puncture time was 334 min (IQR 299–337). Successful reperfusion (mTICI 2B/3) was achieved in all patients who underwent ECR. Overall, 5/8 patients (62.5%) who underwent ECR achieved an excellent outcome (modified Rankin Scale 0–1). No patient developed anaphylaxis or acute kidney injury. Two patients died, both of whom were referred outside of the current guidelines.ConclusionsECR in patients from outer metropolitan Sydney is feasible and achieves good outcomes when guideline-based selection criteria are used, despite geographical barriers and the lack of a state-wide service in NSW. Potential areas of improvement include streamlining the referral and transfer process.