Objective: This study examines the current prevalence of mood, anxiety and personality disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), the impact of personality disorders on clinical features of MS and the existence of depressive and anxiety disorders. Methods: The study sample comprised of 55 patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 56 control subjects. Axis I diagnoses including mood and anxiety disorders and personality disorders were ascertained by means of the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition / Clinical Version and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM, Revised Third Edition Personality Disorders, respectively. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was used to determine degree of disability due to MS. Results: The prevalence of any mood, any anxiety and any personality disorders in patients with MS were 40.0%, 38.2% and 45.5%, respectively, which are significantly higher than the control subjects. Major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder and obsessivecompulsive personality disorder were more frequent in patients with MS compared to the controls. In comparison to MS patients without personality disorders, MS patients with personality disorders had a more frequent occurence of any mood disorder, any anxiety disorder, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorders and MS attacks, and higher scoresof EDSS. Conclusions: Mood, anxiety and personality disorders are frequently seen in patients with MS. The results also suggest that personality disorders may negatively affect the existence of mood and anxiety disorders as well as the clinical course of MS in the patients.
Multiple Sclerosis ; Personality Disorders ; Anxiety Disorders

Urethral catheterisation is often used in acute urinary retention (AUR). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of urethral catheterisation on serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in men with AUR. Our study subjects comprised 35 men with a mean age of 63.7 +/- 7.35 years (range 55-80) who presented with AUR at our department between March 1999 and June 2000. Patients were randomly divided into two groups; 18 patient sunderwent urethral catheterisation in the first group (catheterisation group), while 17 underwent suprapubic percutaneous cystostomy in the second group (cystostomy group). Serum PSA levels before manipulation, and 2 and 12 hours and 7 days after treatment were determined. The change in median PSA values after manipulation was statistically significant in the catheterisation group (p< 0.05), but not in the cystostomy group (p> 0.05). The change in serum PSA was not clinically important in any of the patients. These results suggested that urethral catheterisation did not cause a significant alteration in serum PSA in men with AUR retention.
Acute Disease ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Human ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prostate-Specific Antigen/*blood ; *Urinary Catheterization ; Urinary Retention/*blood/*therapy

OBJECTIVE: The combination of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a non-pharmacological form of therapy for treating major depressive disorder (MDD), and electroencephalogram (EEG) is a valuable tool for investigating the functional connectivity in the brain. This study aims to explore whether pre-treating frontal quantitative EEG (QEEG) cordance is associated with response to rTMS treatment among MDD patients by using an artificial intelligence approach, artificial neural network (ANN). METHODS: The artificial neural network using pre-treatment cordance of frontal QEEG classification was carried out to identify responder or non-responder to rTMS treatment among 55 MDD subjects. The classification performance was evaluated using k-fold cross-validation. RESULTS: The ANN classification identified responders to rTMS treatment with a sensitivity of 93.33%, and its overall accuracy reached to 89.09%. Area under Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) value for responder detection using 6, 8 and 10 fold cross validation were 0.917, 0.823 and 0.894 respectively. CONCLUSION: Potential utility of ANN approach method can be used as a clinical tool in administering rTMS therapy to a targeted group of subjects suffering from MDD. This methodology is more potentially useful to the clinician as prediction is possible using EEG data collected before this treatment process is initiated. It is worth using feature selection algorithms to raise the sensitivity and accuracy values.
Artificial Intelligence ; Brain ; Classification ; Depressive Disorder, Major* ; Electroencephalography ; Humans ; ROC Curve ; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Purpose: Perineal electromyography (EMG) is a crucial part of urodynamic studies. Many researchers focused on the standardization of techniques in urodynamics, but no study has yet evaluated the differences with various reference electrode placements. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal placement of the reference electrode for recording pelvic floor activity in urodynamic studies. Methods: Children over 6 years of age without anatomic or neurological abnormalities were invited to participate in the study. Four reference electrodes were placed on the right kneecap, the inner surface of the right inner thigh, the right anterior iliac spine (AIS), and the skin over the left gluteal muscles for simultaneous recording. The EMG signal formed by pelvic contraction during forceful straining was recorded both in the supine and sitting positions. The root mean square (RMS) value of each muscle contraction signal was calculated. Results: Twenty-one participants (10 boys and 11 girls) were included. The mean age was 10.19±3.20 years. The highest RMS values were obtained with the reference electrode on the thigh in the supine position and the AIS in the sitting position. Significant differences were found between the mean RMS values of the knee and other locations of reference electrodes in the supine position, as well as between mean RMS values in all regions except the thigh and gluteus in the sitting position. The minimum mean RMS values in both positions were obtained with the reference electrode on the knee. Conclusions During urodynamic studies, reference electrodes shall be placed on AIS in the sitting and on the inner thigh in the supine position. The knee is not a suitable option for reference electrode placement. This information may help improve EMG recordings in the evaluation of pelvic floor muscles.