Stroke

Increased serum alkaline phosphatase as a predictor of long-term mortality after stroke Ryu, W.-S. et al. Neurology 75, 1995–2002 (2010)

Alkaline phosphatase has a key role in bone mineralization, but may have detrimental cardiovascular effects at high levels. Ryu et al. studied >2,000 patients with acute stroke to assess the relationship between serum levels of alkaline phosphatase and poststroke mortality. The researchers found that elevated serum levels of this enzyme independently predicted death following ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke.

Neuromuscular disease

Characterizing spinal muscular atrophy with electrical impedance myography Rutkove, S. B. et al. Muscle Nerve 42, 915–921 (2010)

A small study has shown that electrical impedance myography (EIM) can detect muscle abnormalities in cases of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Rutkove and colleagues found that EIM parameters differed markedly between 21 patients with SMA and 19 healthy children, and that this technique could differentiate type 2 SMA from type 3 SMA with high accuracy (93%). According to the investigators, EIM could facilitate the assessment of disease status in patients with SMA.

Migraine

Prevalence of red ear syndrome in juvenile primary headaches Raieli, V. et al. Cephalalgia doi: 10.1177/0333102410388437

Red ear syndrome (RES) involves bouts of burning pain in one ear and, in children, may be linked with migraine. A new study supports this relationship by showing that among children with headache, migraine occurred more frequently after RES than did other types of primary headache. The study also revealed apparent associations between RES and various migraine features linked to the parasympathetic nervous system, which, according to the researchers, indicate the existence of shared underlying mechanisms.

Stroke

Association between obesity and mortality after acute first-ever stroke: the obesity–stroke paradox Vemmos, K. et al. Stroke 42, 30–36 (2011)

The effect of obesity on mortality after acute stroke has been unclear. Vemmos et al. evaluated the survival rate of patients with first-ever stroke who were deemed to be of normal weight (n = 1,139), overweight (n = 1,113) or obese (n = 504). The investigators found that short-term (1 week after stroke) and long-term (10 years after stroke) survival rates were higher for patients who were overweight or obese than for people of normal weight.