Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis in a Patient with Multiple Myeloma

Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis (IBN), is a rare brachial plexopathy with an unknown aetiology. Multiple myeloma is a neoplastic plasma cell disease characterised by bone lesions. In this article, we present the case of a 59-year-old male patient with IBN associated with multiple myeloma, who was admitted to our clinic with right shoulder pain and right arm weakness. He experienced muscle weakness and atrophy in his right arm after a sudden onset of pain attack in the shoulder. Plexus and cervical vertebral MRI showed no pathology. Electrodiagnostic studies showed upper and middle trunk plexopathies. Laboratory analysis revealed anaemia, hypercalcaemia, renal dysfunction and monoclonal gammopathy in immunoglobulin electrophoresis. A bone marrow biopsy established the diagnosis of IgG kappa multiple myeloma. This is the first case report that presents the association of multiple myeloma and IBN

SEON: A pyramid of ontologies for software evolution and its applications

The Semantic Web provides a standardized, well-established framework to define and work with ontologies. It is especially apt for machine processing. However, researchers in the field of software evolution have not really taken advantage of that so far.In this paper, we address the potential of representing software evolution knowledge with ontologies and Semantic Web technology, such as Linked Data and automated reasoning.We present SEON, a pyramid of ontologies for software evolution, which describes stakeholders, their activities, artifacts they create, and the relations among all of them. We show the use of evolution-specific ontologies for establishing a shared taxonomy of software analysis services, for defining extensible meta-models, for explicitly describing relationships among artifacts, and for linking data such as code structures, issues (change requests), bugs, and basically any changes made to a system over time.For validation, we discuss three different approaches, which are backed by SEON and enable semantically enriched software evolution analysis. These techniques have been fully implemented as tools and cover software analysis with web services, a natural language query interface for developers, and large-scale software visualization

Cross-sectional, hospital-based analysis of headache types using ICHD-3 criteria in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: the Head-MENAA study

Abstract Background Headaches are frequent neurological disorders that are yet to be unveiled and treated comprehensively worldwide. Bearing in mind that the distribution of headache subtypes in neurology clinics (NC) is essential for planning appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, the primary goals of this multi-centric study are to carry out inter-regional comparisons by using current diagnostic criteria with evaluations of neurologists to delineate headache burden. Methods A cross-sectional study between April 1 and May 16, 2022 was conducted with the participation of 13 countries from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Patients were included in the study on a specific day each week during five consecutive weeks. All volunteers over the age of 18 and whose primary cause for admission was headache were examined. The patients admitted to NC or referred from emergency services/other services were evaluated by neurologists by means of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) criteria. Results Among the 13,794 patients encountered in NC, headache was the primary complaint in 30.04%. The headache patients’ mean age was 42.85 ± 14.89 (18–95 years), and 74.3% were female. According to the ICHD-3 criteria, 86.7% of the main group had primary headache disorders, 33.5% had secondary headaches, 4% had painful cranial neuropathies along with other facial and headaches, and 5.2% had headaches included in the appendix part showing some overlapping conditions. While the most common primary headache was migraine without aura (36.8%), the most common secondary headache was medication-overuse headache (MOH) (9.8%). Headaches attributed to COVID-19, its secondary complications, or vaccines continue to occur at rates of 1.2%-3.5% in current neurology practice. Pain severity was significantly lower in Ivory Coast and Sudan than in Türkiye, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Iran, Egypt, Senegal, Tatarstan, and Azerbaijan (p &lt; 0.001). Conclusions The study showed that migraine is still the most common motive for admissions to NC in different regions. Furthermore, MOH, an avoidable disorder, is the most common secondary headache type and appears to be a significant problem in all regions. Remarkably, pain perception differs between regions, and pain intensity is lower in Africa than in other regions. </jats:sec