Alan Turing Institute Almere

Does Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy reduce mortality?

Does Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy reduce mortality in adults with growth hormone deficiency?
Data from the Dutch National Registry of Growth Hormone Treatment in Adults.

Hans Koppeschaar, medical advisor at ATIA was partner in a nationwide cohort study that investigated the effect of GH treatment on all-cause and cause-specific mortality and analyzed patient characteristics influencing mortality in GHD adults.

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Department of Internal Medicine, Section Endocrinology (C.C.v.B., I.C.v.N., L.I.A., M.L.D.),
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (M.W.H.),VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam
Department of Internal Medicine (A.A.M.F.), Isala Clinics, Zwolle-The Netherlands;
Emotional Brain and Alan Turing Institute for Multidisciplinary Health Research (H.P.F.K.), 1311 RL Almere-The Netherlands;
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (A.J.v.d.L.), Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam-The Netherlands.

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On the 11th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience on September 25-29, 2011, a scientific poster on attention-related EEG signals has been presented. The poster was co-authored by ATIA Senior Researcher, dr. Koen Böcker, together with Alexander Logeman, MaSc (first author) and Prof. dr. Leon Kenemans (both from Utrecht University).

The full title of the poster is "Uncovering cue-locked and target-locked event related potentials associated with bias and disengagement in one visuospatialcueing paradigm: the effect of target characteristics".
The main conclusion is that a task, that was previously developed by Mangun and Hillyard to study target-related ERP components for bias and disengagement in a visuospatial attention task, is also suitable to study cue-related ERP components for future studies.

From June 27-30 the 24th International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2011) was held in Bristol (England).
Daniel Höhle en Bo de Lange, two ATIA scientists were represented there. Their paper on the application of decision trees in a medical dataset had been accepted for publication. Daniel en Bo presented a poster on how the Moku algorithm can support physicians/specialists in decision making whether or not to operate on the parathyroid glands in MEN1 cancer patients.

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Paper Bristol.pdf

Poster Bristol.jpg

Gerritsen, J., Van Ham, D.M.M., Bloemers, J.M.M., Böcker, K.B.E., Koppeschaar, H.P.F., Everaerd, W.T.A.M., & Tuiten, J.J.A.
Testosterone, combined with sildenafil, enhances startles evoked during erotic pictures in sexually dysfunctional women with high sensitivity for sexual cues. Poster 3.42.
9th Dutch Endo-Neuro-Psycho Meeting, Lunteren, 2011

HNA Logemann, MM Lansbergen, TWDP van Os, KBE Böcker, JL Kenemans.
The effectiveness of EEG-feedback on attention, impulsivity and EEG; a sham feedback controlled study.
Neuroscience Letters, 2010 479(1): 49-53.

Link to pubmed

Abstract

EEG-feedback, also called neurofeedback, is a training procedure aimed at altering brain activity, and is used as a treatment for disorders like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Studies have reported positive effects of neurofeedback on attention and other dependent variables. However, double-blind studies including a sham neurofeedback control group are lacking.

The inclusion of such group is crucial to control for unspecific effects. The current work presents a sham-controlled, double-blind evaluation. The hypothesis was that neurofeedback enhances attention and decreases impulsive behavior. Participants (n = 27) were students selected on relatively high scores on impulsivity/inattention questionnaires (Barrat Impulsivity Scale and Broadbent CFQ). They were assigned to a neurofeedback treatment or a sham group. (sham)Neurofeedback training was planned for 15 weeks consisting of a total of 30 sessions, each lasting 22 ...

Cognitive performance in older males

Quik EH, Conemans EB, Valk GD, Kenemans JL, Koppeschaar HP, Dam PS.
Cognitive performance in older males is associated with growth hormone secretion.
Department of Experimental Psychology and Psychopharmacology, Utrecht University, Utrecht,
The Netherlands.

Link to Pubmed

Abstract:

Decreases in GH secretion with age may contribute to cognitive changes associated with aging. We...

Dutch National Registry of Growth Hormone Treatment in Adults: Patient characteristics and diagnostic test procedures

Caroline Van Nieuwpoort, Christa C. van Bunderen, Lucia I Arwert, Anton A.m. Franken, Hans P.f. Koppeschaar, A J Van der Lely, Jos Twisk, Maarten Boers and Madeleine Drent

Link to Pubmed

Objective:

The Dutch National Registry of GH Treatment in Adults was established in 1998 as an initiative of the Ministry of Health. The main goals were to gain more insight into long-term efficacy, safety, and costs of GH therapy (GHT) in adult GH-deficient (GHD) patients in The Netherlands.

Methods:

Baseline patient characteristics and diagnostic test procedures were evaluated.

Results:

Until January 2009 in roughly 10 years, 2891 patients (1475 men and 1416 women, mean age 43.5±16.5 years) were registered. GHD was of childhood-onset (CO) in over 20% of the patients and of isolated in 11%. The most common causes of GHD were pituitary tumors and/or their treatment, craniopharyngiomas, and idiopathic GHD. In 85% of the patients, a GH...

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