Publications by authors named "Stephan Blechinger"
Article Synopsis
- Intragastric botulinum neurotoxin injections (IBNI) are being used as a weight-loss treatment, but an outbreak of severe iatrogenic botulism occurred in early 2023 in Europe after patients received this treatment in Turkey.
- A retrospective analysis was conducted on ten patients in Austria and Germany who experienced severe symptoms like double vision, swallowing difficulties, and paralysis after IBNI.
- Despite the severity of their conditions, all patients were hospitalized, many in intensive care, and ultimately recovered without lasting health issues, underscoring the need for awareness and risk mitigation in medical procedures involving botulinum neurotoxins.
Therapeutic plasma exchange in steroid-refractory multiple sclerosis relapses. A retrospective two-center study.
Ther Adv Neurol Disord
January 2021
Background: Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is frequently used in glucocorticosteroid (GCS)-refractory multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses. Data regarding predictors of treatment response are scarce. The objective of this study was to analyze predictive factors for response to TPE in GCS-refractory MS patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonth-of-birth-effect in multiple sclerosis in Austria.
Mult Scler
December 2019
Background: The month-of-birth-effect (MoBE) describes the finding that multiple sclerosis (MS) patients seem to have been born significantly more frequently in spring, with a rise in May, and significantly less often in autumn and winter with the fewest births in November.
Objectives: To analyse if the MoBE can also be found in the Austrian MS population, and if so, whether the pattern is similar to the reported pattern in Canada, United Kingdom, and some Scandinavian countries.
Methods: The data of 7886 MS patients in Austria were compared to all live births in Austria from 1940 to 2010, that is, 7.
Background: To assess the incidence rate and prevalence ratio of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Austria.
Methods: Hospital discharge diagnosis and MS-specific immunomodulatory treatment prescriptions from public health insurances, covering 98% of Austrian citizens with health insurance were used to extrapolate incidence and prevalence numbers based on the capture-recapture method.
Results: A total of 1,392,629 medication prescriptions and 40,956 hospitalizations were extracted from 2 data sources, leading to a total of 13,205 patients.
Therapeutic options to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses comprise glucocorticosteroids (GCS) as first-line and therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) as second-line treatments in GCS-unresponsive patients. No guidelines exist for the treatment of another relapse following TPE. We retrospectively analyzed the responsiveness to GCS in a subsequent relapse following TPE in previously GCS-unresponsive MS patients.
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