The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic threatens health care providers and society. For planning of treatment capacities, it is of major importance to obtain reliable information on infection and fatality rates of the novel coronavirus. A German community study, the so-called Heinsberg study, found a 5-fold higher infection rate (and thus a remarkably lower fatality rate) than the officially reported cases suggest. We were interested to examine the SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibody status among clinic staff of a large neurological center in Northern Germany. Blood samples and questionnaires (demographic data, medical history) were collected pseudonymously. In total, 406 out of 525 (77.3%) of our employees participated in the study. The infection rate among the staff was as high as 2.7%. Including drop-outs (missing questionnaire but test result available), the infection rate was even higher (2.9%). Only 36% of the positively tested employees did suffer from flu-like symptoms in 2020. None of the nurseshaving closest and longest contact to patients-were found to be positive. Despite the fact that the infection rate among clinic staff may not be directly compared to the situation in the surrounding county (due to different testing procedures), one might hypothesize that the infection rate could be more than 30-fold higher than the number of officially reported cases for the county of Hameln-Pyrmont. The high rate of IgG-positive, asymptomatic healthcare workers might help to overcome fears in daily work.

BackgroundEvent-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate training-related changes in fast visual word recognition of functionally illiterate adults. Analyses focused on the left-lateralized occipito-temporal N170, which represents the earliest processing of visual word forms. Event-related brain potentials were recorded from 20 functional illiterates receiving intensive literacy training for adults, 10 functional illiterates not participating in the training and 14 regular readers while they read words, pseudowords or viewed symbol strings. Subjects were required to press a button whenever a stimulus was immediately repeated.ResultsAttending intensive literacy training was associated with improvements in reading and writing skills and with an increase of the word-related N170 amplitude. For untrained functional illiterates and regular readers no changes in literacy skills or N170 amplitude were observed.ConclusionsResults of the present study suggest that the word-related N170 can still be modulated in adulthood as a result of the improvements in literacy skills.

BACKGROUND: Upper limb dysfunction is a frequent complication after stroke impairing outcome. Inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied over the contralesional hemisphere is supposed to enhance the positive effects of conventional rehabilitative treatment. OBJECTIVE: This double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial investigated whether inhibitory rTMS as add-on to standard therapy improves upper limb spasticity. METHODS: Twenty-eight patients (aged 44 to 80 years) with unilateral stroke in the middle cerebral artery territory were analyzed. Participants were randomly assigned to inhibitory, low-frequency (LF-) rTMS (n = 14) or sham-rTMS (n = 14). The primary outcome measure was the spasticity grade, which was assessed with the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). In addition, the Fugl-Meyer-Assessment (FMA) for the upper extremity (UE) and a resting-state fMRI were performed to measure motor functions and the sensorimotor network, respectively. RESULTS: The MAS score was reduced in the LF-rTMS group only, whereas the FMA score improved in both groups over time. Regarding the fMRI data, both groups activated typical regions of the sensorimotor network. In the LF-rTMS group, however, connectivity to the left angular gyrus increased after treatment. CONCLUSION: Changes in functional connectivity in patients receiving inhibitory rTMS over the contralesional motor cortex suggest that processes of neuronal plasticity are stimulated.