Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Josephine Muchiri
Josephine Muchiri has her expertise in clinical psychology, research and mentoring young people. She has years of experience in research, evaluation
Keynote: Homotypic Comorbidity of Anxiety Disorders AmoHomotypic Comorbidity of Anxiety Disorders Among Children and Adolescentsng Children and Adolescents
Time : 10:00
Biography:
Josephine Muchiri has her expertise in clinical psychology, research and mentoring young people. She has years of experience in research, evaluation, teaching and clinical work involving psychometric testing, interventions and therapeutic work both in hospital and education institutions. She is passionate about empowering young people to attain their highest potential, by overcoming their current limitations.
Abstract:
Statement of the Problem: Anxiety is the ninth leading cause for mental illness and disability for adolescents aged 15-19 years and sixth for those aged 10-14 years (World Health organization [WHO], 2020). Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with a chronic waxing-waning course across the lifespan, which affects children negatively (Craske et al., 2017; Saha et al, 2021). Identifying the specific comorbidities is crucial to informing treatment programs.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and comorbidities of anxiety disorders among youth aged 8-16 years from low social economic backgrounds in Kenya.
Methodology: A total of 163 youth completed the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), a 41 item questionnaire assessing for separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic disorders, social anxiety and significant school avoidance.
Findings: The prevalence rates for the anxiety disorders were; separation anxiety; 78.5%, M=7.36, generalized anxiety; 35.6%, M=6.96, panic disorder; 72.4%, M=10.06, social anxiety; 83%, M=7.45 and significant school avoidance; 29.4%, M= 1.85. The comorbidity rate was 80.4% (n=131) where 26.7% (n=35) were 8-10-year-olds, 27.5% (n=36) were 11-13-year-olds and 45.8% (n=60) were 14-16-year-olds. The mean number of comorbidities for the entire sample was 3.22 anxiety disorders (ADs) and per age group it was 3.57, 3.25 and 2.98 ADs for the 8-10, 11-13 and the 14-16 year-old respectively. Highest comorbidities in the 2-disorders category were for separation/social anxiety (n=75, 46.0%) followed by generalized/separation anxiety (n=57, 34.9%). In the 3-disorders category, highest prevalence was for separation/generalized/social anxiety disorders (n=57, 34.9%) and panic disorder/separation/significant school avoidance (n= 40, 24.5%).
Conclusion & Significance: Some anxiety disorders dissipate from childhood to adolescence although with increased age, some new anxiety disorders may develop and some persist from childhood to adolescence. Homotypic comorbidity of anxiety disorders is thus high and assessments must
Keynote Forum
Gurkirat Chatha1
Department of Neurosurgery, Monash Health, Melbourne, Australia
Keynote: The Utility of Arterial Spin Labelled Perfusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Measuring the Vascularity of High Grade Gliomas – A Prospective Study
Biography:
Gurkirat Chatha work`s at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He is currently an advanced trainee in Neurosurgery and sitting his fellowship exams this year.He plans to undertake fellowship in skull base and spinal surgery.
Abstract:
BACKGROUNDË Dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) currently remains the gold standard technique for measuring cerebral perfusion in glioma diagnosis and surveillance. Arterial spin labelling (ASL) PWI is a non-invasive alternative that does not require gadolinium contrast administration, although it is yet to be applied in widespread clinical practice. This study aims to assess the utility of ASL PWI in predicting glioma vascularity by measuring maximal tumour signal intensity in patients based on pre-operative imaging and comparing this to maximal vessel density on histopathology.
METHODSË Pseudocontinuous ASL (pCASL) images were acquired pre-operatively in 21 patients with high grade gliomas. The maximal signal intensity within the gliomas over a region of interest of 100mm2 was measured and also normalised to the contralateral cerebral cortex (nTBF-C), and cerebellum (nTBF-Cb). Maximal vessel density per 1mm2 was determined on histopathology using CD31 and CD34 immunostaining on all participants
RESULTSË A statistically significant correlation was observed between maximal signal intensity (p<0.05) and nTBF-C (p<0.05) to maximal vessel density based on histopathology. Although a positive trend was also observed nTBF-Cb, this did not reach statistical significance. Average vessel density did not correlate with age, sex, previous treatment, or IDH status.
CONCLUSIONSË ASL PWI imaging is a reliable marker of evaluating the vascularity of high grade gliomas and may be used as an adjunct to DSC PWI.
Key words: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF), Cerebral Blood Volume (CBV), Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast (DSC), Perfusion Weighted Imaging (PWI), Arterial Spin Labelling (ASL), Glioma