Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by hallmark pathologies that affect many brain regions, including the cellular microenvironment with the hippocampus, ultimately leading to profound deficits in cognition. Surprising recent work has shown that factors in the systemic environment regulate the hippocampal cellular niche; age-associated blood-borne factors exacerbate brain aging phenotypes, whereas youth-associated blood-borne factors, including tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), reverse or ameliorate features of brain aging. As aging serves as the major risk factor for AD, and recent work shows that systemic factors can regulate AD pathology, we sought to characterize mechanisms by which the systemic environment regulates CNS phenotypes relevant to AD pathology through changes in neuroinflammation.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), increasing risk from 3-12-fold relative to the common ε3 allele. Seminal studies have revealed that age-related changes in blood-CNS communication regulate cognitive function. More recently, youth-associated blood-borne proteins revitalize the aged brain, improving hippocampal function and increasing adult neurogenesis and dendritic spine plasticity.

Epistaxis and Intradural-Extramedullary Haemorrhage in a Dog With Steroid Responsive Meningitis-Arteritis.

A 2-year-old female entire Golden Retriever with a history of being subdued was seen. Her physical and neurological examinations were initially unremarkable, but she acutely progressed to non-ambulatory paraparesis, with absent cervical or thoracolumbar hyperaesthesia. Magnetic resonance imaging of the vertebral column was performed, showing a well-defined, intradural-extramedullary mass at the level of the caudal aspect of L2 causing right-sided ventrolateral marked cord compression.

Right ventricular myocardial work: proof-of-concept for the assessment of pressure-strain loops of patients with pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension.

Background: Right ventricular myocardial work (RVMW) assessed by transthoracic echocardiography allows to study the right ventricular (RV) function using RV pressure-strain loops. The assessment of these novel indexes of RVMW has not yet been exten sively studied, namely in pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) population.

Objectives: to evaluate the relationship between RVMW and invasive indices of right heart catheterization (RHC) in a cohort of patients with group I and group IV PH and to compare with a control group without PH.

True- and pseudo-mitral annular disjunction in patients undergoing cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

Background: Mitral annular disjunction (MAD) is a controversial entity. Recently, a distinction between pseudo-MAD, present in systole and secondary to juxtaposition of the billowing posterior leaflet on the left atrial wall, and true-MAD, where the insertion of the posterior leaflet is displaced on the atrial wall both in diastole or in systole, has been proposed. We investigated the prevalence of pseudo-MAD and true-MAD.