Endovascular intervention to treat spontaneous carotid-cavernous fistula in a patient with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome with an access site anatomical variant.

Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (vEDS) is a rare and potentially life-threatening inherited connective tissue disorder. Patients with vEDS can present with spontaneous arterial dissections and ruptured aneurysms. There are previous reports of large artery dissections and vessel rupture following conventional catheter diagnostic angiography.

Dopamine in major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of in vivo imaging studies.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of global disability. Several lines of evidence implicate the dopamine system in its pathophysiology. However, the magnitude and consistency of the findings are unknown.

Simple demographic, laboratory and chest radiograph variables can identify COVID-19 patients with pulmonary thromboembolism: a retrospective multicentre United Kingdom study.

Objectives: To (1) identify discriminatory demographic, laboratory and initial CXR findings; (2) explore correlation between D-dimer and radiographic severity scores; and (3) assess accuracy of published D-dimer thresholds to identify pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: Retrospective study including all COVID-19 patients admitted from 1st to 30th April 2020 meeting inclusion criteria from 25 (blinded) hospitals. Demographics, blood results, CXR and CTPA findings were compared between positive and negative PTE cohorts using uni- and multivariable logistic regression.

Reward processing in schizophrenia and its relation to Mu opioid receptor availability and negative symptoms: A [C]-carfentanil PET and fMRI study.

Background: Reward processing deficits are a core feature of schizophrenia and are thought to underlie negative symptoms. Pre-clinical evidence suggests that opioid neurotransmission is linked to reward processing. However, the contribution of Mu Opioid Receptor (MOR) signalling to the reward processing abnormalities in schizophrenia is unknown.

Brain Serotonin Release Is Reduced in Patients With Depression: A [C]Cimbi-36 Positron Emission Tomography Study With a d-Amphetamine Challenge.

Background: The serotonin hypothesis of depression proposes that diminished serotonergic (5-HT) neurotransmission is causal in the pathophysiology of the disorder. Although the hypothesis is over 50 years old, there is no firm in vivo evidence for diminished 5-HT neurotransmission. We recently demonstrated that the 5-HT receptor agonist positron emission tomography (PET) radioligand [C]Cimbi-36 is sensitive to increases in extracellular 5-HT induced by an acute d-amphetamine challenge.

Striatal dopaminergic alterations in individuals with copy number variants at the 22q11.2 genetic locus and their implications for psychosis risk: a [18F]-DOPA PET study.

Dopaminergic dysregulation is one of the leading hypotheses for the pathoetiology underlying psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Molecular imaging studies have shown increased striatal dopamine synthesis capacity (DSC) in schizophrenia and people in the prodrome of psychosis. However, it is unclear if genetic risk for psychosis is associated with altered DSC.

Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid ABeta42 for the differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia in participants diagnosed with any dementia subtype in a specialist care setting.

Background: Dementia is a syndrome that comprises many differing pathologies, including Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD), vascular dementia (VaD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). People may benefit from knowing the type of dementia they live with, as this could inform prognosis and may allow for tailored treatment. Beta-amyloid (1-42) (ABeta42) is a protein which decreases in both the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of people living with ADD, when compared to people with no dementia.

Acute acetate administration increases endogenous opioid levels in the human brain: A [C]carfentanil molecular imaging study.

Introduction: A recent study has shown that acetate administration leads to a fourfold increase in the transcription of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA in the hypothalamus. POMC is cleaved to peptides, including β-endorphin, an endogenous opioid (EO) agonist that binds preferentially to the µ-opioid receptor (MOR). We hypothesised that an acetate challenge would increase the levels of EO in the human brain.

GABA-A receptor differences in schizophrenia: a positron emission tomography study using [C]Ro154513.

A loss of GABA signaling is a prevailing hypothesis for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Preclinical studies indicate that blockade of the α5 subtype of the GABA receptor (α5-GABARs) leads to behavioral phenotypes associated with schizophrenia, and postmortem evidence indicates lower hippocampal α5-GABARs protein and mRNA levels in schizophrenia. However, it is unclear if α5-GABARs are altered in vivo or related to symptoms.

Serotonin release measured in the human brain: a PET study with [C]CIMBI-36 and d-amphetamine challenge.

Positron emission tomography (PET) enables non-invasive estimation of neurotransmitter fluctuations in the living human brain. While these methods have been applied to dopamine and some other transmitters, estimation of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT; Serotonin) release has proved to be challenging. Here we demonstrate the utility of the novel 5-HT2A receptor agonist radioligand, [C]CIMBI-36, and a d-amphetamine challenge to evaluate synaptic 5-HT changes in the living human brain.

Reduced mu opioid receptor availability in schizophrenia revealed with [C]-carfentanil positron emission tomographic Imaging.

Negative symptoms, such as amotivation and anhedonia, are a major cause of functional impairment in schizophrenia. There are currently no licensed treatments for negative symptoms, highlighting the need to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying them. Mu-opioid receptors (MOR) in the striatum play a key role in hedonic processing and reward function and are reduced post-mortem in schizophrenia.

Early motor resonance differentiates schizophrenia patients from healthy subjects and predicts social cognition performance.

Background: Diminished motor resonance (facilitation of motor potentials during action observation) is possibly related to social cognition deficits in schizophrenia. Adequate social cognition requires the successful moment-to-moment appraisal of social stimuli over a temporal window. However, similar changes in motor resonance with successive action observation stimuli are unknown.

Tobacco smoking and dopaminergic function in humans: a meta-analysis of molecular imaging studies.

Rationale: About 1.1 billion people smoke tobacco globally and tobacco-related health care costs 1.8% of GDP in many countries.

Neuroinflammation in schizophrenia: meta-analysis of microglial imaging studies.

Background: Converging lines of evidence implicate an important role for the immune system in schizophrenia. Microglia are the resident immune cells of the central nervous system and have many functions including neuroinflammation, axonal guidance and neurotrophic support. We aimed to provide a quantitative review of in vivo PET imaging studies of microglia activation in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy controls.

Positron Emission Tomography Studies of the Glial Cell Marker Translocator Protein in Patients With Psychosis: A Meta-analysis Using Individual Participant Data.

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that the immune system may be an important target for new treatment approaches in schizophrenia. Positron emission tomography and radioligands binding to the translocator protein (TSPO), which is expressed in glial cells in the brain including immune cells, represents a potential method for patient stratification and treatment monitoring. This study examined whether patients with first-episode psychosis and schizophrenia had altered TSPO levels compared with healthy control subjects.

Association of Stimulant Use With Dopaminergic Alterations in Users of Cocaine, Amphetamine, or Methamphetamine: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Stimulant use disorder is common, affecting between 0.3% and 1.1% of the population, and costs more than $85 billion per year globally.

The effects of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dopamine system.

The effects of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, are a pressing concern for global mental health. Patterns of cannabis use are changing drastically owing to legalization, the availability of synthetic analogues (commonly termed spice), cannavaping and an emphasis on the purported therapeutic effects of cannabis. Many of the reinforcing effects of THC are mediated by the dopamine system.

Prevalence and determinants of metabolic syndrome in patients with schizophrenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of Indian studies.

Introduction: Several authors have studied prevalence of metabolic syndrome (Met-S) in schizophrenia patients. Studies conducted in Indian scenario have shown conflicting results. Community based studies reported extremely low prevalence of metabolic syndrome in contrast to hospital based studies reporting higher rates.

Assessment of cardiac autonomic function in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy using short term heart rate variability measures.

Background: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a hereditary neuromuscular disorder frequently associated with progressive cardiac dysfunction, and is one of the common causes of death in these children. Early diagnostic markers of cardiac involvement might help in timely intervention. In this study we compared the short term HRV measures of DMD children with that of healthy subjects.