Exploring heterogeneity in mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous diagnostic entity, without a clear prognosis, often accompanied by psychiatric symptomatology and physical frailty.

Objective: Understanding the heterogeneity within MCI is a critical step in improving the early detection of cognitive decline and developing effective interventions.

Methods: Cross-sectional multivariate latent mixture analyses of data from patients evaluated between 2015 and 2019, who were routinely entered into a multidisciplinary database for research purposes.

Associations Between Vascular Risk Factors and Perivascular Spaces in Adults with Intact Cognition, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia.

Background: Perivascular spaces (PVS) are fluid-filled compartments surrounding small intracerebral vessels that transport fluid and clear waste.

Objective: We examined associations between PVS count, vascular and neurodegenerative risk factors, and cognitive status among the predominantly Hispanic participants of the FL-VIP Study of Alzheimer's Disease Risk.

Methods: Using brain MRI (n = 228), we counted PVS in single axial image through the basal ganglia (BG) and centrum semiovale (CSO).

Structural Basal Ganglia Correlates of Subjective Fatigue in Middle-Aged and Older Adults.

Objective: Fatigue is among the most common complaints in community-dwelling older adults, yet its etiology is poorly understood. Based on models implicating frontostriatal pathways in fatigue pathogenesis, we hypothesized that smaller basal ganglia volume would be associated with higher levels of subjective fatigue and reduced set-shifting in middle-aged and older adults without dementia or other neurologic conditions.

Methods: Forty-eight non-demented middle-aged and older adults ( = 68.

Long-term seizure and psychiatric outcomes following laser ablation of mesial temporal structures.

Objective: Postsurgical seizure outcome following laser interstitial thermal therapy (LiTT) for the management of drug-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) has been limited to 2 years. Furthermore, its impact on presurgical mood and anxiety disorders has not been investigated. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify seizure outcome changes over a period ranging from 18 to 81 months; (2) to investigate the seizure-free rate in the last follow-up year; (3) to identify the variables associated with seizure freedom; and (4) to identify the impact of LiTT on presurgical mood and anxiety disorders.

Magnetic Resonance-Guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Mesial Temporal Epilepsy: A Case Series Analysis of Outcomes and Complications at 2-Year Follow-Up.

Background: Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) presents an important new minimally invasive tool in the management of drug-resistant mesial temporal epilepsy (MTE). However, because of its relative novelty, not much is known about long-term seizure freedom rates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the postsurgical seizure outcome following LITT after a minimum follow-up period of 2 years.

Arcuate fasciculus and speech in congenital bilateral perisylvian syndrome.

Standard magnetic resonance imaging can diagnose congenital bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria, but is limited in explaining the heterogeneous clinical spectrum of the related congenital bilateral perisylvian syndrome, characterized by pseudobulbar dysfunction, developmental delay, and epilepsy. We analyzed arcuate fasciculi using diffusion tensor imaging, a major language tract in the perisylvian region interconnecting the Broca and Wernicke areas, and at high risk of becoming developmentally affected in this condition. Six patients with congenital bilateral perisylvian syndrome underwent diffusion tensor imaging and were evaluated.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease subtypes and genetic testing strategies.

Objective: Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) affects 1 in 2,500 people and is caused by mutations in more than 30 genes. Identifying the genetic cause of CMT is often necessary for family planning, natural history studies, and for entry into clinical trials. However genetic testing can be both expensive and confusing to patients and physicians.

Multimodality neuroimaging in Tourette syndrome: alpha-[11C] methyl-L-tryptophan positron emission tomography and diffusion tensor imaging studies.

Previous studies in Tourette syndrome have reported lateralized abnormalities of neurotransmitters and microstructure of the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit. The authors analyzed the relationship between serotonin synthesis and microstructural changes in the subcortical structures (caudate nucleus, lentiform nucleus, and thalamus) related to this circuit, using alpha-[(11)C]methyl-L-tryptophan positron emission tomography (PET) and diffusion tensor imaging, respectively, in 16 children with Tourette syndrome. Correlations between diffusion tensor imaging and alpha-[(11)C]methyl-L-tryptophan PET asymmetry values were found in the caudate nucleus.

Quantitative brain surface mapping of an electrophysiologic/metabolic mismatch in human neocortical epilepsy.

The spatial relationship between an intracranial EEG-defined epileptic focus and cortical hypometabolism on glucose PET has not been precisely described. In order to quantitatively evaluate the hypothesis that ictal seizure onset and/or rapid seizure propagation, detected by subdural EEG monitoring, commonly involves normometabolic cortex adjacent to hypometabolic cortical regions, we applied a novel, landmark-constrained conformal mapping approach in 14 children with refractory neocortical epilepsy. The 3D brain surface was parcellated into finite cortical elements (FCEs), and hypometabolism was defined using lobe- and side-specific asymmetry indices derived from normal adult controls.

Abnormal fronto-striatal connectivity in children with histories of early deprivation: A diffusion tensor imaging study.

An Inattentive/Overactive (I/O) behavioral phenotype has been reported in a significant percentage of children raised from birth in orphanages. While a number of studies have identified both functional and structural brain abnormalities in children raised from birth in orphanages, no published studies have evaluated potential neural correlates of the I/O phenotype. We applied diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to 15 pre-teen children raised in orphanages in Eastern Europe or Asia and later adopted to the US.