Autoimmune Encephalitis and Paraneoplastic Neurologic Syndromes: A Nationwide Study on Epidemiology and Antibody Testing Performance.

Background And Objectives: Autoimmune encephalitis (AIE) and paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes (PNSs) encompass a heterogeneous group of antibody-associated disorders. Both the number of syndromes and commercially available antibody tests have increased considerably over the past decade. High-quality population-based data on epidemiology of these disorders and real-world performance of antibody tests are needed.

Glial cell response and microthrombosis in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage patients: An autopsy study.

Neuroinflammation and microthrombosis may be underlying mechanisms of brain injury after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), but they have not been studied in relation to each other. In postmortem brain tissue, we investigated neuroinflammation by studying the microglial and astrocyte response in the frontal cortex of 11 aSAH and 10 control patients. In a second study, we investigated the correlation between microthrombosis and microglia by studying the microglial surface area around vessels with and without microthrombosis in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of 8 other aSAH patients.

Dissociations between Spatial and Temporal Order Memory: A Neuropsychological Patient Study.

Objectives: In complex real life situations, memories for temporal and spatial information are naturally linked since sequential events coincide in time and space. Whether this connection is inseparable or instead whether these processes are functionally dissociable was investigated in this patient study.

Methods: Spatial object-location and temporal order memory tasks were administered to 36 stroke patients and 44 healthy control participants.

Diagnostic criteria for Susac syndrome.

Background: Susac syndrome is characterised by the triad of encephalopathy with or without focal neurological signs, branch retinal artery occlusions and hearing loss. Establishment of the diagnosis is often delayed because the triad is complete only in a minority of patients at disease onset. This leads to a critical delay in the initiation of appropriate treatment.

High-resolution intracranial vessel wall MRI in an elderly asymptomatic population: comparison of 3T and 7T.

Objectives: Several intracranial vessel wall sequences have been described in recent literature, with either 3-T or 7-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the current study, we compared 3-T and 7-T MRI in visualising both the intracranial arterial vessel wall and vessel wall lesions.

Methods: Twenty-one elderly asymptomatic volunteers were scanned by 3-T and 7-T MRI with an intracranial vessel wall sequence, both before and after contrast administration.

Patterns of intracranial vessel wall changes in relation to ischemic infarcts.

Objective: In this retrospective case series study, we used 7.0 tesla MRI to describe patterns of intracranial vessel wall abnormalities in relation to ischemic infarcts in 9 patients with different intracranial vessel wall pathologies.

Methods: A patient-specific clinical imaging protocol was obtained after regular clinical workup, including a fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and an intracranial vessel wall sequence before and after contrast administration using 7.

Functional correlates of prospective memory in stroke.

Introduction: Prospective memory is the ability to remember actions to be performed later in time or when a certain event occurs. Multiple cognitive processes are involved in prospective memory, and the degree to which automatic or effortful processes are involved may differ for different types of prospective memory tasks. This study aimed to investigate prospective memory (dys)functioning in stroke patients, and to get more insight in which cognitive processes are involved in time- versus event-based prospective memory.

Mutations in BICD2, which encodes a golgin and important motor adaptor, cause congenital autosomal-dominant spinal muscular atrophy.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a heterogeneous group of neuromuscular disorders caused by degeneration of lower motor neurons. Although functional loss of SMN1 is associated with autosomal-recessive childhood SMA, the genetic cause for most families affected by dominantly inherited SMA is unknown. Here, we identified pathogenic variants in bicaudal D homolog 2 (Drosophila) (BICD2) in three families afflicted with autosomal-dominant SMA.

Early prediction of delayed cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage: development and validation of a practical risk chart.

Background And Purpose: To develop and validate a risk chart for prediction of delayed cerebral ischemia after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage based on admission characteristics.

Methods: For derivation of the risk chart, we studied data from 371 prospectively collected consecutive subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with a confirmed aneurysm admitted between 1999 and 2007. For its validation we similarly studied 255 patients admitted between 2007 and 2009.

Ophthalmic impairment or higher-order visual deficit? Posterior cortical atrophy: a case report.

A 64-year-old man (GK) was referred to our memory clinic because of progressive memory and concentration problems. His symptoms had started 3 years earlier with gradually increasing visual problems for which no ophthalmologic explanations could be found. Neuropsychological assessment with detailed examination of the visuoperception revealed striking impairments in the higher-order visual functions, leading to a probable diagnosis of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA).

Delayed cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage: a systematic review of clinical, laboratory, and radiological predictors.

Background And Purpose: Established predictors of delayed cerebral ischemia after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage are large amounts of extravasated blood and poor clinical condition on admission. The predictive value of other factors is uncertain.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE (1960-2012) for clinical, laboratory, and radiological predictors routinely available within 72 hours after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Prothrombotic gene variants and mortality after cerebral ischemia of arterial origin.

Background: Several functional prothrombotic gene variants have been associated with cerebral ischemia and myocardial infarction. We hypothesized that such gene variants may also be associated with mortality after cerebral ischemia of arterial origin because of an increased risk of fatal vascular events.

Methods: We performed a case-control study in 316 long-term survivors and 887 patients with recent cerebral ischemia of arterial origin.

The effect of stimulus features on working memory of categorical and coordinate spatial relations in patients with unilateral brain damage.

Spatial relations are typically divided into categorical and coordinate spatial relations. Categorical relations are abstract and show a left hemisphere (LH) advantage, whereas coordinate relations are metric and related to a right hemisphere (RH) advantage. In the current study a working memory task was used to asses categorical and coordinate performance with two different stimulus sets.

Hemispheric differences in spatial relation processing in a scene perception task: a neuropsychological study.

Understanding a complex visual scene depends strongly on our ability to process the spatial relations between objects in that scene. Two classes of spatial relations can be distinguished. Categorical information concerns more abstract relations, like "left of", while coordinate information is metric and more precise, such as "2cm apart".

Diagnosing delayed cerebral ischemia with different CT modalities in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage with clinical deterioration.

Background And Purpose: Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage worsens the prognosis and is difficult to diagnose. We investigated the diagnostic value of noncontrast CT (NCT), CT perfusion (CTP), and CT angiography (CTA) for DCI after clinical deterioration in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled 42 patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage with clinical deterioration suspect for DCI (new focal deficit or Glasgow Coma Scale decrease >or=2 points) within 21 days after hemorrhage.

Object-location memory: a lesion-behavior mapping study in stroke patients.

Object-location memory is an important form of spatial memory, comprising different subcomponents that each process specific types of information within memory, i.e. remembering objects, remembering positions and binding these features in memory.

Neural correlates of human wayfinding in stroke patients.

Wayfinding is a complex cognitive function involving different types of information, such as knowledge about landmarks and direction information. This variety of processes suggest that multiple neural mechanisms are involved, e.g.

Brain areas involved in spatial working memory.

Spatial working memory entails the ability to keep spatial information active in working memory over a short period of time. To study the areas of the brain that are involved in spatial working memory, a group of stroke patients was tested with a spatial search task. Patients and healthy controls were asked to search through a number of boxes shown at different locations on a touch-sensitive computer screen in order to find a target object.

Endothelial cell activation after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Objective: Evidence from animal experiments suggests that endothelial cell activation plays a pathogenetic role in the development of cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). We measured plasma concentrations of two markers of endothelial cell activation, i.e.

Painful ophthalmoplegia from metastatic nonproducing parathyroid carcinoma: case study and review of the literature.

Parathyroid carcinoma is an uncommon malignancy. Of the fewer than 400 cases reported, most have been cases of producing parathyroid carcinoma with accompanying hypercalcemia. Only 13 patients with nonproducing parathyroid carcinoma have been described.