Myasthenia gravis concurrent with Parkinson's disease in a Spanish cohort. Causation or correlation?

Background: Comorbidity between myasthenia gravis (MG) and other autoimmune diseases is well-documented. However, concurrent MG and Parkinson's disease (PD) have rarely been described. This concurrence has mostly been considered coincidental in cases reported to date.

Neuroimaging analyses from a randomized, controlled study to evaluate plasma exchange with albumin replacement in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease: additional results from the AMBAR study.

Purpose: This study was designed to detect structural and functional brain changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients treated with therapeutic plasma exchange (PE) with albumin replacement, as part of the recent AMBAR phase 2b/3 clinical trial.

Methods: Mild-to-moderate AD patients were randomized into four arms: three arms receiving PE with albumin (one with low-dose albumin, and two with low/high doses of albumin alternated with IVIG), and a placebo (sham PE) arm. All arms underwent 6 weeks of weekly conventional PE followed by 12 months of monthly low-volume PE.

Cortical metabolic and structural differences in patients with chronic migraine. An exploratory FDG-PET and MRI study.

Background: To describe interictal brain structural and metabolic differences between patients with episodic migraine (EM), chronic migraine (CM) and healthy controls (HC).

Methods: This is an exploratory study including right-handed age-matched women with EM, CM and HC. On the same day, a sequential interictal scan was performed with FDG-PET and MRI.

Long-term follow-up of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in children and adolescents.

Objectives The aims were to analyze the clinical features, response to treatment, prognostic factors and long-term follow-up of children and adolescents with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Methods Eighty patients with DTC were studied retrospectively. All underwent total or near-total thyroidectomy, and in 75 cases, ablative iodine therapy was recommended.

BDNF levels and nigrostriatal degeneration in "drug naïve" Parkinson's disease patients. An "in vivo" study using I-123-FP-CIT SPECT.

Introduction: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons and whose cause remains unclear. Brain-Derived Neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein involved in dopaminergic cells survival. Previous studies have shown decreased serum BDNF levels in PD patients.

Longitudinal Neuroimaging Analysis in Mild-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease Patients Treated with Plasma Exchange with 5% Human Albumin.

Background: Recently, modifications of Aβ1-42 levels in CSF and plasma associated with improvement in memory and language functions have been observed in patients with mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) treated with plasma exchange (PE) with albumin replacement.

Objective: To detect structural and functional brain changes in PE-treated AD patients as part of a Phase II clinical trial.

Methods: Patients received between 3 and 18 PE with albumin (Albutein® 5%, Grifols) or sham-PE (controls) for 21 weeks (divided in one intensive and two maintenance periods) followed by 6-month follow-up.

A comparative study of the target volume definition in radiotherapy with «Slow CT Scan» vs. 4D PET/CT Scan in early stages non-small cell lung cancer.

Objectives: To evaluate the use of 4D PET/CT to quantify tumor respiratory motion compared to the «Slow»-CT (CTs) in the radiotherapy planning process.

Material And Methods: A total of 25 patients with inoperable early stage non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were included in the study. Each patient was imaged with a CTs (4s/slice) and 4D PET/CT.

Role of [(11)C] methionine positron emission tomography in the diagnosis and prediction of survival in brain tumours.

Objective: [(11)C] methionine (MET) positron-emission tomography (PET) is a useful diagnostic and therapeutic tool in neuro-oncology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between MET uptake and the histopathological grade in both primary brain tumours and brain metastases. A secondary goal was to assess the relationship between MET uptake and patients' survival after surgery.

Warranty periods for normal myocardial perfusion stress SPECT.

Background: To assess different warranty periods following a normal myocardial perfusion SPECT based on patients' clinical characteristics and the type of stress performed.

Methods And Results: A study was done of 2,922 consecutive patients (62.9 ± 13 years; 53.

Neuroimaging in status epilepticus secondary to paraneoplastic autoimmune encephalitis.

Aim: To describe the characteristic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of paraneoplastic autoimmune encephalitis in patients with new-onset status epilepticus.

Materials And Methods: The neuroimaging and clinical data of five patients with paraneoplastic autoimmune encephalitis debuting as status epilepticus were retrospectively reviewed. All patients met the criteria for definite paraneoplastic syndrome and all underwent brain MRI during the status epilepticus episode or immediately after recovery.

Gated-SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging as a complementary technique to magnetic resonance imaging in chronic myocardial infarction patients.

Introduction And Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare magnetic resonance and gated-SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging in patients with chronic myocardial infarction.

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging and gated-SPECT were performed in 104 patients (mean age, 61 [12] years; 87.5% male) with a previous infarction.

Cognitive, genetic, and brain perfusion factors associated with four year incidence of Alzheimer's disease from mild cognitive impairment.

Background: There is a range of factors that predict the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Objectives: To identify the neuropsychological, genetic, and functional brain imaging data that best predict conversion to AD dementia in patients with amnestic MCI.

Methods: From an initial group of 42 amnestic MCI patients assessed with neurological, neuropsychological, and brain SPECT, 39 (25 converters, 14 non-converters) were followed for 4 years, and 36 had APOE ε4 genotyping.

[Variables that influence the indication of a second myocardial perfusion gated-SPECT after a normal stress-rest gated SPECT].

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate predictor variables at the moment of normal stress-rest myocardial perfusion gated SPECT for indication of a second gated SPECT.

Material And Methods: A prospective, single center cohort study was conducted. We evaluated 2326 consecutive patients (age 63.

Long-term follow-up assessment after the arterial switch operation for correction of dextro-transposition of the great arteries by means of exercise myocardial perfusion-gated SPECT.

The arterial switch operation (ASO) is the preferred technique for correcting transposition of the great arteries, but translocation and reimplantation of the coronary arteries can produce myocardial ischemia. This report aims to describe the authors' experience with exercise single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) used to evaluate myocardial perfusion. Exercise-rest gated-myocardial perfusion SPECT was performed for 69 patients (49 boys; median age, 9 years; 5th percentile [6.

Usefulness of exercise test and myocardial perfusion-gated single photon emission computed tomography to improve the prediction of major events.

Background: The incremental prognostic value of myocardial perfusion-gated single photon emission computed tomography (MPGS) compared with exercise test has not yet been properly evaluated.

Methods And Results: Five thousand six hundred seventy-two consecutive patients with known or suspected coronary disease undergoing exercise MPGS between 1997 and 2007 were included. Three-year predictive models for total death and death from cardiovascular causes or acute myocardial infarction (ie, major cardiovascular events [MCE]) were built using Cox-regression modeling, including only the clinical information.

Predictive variables for hard cardiac events and coronary revascularization in patients with normal left ventricular myocardial perfusion and systolic function.

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of clinical, electrocardiographic and stress testing variables in predicting hard cardiac events (HE) and coronary revascularization (CR) in patients with normal stress-rest gated SPECT.

Materials And Methods: Included in the study were 2,004 patients (63.5 ± 12.

Progressive presynaptic dopaminergic deterioration in Huntington disease: a [123I]-FP-CIT SPECT two-year follow-up study.

To illustrate the potential of [I]-FP-CIT SPECT DaTSCAN® in investigating the progression of presynaptic dopaminergic degeneration in Huntington disease (HD), we performed a 2-year follow-up [I]-FP-CIT study on 4 HD patients, evaluating the SPECT imaging based on qualitative and semiquantitative analysis. The mean annual decline in [I]-FP-CIT uptake in caudate and putamen after 2 years of follow-up was 5.8% and 9.

[Analysis of the diastolic function by myocardial perfusion gated SPECT after coronary revascularization in acute myocardial infarction].

Objective: To evaluate the evolutive changes in diastolic function after percutaneous coronary revascularization (PCR) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI), using myocardial perfusion gated SPECT.

Methods: Thirty-two patients (mean 61.9±9.

Paradoxical scintigraphic pattern in regions with myocardial necrosis on myocardial perfusion gated SPECT with ⁹⁹mTc-tetrofosmin.

Objectives: To assess the significance of a paradoxical pattern (PP) (greater tracer uptake during stress than at rest) on gated myocardial perfusion SPECT in myocardial regions with myocardial necrosis.

Methods: A review of 1,764 consecutive stress-rest myocardial perfusion SPECT studies in patients with prior myocardial infarction (MI) was conducted. Of these, 117 patients (6.

A two-year follow-up of cognitive deficits and brain perfusion in mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer's disease.

The 15-Objects Test (15-OT) provides useful gradation of visuoperceptual impairment from normal aging through Alzheimer's disease (AD) and correlates with temporo-parietal perfusion. The objectives of this study were to analyze progression of 15-OT performance in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD, and its correlates with cognition and single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), as well as to examine neuropsychological and SPECT differences between the MCI patients who developed AD and those who did not. From the initial 126 participants (42/group), 38 AD, 39 MCI, and 38 elderly controls (EC) were reassessed (SPECT: 35 AD, 33 MCI, 35 EC) after two years.

Quantitative evaluation of striatal I-123-FP-CIT uptake in essential tremor and parkinsonism.

Aim: The aim of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the striatal uptake in 3 groups of patients: essential tremor (ET), drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP), and Parkinson disease (PD), using a voxel-based methodology and volumes of interests (VOIs) analysis.

Patients And Method: Sixty patients from the Neurology Department Movement Disorders outpatient clinic in a tertiary hospital with I-123-FP-CIT SPECT were selected. After a clinical follow-up period of 2 years, a final clinical diagnosis of DIP was established for 20 patients (first group); 20 patients were diagnosed with ET (second group), and the third group was made up of 20 patients with a qualitatively pathologic SPECT who were diagnosed with PD.

Bone scintigraphy and radiolabeled white blood cell scintigraphy for the diagnosis of mandibular osteomyelitis.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of bone scintigraphy (BS) and radiolabeled white blood cell scintigraphy (WBCS) in detecting septic activity in the flat bones of the jaw. A retrospective analysis was conducted using 38 studies of combined BS plus WBCS: 33 of them 3-phase BS and 36 of them 2-phase WBCS. These studies were performed on 34 patients, 19 women and 15 men with a mean age of 56 years (22-79), who presented with suspected mandibular osteomyelitis, either acute or chronic exacerbation.