Publications by authors named "Elif Gokcal"

Background: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is driven by vascular Aβ (amyloid-beta) deposition, which can be detected as reduced Aβ species in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We sought to identify relationships between CSF Aβ and tau concentrations and various manifestations of CAA.

Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional single-center study of patients diagnosed with CAA per Boston Criteria version 2.

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Introduction: While cerebral amyloid angiopathy is likely responsible for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) occurring in superficial (grey matter, vermis) cerebellar locations, it is unclear whether hypertensive arteriopathy (HA), the other major cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD), is associated with cerebellar ICH (cICH) in deep (white matter, deep nuclei, cerebellar peduncle) regions. We tested the hypothesis that HA-associated neuroimaging markers are significantly associated with deep cICH compared to superficial cICH.

Patients And Methods: Brain MRI scans from consecutive non-traumatic cICH patients admitted to a referral center were analyzed for cSVD markers.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the effectiveness of left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) in preventing recurrent strokes in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) who experience acute ischemic strokes (AIS) despite being on oral anticoagulants (OAC).
  • Over a follow-up period of approximately 1.75 years, the incidence of AIS after LAAC was significantly lower (1.97%) than the expected stroke risk based on patients' CHADS-VASc scores (8.44%), suggesting LAAC could be beneficial.
  • These findings indicate a need for further randomized trials to explore the potential advantages of LAAC in this high-risk patient population, especially given that many patients discontinued OAC after
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Article Synopsis
  • The study focused on patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) at high risk of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) who underwent left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) due to prior ICH or high-risk MRI findings.
  • Over a mean follow-up of 2.12 years, results showed that these patients had a low incidence of recurrent ICH and ischemic stroke post-procedure, suggesting LAAC is a safe option.
  • The findings support the inclusion of LAAC in treatment plans for high ICH risk patients as endorsed by FDA approval and recent guidelines.
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Introduction: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is attributable to cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD), which includes cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and hypertensive-cSVD (HTN-cSVD). HTN-cSVD includes patients with strictly deep ICH/microbleeds and mixed location ICH/microbleeds, the latter representing a more severe form of HTN-cSVD. We test the hypothesis that more severe forms of HTN-cSVD are related to worse hypertension control in long-term follow-up after ICH.

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Nonvalvular atrial fibrillation is a common rhythm disorder of middle-aged to older adults that can cause ischemic strokes and systemic embolism. Lifelong use of oral anticoagulants reduces the risk of these ischemic events but increases the risk of major and clinically relevant hemorrhages. These medications also require strict compliance for efficacy, and they have nontrivial failure rates in higher-risk patients.

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Background: Ischemic strokes (IS) occurring in patients taking non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are becoming increasingly more frequent. We aimed to determine the clinical, echocardiographic, and neuroimaging markers associated with developing IS in patients taking NOACs for atrial fibrillation.

Methods: From a quaternary care center, clinical/radiologic data were collected from consecutive NOAC users with IS and age-matched controls without IS.

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Background And Objectives: Hypertensive cerebral small vessel disease (HTN-cSVD) is the predominant microangiopathy in patients with a combination of lobar and deep cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) and intracerebral hemorrhage (mixed ICH). We tested the hypothesis that cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is also a contributing microangiopathy in patients with mixed ICH with cortical superficial siderosis (cSS), a marker strongly associated with CAA.

Methods: Brain MRIs from a prospective database of consecutive patients with nontraumatic ICH admitted to a referral center were reviewed for the presence of CMBs, cSS, and nonhemorrhagic CAA markers (lobar lacunes, centrum semiovale enlarged perivascular spaces [CSO-EPVS], and multispot white matter hyperintensity [WMH] pattern).

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Background: Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA) is a cerebral small vessel disease that can lead to microstructural disruption of white matter (WM), which can be measured by the Peak Width of Skeletonized Mean Diffusivity (PSMD). We hypothesized that PSMD measures would be increased in patients with CAA compared to healthy controls (HC), and increased PSMD is associated with lower cognitive scores in patients with CAA.

Methods: Eighty-one probable CAA patients without cognitive impairment who were diagnosed with Boston criteria and 23 HCs were included.

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Background And Aims: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) associated with direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) usage confers significant mortality/disability. We aimed to understand the clinical and neuroimaging features associated with developing ICH among DOAC users.

Methods: Clinical and radiological data were collected from consecutive DOAC users with ICH (DOAC-ICH) and age-matched controls without ICH from a single referral center.

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Background And Purpose: We evaluate whether non-haemorrhagic imaging markers (NHIM) (white matter hyperintensity patterns, lacunes and enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS)) can discriminate cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) from hypertensive cerebral small vessel disease (HTN-cSVD) among patients with isolated lobar intracerebral haemorrhage (isolated-LICH).

Methods: In patients with isolated-LICH, four cSVD aetiologic groups were created by incorporating the presence/distribution of NHIM: HTN-cSVD pattern, CAA pattern, mixed NHIM and no NHIM. CAA pattern consisted of patients with any combination of severe centrum semiovale EPVS, lobar lacunes or multiple subcortical spots pattern.

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Background: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is an age-related small vessel disease, characterised pathologically by progressive deposition of amyloid β in the cerebrovascular wall. The Boston criteria are used worldwide for the in-vivo diagnosis of CAA but have not been updated since 2010, before the emergence of additional MRI markers. We report an international collaborative study aiming to update and externally validate the Boston diagnostic criteria across the full spectrum of clinical CAA presentations.

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The impact of vascular lesions on cognition is location dependent. Here, we assessed the contribution of small vessel disease lesions in the corpus callosum to vascular cognitive impairment in cerebral amyloid angiopathy, as a model for cerebral small vessel disease. Sixty-five patients with probable cerebral amyloid angiopathy underwent 3T magnetic resonance imaging, including a diffusion tensor imaging scan, and neuropsychological testing.

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Objective: Recent data suggest that cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) causes haemorrhagic lesions in cerebellar cortex as well as subcortical cerebral atrophy. However, the potential effect of CAA on cerebellar tissue loss and its clinical implications have not been investigated.

Methods: Our study included 70 non-demented patients with probable CAA, 70 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) and 70 age-matched patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

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We postulated that vascular dysfunction mediates the relationship between amyloid load and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Thirty-eight cognitively healthy patients with CAA (mean age 70 ± 7.1) were evaluated.

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Background: Although primary intraventricular hemorrhage is frequently due to trauma or vascular lesions, the etiology of idiopathic primary intraventricular hemorrhage (IP-IVH) is not defined.

Aims: Herein, we test the hypothesis that cerebral small vessel diseases (cSVD) including hypertensive cSVD (HTN-cSVD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy are associated with IP-IVH.

Methods: Brain magnetic resonance imaging from consecutive patients (January 2011 to September 2019) with non-traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage from a single referral center were reviewed for the presence of HTN-cSVD (defined by strictly deep or mixed-location intracerebral hemorrhage/cerebral microbleeds) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (applying modified Boston criteria).

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Stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation is arguably one of the fastest developing areas in preventive medicine. The increasing use of direct oral anticoagulants and nonpharmacologic methods such as left atrial appendage closure for stroke prevention in these patients has increased clinicians' options for optimal care. Platelet antiaggregants are also commonly used in other ischemic cardiovascular and or cerebrovascular conditions.

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Objective: To analyze the relationship of lacunes with cortical cerebral microinfarcts (CMIs), to assess their association with vascular dysfunction, and to evaluate their effect on the risk of incident intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).

Methods: The count and topography of lacunes (deep/lobar), CMIs, and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume were retrospectively analyzed in a prospectively enrolled CAA cohort that underwent high-resolution research MRIs. The relationship of lacunes with CMIs and other CAA-related markers including time to peak (TTP) of blood oxygen level-dependent signal, an established measure of vascular dysfunction, was evaluated in multivariate models.

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Prcis: Patients with ocular hypertension (OHT) do not show impaired cerebral vasodilation responses to hypercapnia but patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) do. Impaired vasoreactivity in patients with POAG may have neuronal or vascular origins and increase stroke risk.

Purpose: To investigate changes in cerebral blood flow and cerebral vasomotor reactivity using the breath-holding index in patients with POAG and OHT, to examine whether these parameters contribute to the risk of ischemic stroke.

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Objective: Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders. Aside from tremor, patients may exhibit other motor features as well as non-motor features, including neuropsychiatric symptoms. The cerebellum and cerebellar connections are thought to play a key role in the pathophysiology of ET.

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Objective: We postulated that cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is associated with white matter atrophy (WMA) and that WMA can be related to cognitive changes in CAA.

Methods: White matter volume expressed as percent of intracranial volume (pWMV) of prospectively enrolled patients without dementia diagnosed with probable CAA was compared to age-matched healthy controls (HC) and patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). Cognitive scores were also sought to understand the potential effects of WMA on cognitive function.

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Background And Purpose: We aimed to analyze the clinical, laboratory and neuroimaging findings in patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in a single center as well as to review other published cases in Turkey.

Methods: Between January 1st, 2014 and June 31st, 2017, all CJD cases were evaluated based on clinical findings, differential diagnosis, the previous misdiagnosis, electroencephalography (EEG), cerebrospinal fluid and cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in our center. All published cases in Turkey between 2005-2018 were also reviewed.

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Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been suggested as a method for detection of retinal alterations in neurodegenerative diseases. The usefulness of OCT as a diagnostic tool to differentiate Parkinson's disease (PD) from other tremor diseases, remains unknown. We aimed to evaluate morphological changes of the retina in patients with PD, essential tremor (ET), essential tremor-Parkinson's disease (ET-PD) using OCT.

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Background And Purpose: In this study, we aimed to examine the risk factors, topographic features and stroke mechanisms of acute ischemic unilateral infarcts of thalamus.

Methods: Patient with isolated thalamic infarct and those with posterior cerebral artery (PCA) infarction who were admitted to our hospital between January 2014 and January 2017 with acute unilateral thalamic infarction (TI) were included in this study (isolated thalamic infarction/ isolated TI; thalamic and posterior cerebral artery infarction/PCA+TI). Demographic characteristics and vascular risk factors of the patients were determined.

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