The impact of aerobic endurance training on cognitive performance in schizophrenic inpatients in a clinical routine setting.

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the impact of aerobic endurance training in schizophrenic inpatients on cognitive performance in a clinical routine setting. Of secondary interest was the influence on psychopathological symptoms. A total of 31 schizophrenic inpatients were randomly assigned to receive either controlled endurance training or occupational therapy.

Predicting disease progression in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Introduction: The behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease. Reliable predictors of disease progression have not been sufficiently identified. We investigated multivariate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarker profiles for their predictive value of individual decline.

Utility of the Repeat and Point Test for Subtyping Patients With Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) may present with three distinct clinical sybtypes: semantic variant PPA (svPPA), nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (nfvPPA), and logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA).

Objective: The aim was to examine the utility of the German version of the Repeat and Point (R&P) Test for subtyping patients with PPA.

Method: During the R&P Test, the examiner reads out aloud a noun and the participants are asked to repeat the word and subsequently point to the corresponding picture.

Quantifying progression in primary progressive aphasia with structural neuroimaging.

Introduction: The term primary progressive aphasia (PPA) sums up the non-fluent (nfv), the semantic (sv), and the logopenic (lv) variant. Up to now, there is only limited data available concerning magnetic resonance imaging volumetry to monitor disease progression.

Methods: Structural brain imaging and an extensive assessment were applied at baseline and up to 4-year(s) follow-up in 269 participants.

Moral judgment in patients with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: no impairment of the moral position, but rather its execution.

Objective: To investigate moral judgment competence in patients with the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) compared to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and controls.

Methods: N = 12 bvFTD, N = 22 ALS patients and N = 19 neurological unimpaired controls were examined. In the 'Moral Competence Test' (MCT), participants had to evaluate two moral dilemmas by predefined arguments to measure the consistency of their moral judgments.

Story of the ALS-FTD continuum retold: rather two distinct entities.

Objective: To determine the evolution and profile of cognitive and behavioural deficits in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) to disentangle the development of FTD in ALS and vice versa.

Methods: In a prospective design, cognitive and behavioural profiles of 762 patients with motor predominant ALS (flail arm/leg syndrome, primary lateral sclerosis, pseudobulbar palsy, ALS) and behavioural predominant FTD (bvFTD, ALS-FTD) were determined and caregivers of patients with ALS were asked on the evolution of behavioural symptoms. Data were compared with 49 healthy controls.

Serum neurofilament light chain in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Objective: To determine the association of serum neurofilament light chain (NfL) with functional deterioration and brain atrophy during follow-up of patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Methods: Blood NfL levels from 74 patients with bvFTD, 26 with Alzheimer disease (AD), 17 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 15 healthy controls (Con) at baseline and follow-up were determined and analyzed for the diagnostic potential in relation to functional assessment (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes [CDR-SOB], frontotemporal lobar degeneration-related CDR-SOB, Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]) and brain volumetry.

Results: At baseline, serum NfL level correlated with CSF NfL (bvFTD = 0.

A language-based sum score for the course and therapeutic intervention in primary progressive aphasia.

Background: With upcoming therapeutic interventions for patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), instruments for the follow-up of patients are needed to describe disease progression and to evaluate potential therapeutic effects. So far, volumetric brain changes have been proposed as clinical endpoints in the literature, but cognitive scores are still lacking. This study followed disease progression predominantly in language-based performance within 1 year and defined a PPA sum score which can be used in therapeutic interventions.

Atrophy in the Thalamus But Not Cerebellum Is Specific for FTD and ALS Patients - An Atlas-Based Volumetric MRI Study.

The neuropathology of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) due to a mutation is characterized by two distinct types of characteristic protein depositions containing either TDP-43 or so-called dipeptide repeat proteins that extend beyond frontal and temporal regions. Thalamus and cerebellum seem to be preferentially affected by the dipeptide repeat pathology unique to mutation carriers. This study aimed to determine if mutation carriers showed an enhanced degree of thalamic and cerebellar atrophy compared to sporadic patients or healthy controls.

Neurofilament as a blood marker for diagnosis and monitoring of primary progressive aphasias.

Objective: To assess the utility of serum neurofilament for diagnosis and monitoring of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) variants.

Methods: We investigated neurofilament light chain (NF-L) levels in blood of 99 patients with PPA (40 with nonfluent variant PPA [nfvPPA], 38 with semantic variant PPA [svPPA], 21 with logopenic variant PPA [lvPPA]) and compared diagnostic performance with that reached by CSF NF-L, phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain (pNF-H), β-amyloid (Aβ), tau, and phosphorylated tau. The longitudinal change of blood NF-L levels was measured and analyzed for correlation with functional decline and brain atrophy.

Naturally Occurring Autoantibodies against Tau Protein Are Reduced in Parkinson's Disease Dementia.

Background And Objective: Altered levels of naturally occurring autoantibodies (nAbs) against disease-associated neuronal proteins have been reported for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Recent histopathologic studies suggest a contribution of both Lewy body- and AD-related pathology to Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Therefore, we explored nAbs against alpha-synuclein (αS), tau and β-amyloid (Aβ) in PDD compared to cognitively normal PD patients.