Review of the Management of Pediatric Post-Concussion Syndrome-a Multi-Disciplinary, Individualized Approach.

Purpose Of Review: Post-concussion syndrome (PCS), when the patient's concussion symptoms last longer than 4-6 weeks, affects 10-30% of concussion patients. PCS presents a significant source of morbidity to patients and a management challenge to providers. In this review, we present the current evidence and best management approaches for pediatric PCS.

Prescription Medication Obtainment Methods and Misuse.

Background: Abuse of prescription medications is an ever-expanding epidemic in the United States.

Objective: This study intends to help provide physicians with more knowledge about the behaviors that patients with a substance use disorder may exhibit in an effort to obtain medications.

Design: Patients who were willing to participate in the survey were interviewed by a physician.

Rivastigmine is associated with restoration of left frontal brain activity in Parkinson's disease.

The objective of this study was to investigate how acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI) treatment affects brain function in Parkinson's disease (PD). Twelve patients with PD and either dementia or mild cognitive impairment underwent task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after 3 months of ChEI treatment and were compared with 15 age- and sex-matched neurologically healthy controls. Regional spontaneous brain activity was measured using the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations.

Intrinsic connectivity network disruption in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Objective: Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) has been conceptualized as a large-scale network disruption, but the specific network targeted has not been fully characterized. We sought to delineate the affected network in patients with clinical PSP.

Methods: Using task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging, we mapped intrinsic connectivity to the dorsal midbrain tegmentum (dMT), a region that shows focal atrophy in PSP.

Normative data in women aged 85 and older: verbal fluency, digit span, and the CVLT-II short form.

Individuals aged 85 years and above (i.e., the oldest old) represent the fastest growing segment of the US population and are at increased risk of developing dementia.

Normative adjustments to the D-KEFS trail making test: corrections for education and vocabulary level.

The Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Trail Making Test (TMT), a modification of the original TMT, was created to isolate set-shifting (Letter-Number Switching) from other component skills. This was accomplished by including four baseline conditions (Visual Scanning, Number Sequencing, Letter Sequencing, and Motor Speed) and by placing equal numbers of stimuli in the three sequencing conditions. Given that some studies with the original TMT demonstrated a significant effect of education and intellectual functioning on performance, we utilized the D-KEFS national standardization sample to examine the effects of education and vocabulary level-i.

Reduced verbal fluency for proper names in nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease: a quantitative and qualitative analysis.

There has been an increasing interest within neuropsychology in comparing verbal fluency for different grammatical classes (e.g., verb generation vs.

Comparison of the traditional recall-based versus a new list-based method for computing semantic clustering on the California Verbal Learning Test: evidence from Alzheimer's disease.

For over 50 years, cognitive psychologists and neuropsychologists have relied almost exclusively on a method for computing semantic clustering on list-learning tasks (recall-based formula) that was derived from an outdated assumption about how learning occurs. A new procedure for computing semantic clustering (list-based formula) was developed for the CVLT-II to correct the shortcomings of the traditional method. In the present study we compared the clinical utility of the traditional recall-based method versus the new list-based method using results from the original CVLT administered to 87 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 86 matched normal control participants.

Left frontal lobe contributions to concept formation: a quantitative MRI study of performance on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Sorting Test.

This study examined relationships between lobar volumes and performance on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Sorting Test, a standardized measure of concept formation. There were 89 participants: 19 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease, 25 patients with frontotemporal dementia, 13 patients with semantic dementia, 12 patients with progressive nonfluent aphasia, 9 patients with probable progressive supranuclear palsy, 2 patients with possible progressive supranuclear palsy, and 9 healthy participants. We used BRAINS2 software to generate volumes of the right and left frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes.

Cognitive discrepancies versus APOE genotype as predictors of cognitive decline in normal-functioning elderly individuals: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: Cognitive-discrepancy analysis has been shown to be a useful technique for detecting subtle cognitive deficits in normal-functioning elderly individuals who are genetically at-risk for Alzheimer disease (AD). However, studies that have used cognitive-discrepancy measures to date have used retrospective or cross-sectional designs, and the utility of this approach to predict cognitive decline has not been examined in a prospective investigation.

Design: Longitudinal study.

Identifying the "source" of recognition memory deficits in patients with Huntington's disease or Alzheimer's disease: evidence from the CVLT-II.

The present study compared the performance of individuals with Huntington's disease (HD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on three types of California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) recognition discriminability indices (RDI): Source, Novel, and Total. The HD and AD groups did not differ significantly on Source RDI (all 16 targets versus the 16 previously presented, List B, distractors). However, HD patients performed significantly better than AD patients on Total RDI (all 16 targets versus all 32 distractors) and Novel RDI (all 16 targets versus 16 new distractors).

The role of the prefrontal cortex in the maintenance of verbal working memory: an event-related FMRI analysis.

Neuroimaging studies have been inconclusive in characterizing the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) for maintaining increasingly larger amounts of information in working memory (WM). To address this question, the authors collected event-related functional MRI data while participants performed an item-recognition task in which the number of to-be-remembered letters was parametrically modulated. During maintenance of information in WM, the dorsolateral and the ventrolateral PFC exhibited linearly increasing activation in response to increasing WM load.

Label-free assays on the BIND system.

Screening of biochemical interactions becomes simpler, less expensive, and more accurate when labels, such as fluorescent dyes, radioactive markers, and colorimetric reactions, are not required to quantify detected material. SRU Biosystems has developed a biosensor technology that is manufactured on continuous sheets of plastic film and incorporated into standard microplates and microarray slides to enable label-free assays to be performed with high throughput, high sensitivity, and low cost per assay. The biosensor incorporates a narrow band guided-mode resonance reflectance filter, in which the reflected color is modulated by the attachment/detachment of biochemical material to the surface.

Comparative study of GDNF delivery systems for the CNS: polymer rods, encapsulated cells, and lentiviral vectors.

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) holds great promise for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. In humans, its intracerebroventricular administration leads to limiting side effects. Direct parenchymal delivery using mechanical means, or cell and gene therapy represent potential alternatives.

Simultaneous GDNF and BDNF application leads to increased motoneuron survival and improved functional outcome in an experimental model for obstetric brachial plexus lesions.

Motoneurons of the neonate rat respond to proximal axonal injury with morphologic and functional changes and ultimately with neuronal death. Recent studies showed that both glial cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) reduce induced degeneration of motoneurons after axotomy and avulsion. Whether rescued motoneurons are functionally intact has been argued.

GDNF and NGF released by synthetic guidance channels support sciatic nerve regeneration across a long gap.

The present work was performed to determine the ability of neurotrophic factors to allow axonal regeneration across a 15-mm-long gap in the rat sciatic nerve. Synthetic nerve guidance channels slowly releasing NGF and GDNF were fabricated and sutured to the cut ends of the nerve to bridge the gap. After 7 weeks, nerve cables had formed in nine out of ten channels in both the NGF and GDNF groups, while no neuronal cables were present in the control group.