A multisite validation of brain white matter pathways of resilience to chronic back pain.

Chronic back pain (CBP) is a global health concern with significant societal and economic burden. While various predictors of back pain chronicity have been proposed, including demographic and psychosocial factors, neuroimaging studies have pointed to brain characteristics as predictors of CBP. However, large-scale, multisite validation of these predictors is currently lacking.

Tensor-valued diffusion MRI detects brain microstructural abnormalities in HIV infected individuals with cognitive impairment.

Despite advancements, the prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment remains at approximately 40%, attributed to factors like pre-cART (combination antiretroviral therapy) irreversible brain injury. People with HIV (PWH) treated with cART do not show significant neurocognitive changes over relatively short follow-up periods. However, quantitative neuroimaging may be able to detect ongoing subtle microstructural changes.

Non-classical monocyte levels correlate negatively with HIV-associated cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive performance.

Background: Despite antiretroviral treatment (cART), aging people living with HIV (PWH) are more susceptible to neurocognitive impairment (NCI) probably due to synergistic/additive contribution of traditional cerebrovascular risk factors. Specifically, transmigration of inflammatory CD16+ monocytes through the altered blood brain barrier (BBB) may exacerbate cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), a known cause of vascular cognitive impairment.

Methods: PWH on cART (n=108) and age, sex, and Reynold's cardiovascular risk score-matched uninfected individuals (PWoH, n=111) were enrolled.

Tensor-valued diffusion MRI detects brain microstructure changes in HIV infected individuals with cognitive impairment.

Despite advancements, the prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment remains at approximately 40%, attributed to factors like pre-cART (combination antiretroviral therapy) irreversible brain injury. People with HIV (PWH) treated with cART do not show significant neurocognitive changes over relatively short follow-up periods. However, quantitative neuroimaging may be able to detect ongoing subtle microstructural changes.

Brain elastography in aging relates to fluid/solid trendlines.

The relatively new tools of brain elastography have established a general trendline for healthy, aging adult humans, whereby the brain's viscoelastic properties 'soften' over many decades. Earlier studies of the aging brain have demonstrated a wide spectrum of changes in morphology and composition towards the later decades of lifespan. This leads to a major question of causal mechanisms: of the many changes documented in structure and composition of the aging brain, which ones drive the long term trendline for viscoelastic properties of grey matter and white matter? The issue is important for illuminating which factors brain elastography is sensitive to, defining its unique role for study of the brain and clinical diagnoses of neurological disease and injury.