Rapidly progressive atypical parkinsonism associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration and motor neuron disease.

Objective: To report the rare but distinct clinical and neuropathological phenotype of non-familial, rapidly progressive parkinsonism and dementia associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with motor neuron disease (FTLD-MND).

Methods: Subjects included two 70-year-old women presenting with rapidly progressive severe postural instability, axial-predominant parkinsonism, oculomotor dysfunction and frontal-predominant dementia with language impairment and pseudobulbar palsy. One had diffuse weakness without signs of lower motor neuron disease.

Neocortical maturation during adolescence: change in neuronal soma dimension.

During adolescence, cognitive abilities increase robustly. To search for possible related structural alterations of the cerebral cortex, we measured neuronal soma dimension (NSD = width times height), cortical thickness and neuronal densities in different types of neocortex in post-mortem brains of five 12-16 and five 17-24 year-olds (each 2F, 3M). Using a generalized mixed model analysis, mean normalized NSD comparing the age groups shows layer-specific change for layer 2 (p < .

Ultrasound-enhanced thrombolysis using Definity as a cavitation nucleation agent.

Ultrasound has been shown previously to act synergistically with a thrombolytic agent, such as recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) to accelerate thrombolysis. In this in vitro study, a commercial contrast agent, Definity, was used to promote and sustain the nucleation of cavitation during pulsed ultrasound exposure at 120 kHz. Ultraharmonic signals, broadband emissions and harmonics of the fundamental were measured acoustically by using a focused hydrophone as a passive cavitation detector and used to quantify the level of cavitation activity.

Lower-body parkinsonism: reconsidering the threshold for external lumbar drainage.

Background: An 80-year-old man with a 60 pack-year smoking habit, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia presented to a movement disorders clinic with a 30-month history of step-wise progression of gait, balance, and memory impairment. He had experienced multiple falls and two hospitalizations for sudden-onset freezing of gait.

Investigations: Neurological examination, brain MRI, neuropsychological evaluation, gait analysis, continuous external lumbar drainage of cerebrospinal fluid, and post-mortem neuropathological studies.

Correlation of cavitation with ultrasound enhancement of thrombolysis.

Pulsed ultrasound, when used as an adjuvant to recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA), has been shown to enhance thrombolysis in the laboratory as well as in clinical trials for the treatment of ischemic stroke. The exact mechanism of this enhancement has not yet been elucidated. In this work, stable and inertial cavitation (SC and IC) are investigated as possible mechanisms for this enhancement.