Chest Dynamic MRI as Early Biomarker of Respiratory Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients: A Pilot Study.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuromuscular progressive disorder characterized by limb and bulbar muscle wasting and weakness. A total of 30% of patients present a bulbar onset, while 70% have a spinal outbreak. Respiratory involvement represents one of the worst prognostic factors, and its early identification is fundamental for the early starting of non-invasive ventilation and for the stratification of patients.

Technical note: Semiautomated targeted postmortem computed tomography angiography of the pulmonary arteries using a robotic system.

Introduction: To better depict vascular lesions on postmortem computed tomography (PMCT), whole-body postmortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA) can be used in forensic diagnostics. Targeted angiography, in which only a specific vessel is filled with contrast agent, might help in cases of traumatic changes that render whole-body PMCTA impossible. Moreover, in targeted PMCTA, the contrast agent does not affect the haptics of any other organs.

Multimodal anatomy of the human forniceal commissure.

Ambiguity surrounds the existence and morphology of the human forniceal commissure. We combine advanced in-vivo tractography, multidirectional ex-vivo fiber dissection, and multiplanar histological analysis to characterize this structure's anatomy. Across all 178 subjects, in-vivo fiber dissection based on the Human Connectome Project 7 T MRI data identifies no interhemispheric connections between the crura fornicis.

Altered sleep intensity upon DBS to hypothalamic sleep-wake centers in rats.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been scarcely investigated in the field of sleep research. We hypothesize that DBS onto hypothalamic sleep- and wake-promoting centers will produce significant neuromodulatory effects and potentially become a therapeutic strategy for patients suffering severe, drug-refractory sleep-wake disturbances. We aimed to investigate whether continuous electrical high-frequency DBS, such as that often implemented in clinical practice, in the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO) or the perifornical area of the posterior lateral hypothalamus (PeFLH), significantly modulates sleep-wake characteristics and behavior.

Economic evaluation of subcutaneous versus intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy: a real-life study.

Objectives: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is an acquired peripheral neuropathy of immunological origin with a clinical presentation and course that are extremely variable. The therapeutic approach generally includes corticosteroid drugs, intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIGs) or plasmapheresis alone or in combination as first line therapy, and immunosuppressants. In 2014 the Italian regulatory agency included subcutaneous immunoglobulins (SCIGs) in the list of off-label drugs reimbursed by the national health service.

Feasibility, technique and accuracy of ultrasound-guided transurethral injections into the urinary sphincter of female cadavers: proof of concept.

Background: The injection of muscle precursor cells (MPC) into the external urinary sphincter muscle (EUS) is a promising therapeutic option for regenerative treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The objective of the present project was to conduct a pre-clinical trial to investigate the feasibility and accuracy of ultrasound (US) guided, transurethral injections into the EUS of female cadavers.

Methods: This is a prospective, anatomical, interventional and radiological cadaveric laboratory investigation.

Automated dissection of permanent effects of hippocampal or prefrontal lesions on performance at spatial, working memory and circadian timing tasks of C57BL/6 mice in IntelliCage.

To evaluate permanent effects of hippocampal and prefrontal cortex lesion on spatial tasks, lesioned and sham-operated female C57BL/6 mice were exposed to a series of conditioning schemes in IntelliCages housing 8-10 transponder-tagged mice from each treatment group. Sequential testing started at 51-172days after bilateral lesions and lasted for 154 and 218days in two batches of mice, respectively. Spontaneous undisturbed behavioral patterns clearly separated the three groups, hippocampals being characterized by more erratic hyperactivity, and strongly impaired circadian synchronization ability.

Prefrontal inputs to the amygdala instruct fear extinction memory formation.

Persistent anxiety after a psychological trauma is a hallmark of many anxiety disorders. However, the neural circuits mediating the extinction of traumatic fear memories remain incompletely understood. We show that selective, in vivo stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)-amygdala pathway facilitated extinction memory formation, but not retrieval.

Glutamatergic mechanisms associated with stress-induced amygdala excitability and anxiety-related behavior.

The neural factors underlying individual differences in susceptibility to chronic stress remain poorly understood. Preclinical studies demonstrate that mouse strains vary greatly in anxiety-related responses to chronic stress in a manner paralleled by differential stress-induced changes in glutamatergic signaling in the basolateral amygdala (BLA). Previous work has also shown that alterations in the amygdala gene expression of the GluN1 NMDA and the GluK1 kainate receptors are associated with stress-induced alterations in anxiety-like behavior in the C57BL/6J mouse strain.

Spontaneous behavior in the social homecage discriminates strains, lesions and mutations in mice.

Background: Modern molecular genetics create a rapidly growing number of mutant mouse lines, many of which need to be phenotyped behaviorally. Poor reliability and low efficiency of traditional behavioral tests have prompted the development of new approaches to behavioral phenotyping, such as fully automated analysis of behavior in the homecage.

New Method: We asked whether the analysis of spontaneous behavior during the first week in the social homecage system IntelliCage could provide useful prescreening information before specialized and time consuming test batteries are run.

"Modeling ancient Egyptian embalming": radiological assessment of experimentally mummified human tissue by CT and MRI.

Objective: To assess changes in different tissues during the process of artificial mummification by natron using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to translate the results to image interpretation in paleoradiological studies of ancient mummies.

Materials And Methods: A human lower limb (LL) was amputated from a female donor 24 h post-mortem and mummified by artificial natron (54 % NaCl, 16 % Na2SO4, 18 % Na2CO3 12 % NaHCO3) in ancient Egyptian style. The LL was kept in a fume hood at 16-25 °C and 30-75 % relative humidity.

Chronic alcohol remodels prefrontal neurons and disrupts NMDAR-mediated fear extinction encoding.

Alcoholism is frequently co-morbid with post-traumatic stress disorder, but it is unclear how alcohol affects the neural circuits mediating recovery from trauma. We found that chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) impaired fear extinction and remodeled the dendritic arbor of medial prefrontal cortical (mPFC) neurons in mice. CIE impaired extinction encoding by infralimbic mPFC neurons in vivo and functionally downregulated burst-mediating NMDA GluN1 receptors.

Effects of spatial and cognitive enrichment on activity pattern and learning performance in three strains of mice in the IntelliMaze.

The IntelliMaze allows automated behavioral analysis of group housed laboratory mice while individually assigned protocols can be applied concomitantly for different operant conditioning components. Here we evaluate the effect of additional component availability (enrichment) on behavioral and cognitive performance of mice in the IntelliCage, by focusing on aspects that had previously been found to consistently differ between three strains, in four European laboratories. Enrichment decreased the activity level in the IntelliCages and enhanced spatial learning performance.

The puzzle box as a simple and efficient behavioral test for exploring impairments of general cognition and executive functions in mouse models of schizophrenia.

Deficits in executive functions are key features of schizophrenia. Rodent behavioral paradigms used so far to find animal correlates of such deficits require extensive effort and time. The puzzle box is a problem-solving test in which mice are required to complete escape tasks of increasing difficulty within a limited amount of time.

Conditioned response suppression in the IntelliCage: assessment of mouse strain differences and effects of hippocampal and striatal lesions on acquisition and retention of memory.

The IntelliCage allows fully automated continuous testing of various behaviours in the home cage environment without handling the mice. Here we tested whether conditioned avoidance is retained after a time period delay spent outside the IntelliCage. During the training, nosepokes in one of the four learning corners were punished with an air-puff.

Preservation of cell structures in a medieval infant brain: a paleohistological, paleogenetic, radiological and physico-chemical study.

Cerebral tissues from archaeological human remains are extremely rare findings. Hereby, we report a multidisciplinary study of a unique case of a left cerebral hemisphere from a 13th century AD child, found in north-western France. The cerebral tissue-reduced by ca.

Phosphatidylinositide dependent kinase deficiency increases anxiety and decreases GABA and serotonin abundance in the amygdala.

Pathological anxiety is paralleled by deficits in serotonergic and GABAergic neurotransmission in the amygdala. Conversely, anxiety disorders and depression may be reversed by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF signaling involves Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase / 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PI3K/PDK1).

Noninvasive (1)H and (23)Na nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of ancient Egyptian human mummified tissue.

Historic mummies are a unique example of the human desire for immortality. Therefore, it is not surprising that modern diagnostic imaging has been widely applied to study them. Yet, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of such old remains has never been successfully achieved in a noninvasive way without rehydration.

Attentional set-shifting in mice: modification of a rat paradigm, and evidence for strain-dependent variation.

Increasingly precise molecular genetic tools are available to study in mice the cellular mechanisms underlying complex brain functions, but the behavioural paradigms to assess these functions often lack the required specificity. In this study, an attentional set-shifting paradigm to assess medial frontal cortex functions in rats was modified for use in mice and variation between two relevant mouse strains assessed. Male 129/SvEv and C57BL/6J mice and their F1 intercross (n=8 per genotype) were trained to dig in bowls for a food reward.