Pro-inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid profile of neonates with intraventricular hemorrhage: clinical relevance and contrast with CNS infection.

Background: Interpretation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) studies can be challenging in preterm infants. We hypothesized that intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH), and infection (meningitis) promote pro-inflammatory CSF conditions reflected in CSF parameters.

Methods: Biochemical and cytological profiles of lumbar CSF and peripheral blood samples were analyzed for 81 control, 29 IVH grade 1/2 (IVH), 13 IVH grade 3/4 (IVH), 15 PHH, 20 culture-confirmed bacterial meningitis (BM), and 27 viral meningitis (VM) infants at 36.

Microstructural Periventricular White Matter Injury in Post-hemorrhagic Ventricular Dilatation.

Background And Objectives: The neurologic deficits of neonatal post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) have been linked to periventricular white matter injury. To improve understanding of PHH-related injury, diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) was applied in neonates, modeling axonal and myelin integrity, fiber density, and extrafiber pathologies. Objectives included characterizing DBSI measures in periventricular tracts, associating measures with ventricular size, and examining MRI findings in the context of postmortem white matter histology from similar cases.

The urge to blink in Tourette syndrome.

Functional neuroimaging studies have attempted to explore brain activity that occurs with tic occurrence in subjects with Tourette syndrome (TS). However, they are limited by the difficulty of disambiguating brain activity required to perform a tic, or activity caused by the tic, from brain activity that generates a tic. Inhibiting ticcing following the urge to tic is important to patients' experience of tics and we hypothesize that inhibition of a compelling motor response to a natural urge will differ in TS subjects compared to controls.