Granule cell dispersion is associated with hippocampal neuronal cell loss, initial precipitating injury, and other clinical features in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis.

Purpose: To characterize a 10-year series of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) and determine the histopathological characteristic of the association between granule cell dispersion (GCD) and hippocampal neuronal loss.

Methods: The study included 108 MTLE/HS patients. Histopathological analyses were performed in NeuN-stained hippocampal sections for HS pattern, neuronal density, dentate gyrus (DG) pathology, and granule cell layer width.

Neuroimaging Assessment of Nigrosome 1 with a Multiecho Gre Magnetic Resonance Sequence in the Differentiation Between Parkinsons Disease from Essential Tremor and Healthy Individuals.

Background And Purpose: Parkinsonism is commonly seen in many clinical conditions, and the establishment of its etiology may take many years. The possible development of neuroprotective treatments for Parkinsons disease (PD) in the near future will require correct and early diagnosis. This study aims to analyze the accuracy of a low-cost MRI sequence to differentiate PD from patients with essential tremor (ET) and healthy control (HC) individuals.

Republished: Spinal arteriovenous malformation without endovascular arterial access: is a combined neurosurgical approach and direct venous puncture an option?

This case report describes a combined neurosurgical and endovascular approach for the treatment of a conus medullaris arteriovenous malformation resulting in considerable improvement in the patient's neurological condition (modified Rankin Scale score 2).

Spinal arteriovenous malformation without endovascular arterial access: is a combined neurosurgical approach and direct venous puncture an option?

This case report describes a combined neurosurgical and endovascular approach for the treatment of a conus medullaris arteriovenous malformation resulting in considerable improvement in the patient's neurological condition (modified Rankin Scale score 2).

Evaluation of Audiovisual Reports to Enhance Traditional Emergency Musculoskeletal Radiology Reports.

Traditional radiology reports are narrative texts that include a description of imaging findings. Recent implementation of advanced reporting software allows for incorporation of annotated key images and hyperlinks directly into text reports, but these tools usually do not substitute in-person consultations with radiologists, especially in challenging cases. Use of on-demand audio/visual reports with screen capture software is an emerging technology, providing a more engaged imaging service.

The PHASES score: To treat or not to treat? Retrospective evaluation of the risk of rupture of intracranial aneurysms in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Background And Purpose: The PHASES score was formulated to predict the 5-year risk of rupture for intracranial aneurysms. We retrospectively analyzed all patients treated in our institution for aneurysmal SAH and applied the PHASES score to estimate the probable predicted risk of bleeding in this group of patients.

Methods: Between February 2015 and August 2018, all patients with aneurysmal SAH were retrospectively analyzed and the PHASES score was applied.

Plasma kallikrein-kinin system contributes to peripheral inflammation in temporal lobe epilepsy.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a chronic disease, characterized by severe and refractory seizures, triggered in the hippocampus and/or amygdala, disrupting the blood-brain barrier. This disruption can sustain, or aggravate, the epileptic condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the activation of the kallikrein-kinin system in patients with TLE, as it relates to the maintenance of blood-brain barrier.

Flow diversion treatment of aneurysms of the complex region of the anterior communicating artery: which stent placement strategy should 'I' use? A single center experience.

Background: Aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery (ACoA) are difficult to treat with coiling or clipping because of the anatomical variation in this region. Flow diversion represents a feasible treatment, but no consensus exists as to which stent deployment technique is more suitable.

Methods: All patients with ACoA aneurysms treated with flow diverters between April 2014 and November 2018 were retrospectively analyzed.

The impact of epilepsy duration in a series of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy due to unilateral hippocampal sclerosis.

Purpose: To evaluate if the duration of epilepsy influences MRI volumes of the hippocampus, amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus, entorhinal cortex and temporal pole of both hemispheres and epileptogenic hippocampus neuronal cell density and dentate gyrus granular cells distribution in patients with refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy due to hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE/HS).

Methods: Seventy-seven patients with refractory MTLE/HS submitted to surgery were included. Histopathological analysis included: (1) quantitative: hippocampal subfields and total estimated hippocampal cell density (HCD), thickness of the dentate gyrus - normal, thinning or dispersion; (2) qualitative: type of HS and granule cells pathology in the dentate gyrus (normal, neuronal cell loss, dispersion and bilamination).

Morphometric MRI features are associated with surgical outcome in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.

Purpose: Corticoamygdalohippocampectomy (CAH) improves seizure control, quality of life, and decreases mortality for refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS). One-third of patients continue having seizures, and it is pivotal to determine structural abnormalities that might influence the postoperative outcome. Studies indicate that nonhippocampal regions may play a role in the epileptogenic network in MTLE-HS and could generate seizures postoperatively.

Hippocampal atrophy on MRI is predictive of histopathological patterns and surgical prognosis in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.

Purpose: To correlate hippocampal volumes obtained from brain structural imaging with histopathological patterns of hippocampal sclerosis (HS), in order to predict surgical outcome.

Methods: Patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) with HS were selected. Clinical data were assessed pre-operatively and surgical outcome in the first year post surgery.

Posterior Circulation Evaluation in Patients with Sickle Cell Anemia.

Background: The role of transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography in identifying children with sickle cell anemia (SCA) at risk for stroke is well known; however, the major studies that evaluated TCD velocities in children with SCA did not report posterior circulation evaluation data. The objective of our study was to describe the pattern of blood flow velocities in the posterior circulation of patients with SCA and to examine their relationship with findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).

Methods: All adult patients with SCA followed in the outpatient clinic of our hospital were evaluated with TCD and MRI/MRA.

Temporopolar blurring in temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis and long-term prognosis after epilepsy surgery.

Purpose: We conducted a retrospective study in order to investigate the clinical significance of temporopolar grey/white matter abnormalities (GWMA) in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) with a long post-surgical follow-up.

Methods: The study comprised 122 consecutive patients with medically refractory TLE and unilateral HS who underwent epilepsy surgery and had a minimum postoperative follow-up of 5 years. Patients were divided into two groups, based on findings of pre-surgical MRI: group 1 with GWMA and 2 with normal signal and grey/white matter definition in temporal pole.

Expression and activity of thimet oligopeptidase (TOP) are modified in the hippocampus of subjects with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Objective: Thimet oligopeptidase (TOP) is a metalloprotease that has been associated with peptide processing in several nervous system structures, and its substrates include several peptides such as bradykinin, amyloid beta (Aβ), and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. As shown previously by our research group, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) have a high level of kinin receptors as well as kallikrein, a kinin-releasing enzyme, in the hippocampus.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated the expression, distribution, and activity of TOP in the hippocampus of patients with TLE and autopsy-control tissues, through reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), enzymatic activity, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry.

Cortical morphology changes in women with borderline personality disorder: a multimodal approach.

Objective: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a devastating condition that causes intense disruption of patients' lives and relationships. Proper understanding of BPD neurobiology could help provide the basis for earlier and effective interventions. As neuroimaging studies of patients with BPD are still scarce, volumetric and geometric features of the cortical structure were assessed to ascertain whether structural cortical alterations are present in BPD patients.

Corpus callosotomy in a patient with startle epilepsy.

Startle epilepsy is a syndrome of reflex epilepsy in which the seizures are precipitated by a sudden and surprising, usually auditory, stimulus. We describe herein a girl who had been suffering with startle-induced seizures since 2 years of age. She had focal, tonic and tonic-clonic seizures, refractory to antiepileptic treatment.

Gastaut type idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsy.

Gastaut type idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsy is an uncommon epileptic syndrome characterised by frequent seizures, most commonly presenting as elementary visual hallucinations or blindness. Other occipital (non-visual) symptoms may also occur. Interictal EEG typically shows occipital paroxysms, often with fixation-off sensitivity.

Does the patient's hand hold the key to preventing secondary generalization in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy?

This study aimed to analyze the impact of ictal dystonic posturing (DP) in postoperative seizure outcome and to assess the influence of DP in generalized tonic-clonic seizure (GTCS) occurrence during video-EEG monitoring of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis. The impact of DP on surgical outcome remains controversial. Moreover, DP has been recently associated with brain networks avoiding GTCS occurrence.

[Post-operative progress of patients with Rasmussen's encephalitis who have undergone hemispherotomy surgery].

Introduction: Rasmussen's encephalitis (RE) is a progressive pathology affecting the brain that causes unilateral hemispheric atrophy, neurological dysfunction and refractory epilepsy. Hemispherotomy is considered the most effective treatment today, but some cases present certain peculiarities that can seriously affect the decision to go ahead with this procedure.

Aims: To evaluate the post-operative progress made by children with RE who have undergone hemispherotomy surgery, and who, in the pre-operative assessment, presented certain characteristics that complicated the decision to perform surgery.

Morphological variations of hippocampal formation in epilepsy: image, clinical and electrophysiological data.

Morphological variations of hippocampal formation (MVHF) are observed in patients with epilepsy but also in asymptomatic individuals. The precise role of these findings in epilepsy is not yet fully understood. This study analyzes the hippocampal formation (HF) morphology of asymptomatic individuals (n = 30) and of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) (n = 68), patients with malformations of cortical development (MCD) (n = 34), or patients with pure morphological variations of hippocampal formation (pure MVHF) (n = 12).