Facial Emotion Recognition Performance Differentiates Between Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Major Depressive Disorder.

Objective: Misdiagnosis of early behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) with major depressive disorder (MDD) is not uncommon due to overlapping symptoms. The aim of this study was to improve the discrimination between these disorders using a novel facial emotion perception task.

Method: In this prospective cohort study (July 2013-March 2016), we compared 25 patients meeting Rascovsky diagnostic criteria for bvFTD, 20 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for MDD, 21 patients meeting McKhann diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease dementia, and 31 healthy participants on a novel emotion intensity rating task comprising morphed low-intensity facial stimuli.

Dissociation in Rating Negative Facial Emotions between Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Major Depressive Disorder.

Objective: Features of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) such as executive dysfunction, apathy, and impaired empathic abilities are also observed in major depressive disorder (MDD). This may contribute to the reason why early stage bvFTD is often misdiagnosed as MDD. New assessment tools are thus needed to improve early diagnosis of bvFTD.

"Now I see it, now I don't": Determining Threshold Levels of Facial Emotion Recognition for Use in Patient Populations.

The importance of including measures of emotion processing, such as tests of facial emotion recognition (FER), as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is being increasingly recognized. In clinical settings, FER tests need to be sensitive, short, and easy to administer, given the limited time available and patient limitations. Current tests, however, commonly use stimuli that either display prototypical emotions, bearing the risk of ceiling effects and unequal task difficulty, or are cognitively too demanding and time-consuming.

Mycobacterium marinum infection from sea monkeys.

A case of cutaneous Mycobacterium marinum infection acquired from Artemia nyos (sea monkeys) is presented. The infection was unresponsive to initial antimicrobial therapies. A biopsy of a lesion revealed granulomatous inflammation with cultures that subsequently grew M marinum.

Seroprevalence and risk factors for herpes simplex virus infection in a population of HIV-infected patients in Canada.

Objective: To determine the seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus infection in a population of HIV-infected individuals in Canada.

Methods: HIV-infected patients attending 5 infectious disease clinics for follow-up care were approached to participate in the study. After informed consent was obtained, subjects completed a questionnaire documenting HIV-risk behavior, duration of infection, history of oral and/or genital herpes, and treatment for HIV and/or genital herpes.