Dopamine Synthesis in the Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic System in Patients at Risk of Developing Parkinson's Disease at the Prodromal Stage.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is diagnosed by the onset of motor symptoms and treated long after its onset. Therefore, the development of the early diagnosis of PD is a priority for neurology. Advanced methodologies for this include (1) searching for patients at risk of developing prodromal PD based on premotor symptoms; (2) searching for changes in the body fluids in these patients as diagnostic biomarkers; (3) verifying the diagnosis of prodromal PD and diagnostic-value biomarkers using positron emission tomography (PET); (4) anticipating the development of motor symptoms.

Combined 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and event-related potentials study of the cognitive impairment mechanisms in Parkinson's disease.

This study aimed to analyze positron emission tomography with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose data and event-related potentials in the Go/NoGo paradigm in patients with Parkinson's disease with and without cognitive impairment. In the group of cognitively impaired patients, glucose metabolism was decreased in the frontal, parietal, cingulate and posterior temporal cortex. Correlations were found between the cognitive scores and cerebral glucose metabolism in those areas.

[Cerebral metabolism in patients with cognitive disorders: a combined MRS and PET study].

Aim: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) allows studying the content of many metabolites in neural tissue in vivo. There are numerous studies devoted to the MRS data analysis in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their results are contradictory. Thus, it is rational to compare the data obtained with MRS and positron emission tomography (PET) with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), which allows evaluating the brain functional state.

[Characteristics of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease].

Aim: To study the relationship between early cognitive impairment symptoms and cerebral glucose metabolism in different brain regions (according to the positron emission tomography (PET) data) in Parkinson's disease (PD) in order to increase the diagnostic and treatment efficacy.

Material And Methods: Two groups of patients with PD (stage I-III), including 11 patients without cognitive disorders and 13 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), were examined. The control group included 10 age-matched people with normal cognition.

[Neuroprotection therapy of multiple sclerosis with high doses of ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate].

Aim: To study the therapeutic action of ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate (mexidol) on the neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Material And Methods: Fifty-two MS patients and 24 healthy controls were examined using DTI MRI with tractography.

Results And Conclusion: Ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate can prevent the progression of neurodegenerative processes in MS.

[Capabilities of positron emission tomography to study mecha-nisms of multiple sclerosis: own data and literature].

The article presents the literature data and results of our own researchon the use of positron emission tomography (PET) with different radiotracersin multiple sclerosis (MS). Informationon the operating principles of PET and PET studies with different radiotracers are considered. The results of PET studiesin different typesof MS, including determinationof the localization of neuronal damagein the corticalgray matter, assessmentof microglial activation, study of the relationship between glucose metabolismin the brain and the severity of cognitive impairmentin MS, can providenew information about the pathogenesis ofMS.

[Oxygen-dependent energy deficit as related to the problems of ontogenetic development disorders and human sociobiological adaptation (theoretical and applied aspects)].

The review states and argues theoretical propositions on the pathogenetic role of pre- and perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage in the formation of sustained oxygen-dependent energy deficit underlying in further ontogenesis the following neurobiological abnormalities: a) a decline in the level of health and compensatory-adaptive capacities of the organism, b) disorders of the psycho-speech development and adaptive behavior in children, c) early development of neuropsychic diseases, g) addition of other types of brain energy metabolism (including glucose metabolism) disorders in chronic polyetiologic diseases young and middle-aged individuals. We highlight and theoretically substantiate the integrated physiological parameters of the oxygen-dependent energy deficit types. We address the features of abnormalities in neuroreflectory and neurohumora regulatory mechanisms of the wakefulness level and its vegetative and hemodynamic provision in different types of energy deficit in children with DSMD, ADHD and school maladjustment.

[The brain structures functional activity and aggression patients' multiple sclerosis].

The article is devoted to investigation of unconscious aggression in patients with multiple sclerosis. We carried out comparison of the relative assessments of metabolism speed of glucose (according to positron emission tomography) and indicators of unconscious aggression (in the Hand test). It is shown that an increased tendency to open aggression (unconscious aggression) in patients with multiple sclerosis, is mainly linked with a reduction in the functioning of different departments of the frontal lobes of the brain on the left and with changes of the metabolism speed of glucose in the structures of the limbic system of the left and right hemisphere.

Changes of fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in the model of experimental acute hydrocephalus in rabbits.

Background: To study the integrity of white matter, we investigated the correlation between the changes in neuroradiological and morphological parameters in an animal model of acute obstructive hydrocephalus.

Methods: Hydrocephalus was induced in New Zealand rabbits (n = 10) by stereotactic injection of kaolin into the lateral ventricles. Control animals received saline in place of kaolin (n = 10).

[Cortical atrophy in multiple sclerosis].

Objective. To identify clear patterns of the cerebral cortex atrophy in multiple sclerosis that may provide valuable information for the development of additional paraclinical methods of stages and variants of MS objectification and verification and used for assessing treatment efficacy. Material and methods.

[Regional metabolic changes of supraventricular tissue in patients with relapsing-remitting and secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis].

Aim: To evaluate and compare the intensity of changes in a regional meta-analysis in relapsing-remitting and secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis (RRS and SPMS).

Material And Methods: The results of longitudinal studies of multiple sclerosis (MS) using positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging are presented.

Results: In MS, metabolic changes precede the structural ones.

An ER-fMRI study of Russian inflectional morphology.

The generation of regular and irregular past tense verbs has long been a testing ground for different models of inflection in the mental lexicon. Behavioral studies examined a variety of languages, but neuroimaging studies rely almost exclusively on English and German data. In our fMRI experiment, participants inflected Russian verbs and nouns of different types and corresponding nonce stimuli.

[Polyfunctionality of neurons: blocking of the extreme pathological afferentation leads to an improvement of the higher functions of the brain (on the example of patients in a vegetative state)].

In this paper possible mechanism of improvement of the functional state of the brain areas, maintaining movement, visual, auditory, and higher functions of the brain during correction of generalized spastic syndrome (botulinotherapy with Xeomin) in patients in a vegetative state (VS) is discussed. If to consider the vegetative state as stable pathological condition (SPC) of the brain, then from the perspective of the theory of structural and functional organization of the brain with systems with rigid and flexible elements (N.P.

[PET-patterns of cognitive impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis].

Neuropsychological and PET-FDG examination and assessment with the EDSS scale in patients with different types (relapsing-remitting or progressive) of multiple sclerosis (MS) were performed in order to determine the relationship between cognitive impairment and changes in the regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMRglu) in the brain gray matter. A study included 61 patients with relapsing-remitting (n=38) and progressive (n=23) types of MS. A statistical analysis revealed significant correlations between cognitive impairment and rCMRglu dependent on the type of MS.

[The role of brain glucose metabolism in the development of cognitive dysfunctions in patients with remitting and secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis].

To study mechanisms of development of cognitive dysfunctions in multiple sclerosis (MS), brain glucose metabolism has been investigated using PET method. We have studied 61 patients with different types of MS course. Correlations between cognitive dysfunctions and regional glucose metabolic rate were revealed.

[Low-manifest infections with CNS damage in patients in prolonged unconscious state of non-inflammatory etiology].

Aim: Study of specter of low-manifest infections (LMI) with central nervous system (CNS) damage and their role in patients in prolonged unconscious state (PUS) of noninflammatory etiology.

Materials And Methods: 32 patients (23 male, 9 female; age 14-58) in PUS of various etiology were examined. The main group (18 patients) received therapy against all infectious diseases including LMI; control group (14 patients)--only against common and nosocomial microflora.

[Factor analysis of brain structure reorganization in patient with multiple sclerosis (based on pet data)].

The goal of present study was to investigate the functional reorganization of brain structures in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The patterns of distribution of relative estimations of local cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (ICMRglu) in regions of interest (ROIs), corresponding to anatomo-functional brain areas are obtained in groups of healthy volunteers (n=31 subjects) and patients with relapsing-remitting and progressive types of MS (n=59 and 39 accordingly). The analysis of factor structure of the obtained patterns allowed to make a conclusion about the existence of a common features with the factor structure of the distribution of another functional parameter--a regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF).

Novel atypical nucleotide insertions specifically at VH-DH junction generate exceptionally long CDR3H in cattle antibodies.

Some IgM cattle antibodies are amongst the largest known to exist in jawed vertebrates where CDR3H size may extend up to 61 amino acids. To understand the origin of such an exceptionally long CDR3H, bovine D(H) gene locus was completely characterized from Holstein cattle that revealed the presence of a total of eight D(H) genes, including D(H)Q52, with a distinct organization in sub-clusters. However, a total of 10 D(H) genes are identified at the polymorphic D-gene locus in cattle that are classified into four families, designated as BovD(H)A, BovD(H)B, BovD(H)C and BovD(H)D.

[Vegetative state (prolonged coma) as manifestation of stable pathological state].

Complex examination of 25 patients in vegetative state was performed before and after correction of secondary brain damage. Catamnesis over a period of at least 6 months was traced. Preliminary results showed that better recovery of consciousness and cognitive functions was observed if before treatment diffuse glucose hypometabolism was significantly more widespread than morphological changes.

[Neuromyelitis optica: problems of heterogeneity and systematization].

Prospective-retrospective data on 10 cases of neuromyelitis optica (NO) have been analyzed. Demographic and clinical features of patients with primary NO as well as NO comorbid with other organospecific disorders are discussed. Magnetic-resonance imaging data of the brain and spinal cord are summarized and discussed in the context of its heterogeneity.

[Brain atrophy and neurological impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis].

An aim of the study was to investigate a relationship between global and local brain atrophy with neurological impairment (motor dysfunction) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with different levels of disease severity. Fifty five patients with definite MS (Mc Donald's criteria), aged 18-60 years, disease duration 1-30 years, and 25 healthy age-matched controls have been studied. Neurological assessment (Kurtzke and EDSS scales) was performed in the all patients.

[Positron-emission tomography in the diagnosis of middle cerebral artery lesions].

The regional brain glucose metabolism after the intravenous drop-by-drop infusion of saline and 50 mg of cavinton was measured with positron-emission tomography (PET) in the right middle brain artery in 5 patients with ischemic stroke. The increase of glucose metabolism was found in the region of post stroke cystic-focal and perifocal changes as well as in contralateral regions. The dose of cavinton (50 mg) was safe and well-tolerated by patients.

Characteristics of neurological and cognitive status in patients with multiple sclerosis in relation to the location and volumes of demyelination foci and the severity of brain atrophy.

A total of 65 patients with clinically significant diagnoses of remitting multiple sclerosis in the stage of remission were studied. Neurological status was investigated with assessment on the FS and EDSS scales, with neuropsychological testing, and MRI scans (1.5 T).