A single-center, cross-sectional prevalence study of impulse control disorders in Parkinson disease: association with dopaminergic drugs.

The current study aimed at establishing the prevalence of impulse control disorders (ICDs) in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and their association with demographic, drug-related, and disease-related characteristics. We performed a single-center cross-sectional study of 805 PD patients. Impulse control disorders were investigated with the Questionnaire for Impulsive Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease; also comorbid neuropsychiatric complications (dementia, delusions, visual hallucinations) were investigated with clinical interviews and ad hoc instruments (Parkinson Psychosis Questionnaire and Neuropsychiatry Inventory).

Cognitive correlates of negative symptoms in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: implications for the frontal lobe syndrome.

Although both behavioral disturbances and executive impairments of patients with the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) seem to depend on early neurodegenerative damages to the prefrontal cortex, the relationship between these two distinct clinical features has been only partially established and represents the focus of the current preliminary neuropsychological study. Ten subsequent bvFTD patients underwent a neuropsychiatric assessment with the Frontal Behavior Inventory and a neuropsychological battery focused on prefrontal functions. Significant correlations were found only between negative symptoms and measures of prevalent medial prefrontal functioning, i.

Diagnosis, assessment and management of delusional jealousy in Parkinson's disease with and without dementia.

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) may present delusional jealousy (DJ). In a previous cross-sectional prevalence study we identified 15 cognitively preserved and five demented PD patients with DJ. The current study aimed at evaluating their clinical (motor and non-motor) characteristics and the pharmacological treatments associated with DJ, and its subsequent pharmacological management.

Dopamine agonists and delusional jealousy in Parkinson's disease: a cross-sectional prevalence study.

Background: Delusional jealousy (DJ) has been described in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on dopaminergic therapy, but a role for dopaminergic therapy in DJ has not been established.

Methods: The current cross-sectional study on DJ investigated its association with dopaminergic therapies compared with their associations with hallucinations and its prevalence in PD patients. Eight hundred five consecutive patients with PD were enrolled between January 2009 and June 2010.

A romantic delusion: de Clerambault's syndrome in dementia.

Erotromania (also known as de Clerambault's syndrome) is a rare disorder in which an individual has a delusional belief that a person of a socially higher standing falls in love with her/him. It has rarely been described in older people, but many cases have been reported in conjunction with psychiatric and neurological disorders. The purpose of this paper was to examine the phenomenon of erotomania in people with dementia.

Cerebellar ataxia with complete clinical recovery and resolution of MRI lesions related to central pontine myelinolysis: case report and literature review.

There are several reports of central pontine myelinolysis (CPM) in a setting of malnutrition, alcoholism, and chronic debilitating illness associated with electrolyte abnormalities, especially hyponatremia. The cause of myelinolysis is still under debate, and, although osmotic effects are thought to be responsible in most cases, alternative pathological factors should be considered [King et al.: Am J Med Sci 2010;339:561-567].

Postpartum headache due to spontaneous cervical artery dissection.

Postpartum headache is quite common and often related to potentially ominous cerebrovascular accidents. As illustrated in previously published reports, spontaneous cervical artery dissection is a rare but possible cause of headache in the postpartum. We provide 2 additional cases to the 19 described so far, including the first ever report of migraine with aura-like symptoms.

Levodopa response in dementia with lewy bodies: a 1-year follow-up study.

Purpose: To evaluate levodopa responsiveness in patients with probable dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) compared to early Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

Methods: Twenty four cases with DLB and 21 with PD underwent a baseline assessment with UPDRS (sub-item II and III) and an acute levodopa challenge test. Positive response to acute levodopa test was defined as an improvement of at least 15% in the tapping test, and at least 25% in the walking test and rigidity or tremor score.

Plasmapheresis treatment in Guillain-Barré syndrome: potential benefit over intravenous immunoglobulin.

Guillain-Barré syndrome includes acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy, acute motor axonal neuropathy, acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy, Miller Fisher syndrome and acute pandysautonomia. Plasma exchange was the first treatment in Guillain-Barrd syndrome proven to be superior to supportive treatment alone and intravenous immunoglobulin was subsequently shown to be equally effective and is now commonly used as first-line treatment. We describe a 78-year-old woman who presented with a two-day history of progressive generalised weakness and left facial nerve palsy, preceded by a flu-like illness lasting for one week.

'INDOTEST' in atypical hemicrania continua.

Hemicrania continua (HC) is an indomethacin-responsive headache characterized by a chronic, strictly unilateral, side-locked without side-shifting, persistent headache. We report three cases of HC with atypical features in which an acute administration of indomethacin 50 mg IM (INDOTEST) was performed. In all three cases INDOTEST predicted chronic responsiveness to indomethacin.

Influences of dopaminergic treatment on motor cortex in Parkinson disease: a MRI/MRS study.

The objective of this study was to investigate neurochemical and metabolic changes in the motor cortex in a group of de novo Parkinson's disease (PD) patients before and after 6 mo treatment with the dopamine agonist pergolide. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) has been used to study striatal and cortical metabolism in PD and other parkinsonisms. So far, no studies evaluating possible brain metabolic changes in PD patients before and after dopaminergic therapy have been reported.

Brain perfusion effects of cholinesterase inhibitors in Parkinson's disease with dementia.

Several evidences suggest that cholinergic deficits may significantly contribute to dementia in Parkinson's disease (PDD) and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) have been reported to improve cognitive symptoms in PDD, without worsening parkinsonism. Nineteen PDD patients underwent brain perfusion SPECT with (99m)Tc-ethyl cysteinate dimer after 6 months ChEIs treatment in order to evaluate the functional correlates of clinical improvement. A clear-cut cognitive improvement was reported in PDD patients with a significant improvement of ADAS-cog total score as well as of subscores exploring executive functions (p<0.

Association between amantadine and the onset of dementia in Parkinson's disease.

The objective of this study is to compare the occurrence of dementia among Parkinson's disease (PD) patients treated with amantadine (AM group) with those never exposed to it (NoAM group). PD dementia shares neuroanatomical and biochemical similarities with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Memantine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist has been shown to be beneficial in AD.

Long-term clinical evaluation in patients with Parkinson's disease and early autonomic involvement.

Objective: To evaluate in a prospective longitudinal study the evolution of functional disability and the response to dopaminergic therapy in PD patients with and without autonomic involvement.

Methods: Sixty untreated consecutive patients with PD underwent autonomic cardiovascular function evaluation using the five autonomic tests of Ewing. An integrated index (Autonomic Score=AS), taking in account the results of all subtests, was calculated.

Environmental factors and Parkinson's disease: a case-control study in the Tuscany region of Italy.

To date the aetiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is unknown although both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors appear to play an important role in the development of the disease. Recent data have also indicated that chronic exposure to a common pesticide can reproduce the neurochemical, behavioral and neuropathological features of PD. The epidemiological studies previously carried on the prevalence of PD in population exposed to environmental factors have produced controversial results, probably because of different trial design and different analysis methods.

Cerebral perfusional effects of cholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer disease.

Cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors improve or stabilize cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). However, the regional metabolic and perfusion correlates of treatment with ChE inhibitors are not fully known. Twenty-four patients with mild to moderate AD were evaluated with Tc-ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) single-photon-emission CT scanning (SPECT), before and after 4.

Presynaptic nigro-striatal function in a group of Alzheimer's disease patients with parkinsonism: evidence from a dopamine transporter imaging study.

The occurrence of parkinsonism in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is quite common, however the molecular and neurochemical changes underlying such extrapyramidal features in AD have been not fully understood. Post-mortem as well as in vivo imaging study have produced conflicting results as regards the existence of dopaminergic changes in AD. Aim of the present study was to investigate in vivo the nigro-striatal dopaminergic function in a group of AD patients with parkinsonism.

Psychiatric comorbidity in a population of Parkinson's disease patients.

Behavioural disturbances are frequently observed in Parkinson's disease (PD), including mood and anxiety disorders. The existence of a comorbidity between such psychiatric disorders in PD patients has been suggested only in a few studies. To assess the prevalence of mood and anxiety disturbances, and the rate of comorbidity of such disorders in PD.

Dopaminergic degeneration and perfusional impairment in Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The clinical differentiation of Lewy body dementia (LBD) from Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be difficult. The aim of the present study was to assess the dopamine transporter function and the perfusional pattern in LBD and AD in vivo. Twenty patients with probable LBD and 24 with probable AD underwent on 2 separate days a brain perfusional SPECT with 99mTc-ECD and a SPECT with (123)I-FP-CIT, a ligand of dopamine transporter.

Cellular events involved in survival of individual arbuscular mycorrhizal symbionts growing in the absence of the host.

A survival strategy operating in the absence of the host was shown in obligately biotrophic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbionts. When no host-derived signals from the surrounding environment were perceived by germinating spores, fungal hyphae underwent a programmed growth arrest and resource reallocation, allowing long-term maintenance of viability and host infection capability. The early stages of mycelial growth of AM fungi were studied by a combination of time-lapse and video-enhanced light microscopy, image analysis, and immunodetection, with the aim of acquiring knowledge of cell events leading to the arrest of mycelial growth.

Early processes involved in host recognition by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Plant species that are hosts of non-arbuscular mycorrhizas were utilized to investigate the early processes involved in host recognition by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The roots of plant hosts of ecto-, arbutoid and ericoid mycorrhizas, as well as those of non-mycorrhizal species, did not elicit the differential morphogenesis that occurred in the hyphae of Glomus mosseae (Nicol. & Gerd.

Differential hyphal morphogenesis in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi during pre-infection stages.

Roots of host plants elicit a local change in morphology in the hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, prior to the formation of appressoria. The elicited hyphae switch from their original branching pattern and apical dominance to differentiate in a new irregular, septate branching pattern with reduced inter-hyphal spacing. The extensive hyphal development associated with roots of host plants was shown to be due to the differential growth pattern described, and to precede the further cascade of events leading to appressorium formation and the development of a functional symbiosis.