A consecutive case series experience with [18 F] florbetapir PET imaging in an urban dementia center: impact on quality of life, decision making, and disposition.

Background: Identification and quantification of fibrillar amyloid in brain using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and Amyvid™ ([18 F] Amyvid, [18 F] florbetapir, 18 F-AV-45) was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a clinical tool to estimate brain amyloid burden in patients being evaluated for cognitive impairment or dementia. Imaging with [18 F] florbetapir offers in vivo confirmation of the presence of cerebral amyloidosis and may increase the accuracy of the diagnosis and likely cause of cognitive impairment (CI) or dementia. Most importantly, amyloid imaging may improve certainty of etiology in situations where the differential diagnosis cannot be resolved on the basis of standard clinical and laboratory criteria.

The neural processing of negative emotion postpartum: a preliminary study of amygdala function in postpartum depression.

While contemporary diagnostic nosology characterizes postpartum depression (PPD) as a specifier of a major depressive disorder (MDD), this classification continues to be questioned. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) holds the promise of helping to characterize the neuroanatomical dysfunction associated with dysregulated emotion after childbirth. Twenty postpartum women underwent fMRI in the presence of emotionally valenced stimuli.

Posterior cortical atrophy: an exemplar for renovating diagnostic formulation in neuropsychiatry.

Neurodegenerative dementias represent among the most clinically and pathologically complex syndromes in neuropsychiatry. Phenomenologically protean, and often initially presenting with subtle subsyndromal characteristics, neurodegenerative behavioral syndromes can manifest with an assortment of cognitive, mood, personality, and comportmental changes, often alloyed with elementary neurologic (e.g.

Predictors and outcomes of seizures after cardiac surgery: a multivariable analysis of 2,578 patients.

Background: Limited data exist regarding the epidemiology and prognosis of seizures in adults after cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to define preoperative predictors of seizures and impact on postoperative outcomes.

Methods: A prospective database of 2,578 consecutive adults who underwent cardiac surgery at a single institution between April 2007 and December 2009 was retrospectively analyzed to determine risk factors for postoperative seizures and prognostic impact.

The impact of socioeconomic status on the neural substrates associated with pleasure.

Low socio-economic status (SES) is associated with increased morbidity and premature mortality. Because tonic adversity relates to a diminished ability to experience pleasure, we hypothesized that subjects living in poverty would show diminished neural responsivity to positive stimuli in regions associated with positive experience and reward. Visual images were presented to twenty-two subjects in the context of a EPI-BOLD fMRI paradigm.

Clinical importance of delayed MRI contrast enhancement of primary central nervous system lymphoma in AIDS.

Accurately distinguishing between cerebral toxoplasmosis and primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), still the most common secondary CNS mass lesion complications of AIDS, has long represented a diagnostic challenge in those with HIV. A young adult male with AIDS presented with evolving ophthalmoplegias, Parinaud's syndrome and gait dysfunction. MRI with gadolinium contrast revealed a brainstem lesion failing to enhance on initially obtained post-contrast images yet prominently enhancing on images acquired endmost within the same scanning session.

Neuropsychiatric assessment.

Neuropsychiatric examination is an interdisciplinary approach to diagnostic assessment of mental and brain diseases. When performed in a skillful way, with a conceptually grounded structure, neuropsychiatric assessment offers the potential for comprehensive diagnostic insight, thereby facilitating optimally informed treatment planning.

Epilepsy and Anxiety.

Although the affective and cognitive effects of seizures have long received attention, the anxiety spectrum of psychiatric complications of epilepsy has not been well-studied. Neither purely a mood, thought, or autonomic disorder, anxiety is a unique phenomenon in genesis and expression. Multidisciplinary efforts (neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neuroendocrine, cognitive neuroscience, functional neuroimaging) are attempting to create a unified neuropsychiatric account of anxiety which, like epilepsy, can be regarded as a model phenomenon in the history of the relationship between neuroscience and mental illness.