Cavum septum pellucidum and psychopathy.

The presence of cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) has been reported to be a neurodevelopmental marker of psychopathy. We scanned 26 violent offenders and 25 controls; 2 offenders and 2 controls had CSP (8% in both groups). Thus, the presence of CSP is not a common or a unique feature of antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy.

Cortex and amygdala morphology in psychopathy.

Psychopathy is characterized by abnormal emotional processes, but only recent neuroimaging studies have investigated its cerebral correlates. The study aim was to map local differences of cortical and amygdalar morphology. Cortical pattern matching and radial distance mapping techniques were used to analyze the magnetic resonance images of 26 violent male offenders (age: 32±8) with psychopathy diagnosed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and no schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and in matched controls (age: 35± sp="0.

Abnormal hippocampal shape in offenders with psychopathy.

Posterior hippocampal volumes correlate negatively with the severity of psychopathy, but local morphological features are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate hippocampal morphology in habitually violent offenders having psychopathy. Manual tracings of hippocampi from magnetic resonance images of 26 offenders (age: 32.

Perfusion differences on SPECT and PWI in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Introduction: The purposes of the present study were to compare the flow defect volumes on perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (PWI) and (99m)Tc-labeled ethylcysteinate dimer ((99m)Tc-ECD) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) at acute and subacute stages of ischemic stroke and to analyze the relationship between the detected flow defects on the two methods and neurological status and clinical outcomes.

Methods: Perfusion defects on PWI and SPECT were measured within 48 h and on day 8 of the onset of stroke from 22 patients with their first-ever acute supratentorial ischemic stroke. The primary neurological status was evaluated prior to the imaging.

Olfactory identification in non-demented elderly population and in mild cognitive impairment: a comparison of performance in clinical odor identification versus Boston Naming Test.

Performance in olfactory identification was studied in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), using slightly expanded standard clinical approach to study the olfactory nerve. Four hundred and eighty-six cognitively normal individuals and 72 individuals with MCI underwent spontaneous and cued odor identification and delayed odor recall. Performance in these was compared with the performance in the CERAD version of the Boston Naming Test (BNT).

Brain anatomy of persistent violent offenders: more rather than less.

Most violent crimes in Western societies are committed by a small group of men who display antisocial behavior from an early age that remains stable across the life-span. It is not known if these men display abnormal brain structure. We compared regional brain volumes of 26 persistently violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder and substance dependence and 25 healthy men using magnetic resonance imaging volumetry and voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

MRI of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in mild cognitive impairment: a follow-up study.

The concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been proposed to represent a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. We studied the predictive value of the MRI-derived volumes of medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures, white matter lesions (WML), neuropsychological tests, and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype on conversion of MCI to dementia and AD. The study included 60 subjects with MCI identified from population cohorts.

Midbrain dopamine D2/3 receptor binding in schizophrenia.

Several studies suggest that dysregulation of dopaminergic transmission in the midbrain and thalamus may contribute to the symptomatology of schizophrenia. The objective of this study was to examine the putative alteration of dopamine D(2/3 )receptor densities in the thalamus and midbrain of drug-naïve schizophrenic patients. We used the high-affinity single-photon emission tomography ligand [(123)I]epidepride for imaging D(2/3 )receptor binding sites in six neuroleptic-naïve schizophrenic patients, and seven healthy controls.

The effect of apolipoprotein polymorphism on brain in mild cognitive impairment: a voxel-based morphometric study.

We investigated the effect of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) on the whole brain in 51 individuals with mild cognitive impairment using voxel-based morphometry. Between cases heterozygous for the ApoE epsilon4 (n = 15) and those who were ApoE epsilon4 noncarriers (n = 28), only the right parahippocampal gyrus, with the entorhinal cortex included, reached the level of statistical significance. In cases homozygous for the epsilon4 allele (n = 8) versus noncarriers, the greatest atrophy was located in the right amygdala followed by the right parahippocampal gyrus, the left amygdala and the left medial dorsal thalamic nucleus.

Visual assessment of medial temporal atrophy on MR films in Alzheimer's disease: comparison with volumetry.

Background And Aims: To test the agreement of a visual rating scale of medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) with linear and volumetric assessments, and to test its accuracy in discriminating between Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and controls.

Methods: Participants were 28 patients with AD and 29 healthy controls. MTA was evaluated according to Scheltens' five-point scale.

Frontotemporal dementia as a neural system disease.

Some brain structures atrophic in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) belong to the rostral limbic system (RLS), that regulates context-dependent behaviors after evaluation of the motivational content of stimuli. The clinical manifestations of FTD are consistent with its impairment. Aim of this study was to assess whole brain morphology in FTD using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and voxel-based morphometry with statistic parametric mapping (SPM99) to test the hypothesis that the RLS might be specifically targeted by FTD.

MRI volumetry of the vermis and the cerebellar hemispheres in men with schizophrenia.

An association between cerebellar abnormalities and different manifestations of schizophrenia is increasingly hypothesized, either at the motor (anterior vermis), affective/psychotic (posterior vermis), or cognitive (cerebellar hemispheres) level. However, morphometric and volumetric cerebellar measurements have yielded highly divergent results. The main goal of this study was to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to separately estimate the volumes of the entire vermis, the cerebellar hemispheres and three midsaggital vermian areas among 38 men with schizophrenia and 26 healthy men.

Hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in mild cognitive impairment and early AD.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been suggested as a useful tool in early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Based on MRI-derived volumes, we studied the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex (ERC) in 59 controls, 65 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 48 patients with AD. The controls and individuals with MCI were derived from population-based cohorts.

A comparison between the accuracy of voxel-based morphometry and hippocampal volumetry in Alzheimer's disease.

Purpose: To compare the accuracy of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and region of interest (ROI)-based hippocampal volumetry to detect medial temporal lobe atrophy in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Materials And Methods: A total of 27 AD patients (age 74 +/- 9 years; 22 women; Mini-Mental State Exam [MMSE] 21 +/- 4) and 25 controls (age 70 +/- 8; 16 women; MMSE 29 +/- 1) were studied. Accuracy of VBM to detect gray matter loss in those seven AD patients and 11 controls with similar ROI-based hippocampal measures and of ROI-based volumetry to detect gray matter loss in those four AD patients and five controls with similar VBM-based hippocampal measures was assessed.

The amygdala and schizophrenia: a volumetric magnetic resonance imaging study in first-episode, neuroleptic-naive patients.

Background: The attempts to evaluate amygdaloid volumes using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with schizophrenia have yielded highly divergent results.

Methods: Volumes of the amygdala were measured in 22 healthy participants and 18 neuroleptic-naive patients with first-episode schizophrenia, while controlling for intracranial area, gender, age, and handedness.

Results: Persons with schizophrenia presented significantly lower amygdaloid volumes bilaterally.

The MRI pattern of frontal and temporal brain atrophy in fronto-temporal dementia.

Objective: To compare patterns of brain atrophy in fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) since atrophy in individual areas may not be sufficiently specific as diagnostic marker.

Methods: Frontal, temporal and hippocampal atrophy was measured from MRI of 10 FTD patients, 27 AD, and 27 controls. Corrected atrophy and asymmetry were computed (W-scores).

Clinical characteristics of frontotemporal patients with symmetric brain atrophy.

In this paper we explored patterns of frontal and temporal asymmetry in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and tried to isolate clinical correlates associated with asymmetry or lack thereof. Volumes of frontal and temporal lobes, hippocampus and entorhinal cortex were measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 10 patients with FTD. Age- and cranial size-specific values were computed through linear regression analysis (W-scores).

Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and acute ischemic stroke: a diffusion- and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging study.

Diffusion- and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to study the putative effects of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism in stroke. Thirty-one patients with acute stroke, comparative for age and gender were scanned, nine of whom were ApoE allele epsilon 4 carriers. Initially, less than 24 hours from the onset of stroke, the epsilon 4 carriers had significantly smaller volumes of hypoperfusion on relative cerebral blood volume map (P = 0.

Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele, elevated midlife total cholesterol level, and high midlife systolic blood pressure are independent risk factors for late-life Alzheimer disease.

Background: Presence of the apolipoprotein E (apoE) epsilon4 allele, which is involved in cholesterol metabolism, is the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease. Elevated midlife values for total cholesterol level and blood pressure have been implicated recently as risk factors for Alzheimer disease.

Objective: To study the relative importance and the putative relationship among the apoE epsilon4 allele, midlife total cholesterol level, and midlife blood pressure as risk factors for late-life Alzheimer disease.

Structural imaging in cognitive impairment and the dementias: an update.

Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to explore and summarize recent advances in the structural imaging of cognitive impairment and the dementias. The focus is practical, covering issues that bear relevance to clinical practice or diagnosis. Findings in mild cognitive impairment, a state preceding but not necessarily leading to dementia, are discussed.

A volumetric MRI study of the entorhinal cortex in first episode neuroleptic-naive schizophrenia.

Background: Imaging studies have frequently reported volume loss of limbic structures in schizophrenia, yet there appears to be no quantitative data on entorhinal cortex volumes in patients with neuroleptic naive first-episode schizophrenia.

Methods: The volume of the entorhinal cortices of 22 control subjects and 18 patients with neuroleptic-naïve first-episode schizophrenia were measured from magnetic resonance images (MRI) scans using recently designed anatomic criteria for MRI anatomy of the entorhinal cortex.

Results: Smaller entorhinal volumes were found bilaterally in the schizophrenic patients.

Hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia as risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: potential for pharmacological intervention.

This paper focuses on hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia as risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and, as such, subjects for prevention. The long-term, prospective, population-based studies regarding the relationship between hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia and Alzheimer's disease, and the clinical studies regarding the association between antihypertensive or lipid-lowering medications and the risk of Alzheimer's disease, are reviewed. These studies provide evidence to suggest that elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels earlier in life may have an important role in the development and expression of late-life Alzheimer's disease.

Prefrontal volumes in habitually violent subjects with antisocial personality disorder and type 2 alcoholism.

Pathology of the prefrontal cortices has been suggested to be a part of neural networks underlying deviant behavioral patterns. Recently, reduced overall prefrontal cortical volumes have been proposed in subjects with antisocial personality disorder (ASP). It is not known whether there are specific patterns of volume loss within the prefrontal regions.

Radial width of the temporal horn: a sensitive measure in Alzheimer disease.

Background And Purpose: Atrophy in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures depicted with brain imaging is one of the most accurate markers of Alzheimer disease (AD), but practical considerations have thus far limited their routine clinical use. The aim of this study was to explore the validity of a CT- and MR-based measure of MTL atrophy that would be feasible for routine clinical use.

Methods: We acquired brain CT scans in the temporal lobe plane with thin sections in 42 patients with AD and in 29 control patients without dementia.