Publications by authors named "Nomazulu Dlamini"

Article Synopsis
  • Motor impairments are common after childhood arterial ischemic stroke (C-AIS), affecting the understanding of how these impairments relate to intellectual abilities in children.
  • A study of 34 children with C-AIS found that motor functioning in early recovery significantly correlates with various intellectual skills, including verbal and perceptual reasoning abilities.
  • The results suggest that early motor deficits may influence intellectual development due to neuroplastic changes after injury, while motor functions assessed closer to testing reflect recovery and improvement potentially aided by interventions.
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Background: The underlying mechanism for the association between sleep restriction (SR) and unfavorable cognitive outcomes in children and adolescents remains unclear. This study aimed to understand the effect of 5-night experimental SR on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and cognitive function in adolescents.

Methods: This randomized crossover study compared two sleep conditions, SR and Control Sleep (CS) in a home setting.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A study at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children assessed 17 children with a history of childhood ICH, discovering that their average Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) is in the clinically average range but tends to be lower overall.
  • * About 50-60% of participants showed deficits in areas like verbal learning, verbal memory, and processing speed, indicating a need for thorough clinical evaluations of neuropsychological abilities in these youth.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how the age at which a pediatric patient suffers an arterial ischemic stroke affects their long-term neurological outcomes and how this interacts with the location and extent of the brain injury.
  • Conducted at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the research followed 285 children diagnosed with strokes from 1996 to 2016 and used various models to analyze outcomes based on age groups and infarct characteristics.
  • Results show that older children have worse outcomes, particularly when the stroke affects multiple areas of the brain, with significant differences in outcomes noted between age-at-stroke and specific brain regions impacted.
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Background: The gold standard for evaluation of the severity of moyamoya vasculopathy is the Suzuki grade determined with cerebral catheter angiography (CA). With greater use of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) it is important to understand if MRA is truly comparable to CA.

Methods: Children with moyamoya were evaluated using the Suzuki score for CA and the modified MRA six-stage Suzuki score to describe the angiographic findings in moyamoya from initial narrowing of the distal internal carotid artery to the "puff of smoke" appearance of the lenticulostriate collaterals and finally to the disappearance of this network of collaterals.

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Systemic vascular involvement in children with cerebral arteriopathies is increasingly recognized and often highly morbid. Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) represents a cerebral arteriopathy with systemic involvement, commonly affecting the renal and carotid arteries. In adults, FMD diagnosis and classification typically relies on angiographic features, like the 'string-of-beads' appearance, following exclusion of other diseases.

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Article Synopsis
  • The VIPS II study explored the link between varicella zoster virus (VZV) and childhood arterial ischemic stroke (AIS), focusing on vaccinated populations in North America and Australia.
  • Among 205 children with AIS, 97% showed prior VZV exposure, mostly through vaccination, with a small percentage demonstrating recent VZV reactivation before their stroke.
  • The findings suggest that recent VZV reactivation might be a trigger for childhood strokes, even in vaccinated individuals and without visible symptoms.
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Background: Moyamoya is a progressive, non-atherosclerotic cerebral arteriopathy that may present in childhood and currently has no cure. Early diagnosis is critical to prevent a lifelong risk of neurological morbidity. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) MRI cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) imaging provides a non-invasive, in vivo measure of autoregulatory capacity and cerebrovascular reserve.

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Objective: Dystonia is a movement disorder defined by involuntary muscle contractions leading to abnormal postures or twisting and repetitive movements. Classically dystonia has been thought of as a disorder of the basal ganglia, but newer results in idiopathic dystonia and lesion-induced dystonia in adults point to broader motor network dysfunction spanning the basal ganglia, cerebellum, premotor cortex, sensorimotor, and frontoparietal regions. It is unclear whether a similar network is shared between different etiologies of pediatric lesion-induced dystonia.

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Aim: To describe the rates of stroke and craniocervical vasculopathy progression in children with posterior fossa malformations, hemangioma, arterial anomalies, coarctation of the aorta/cardiac defects, and eye abnormalities (PHACE) syndrome.

Method: A single-center, retrospective natural history study of children with PHACE syndrome. Clinical and sequential neuroimaging data were reviewed to study the characteristics and progression of vasculopathy and calculate the rates of arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) and transient ischemic stroke (TIA).

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Pediatric stroke can result in long-term impairments across attention, functional communication and motor domains. The current paper utilized parent reports of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children 2nd Edition and the Pediatric Stroke Outcome Measure to examine children's social skills and withdrawal behavior within a pediatric stroke population. Using the Canadian Pediatric Stroke Registry at The Hospital for Sick Children, data were analyzed for 312 children with ischemic stroke.

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We performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in 327 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their biological parents. We classified 37 of 327 (11.3%) children as having pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants and 58 of 327 (17.

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Background: Time from stroke onset to hospital arrival determines treatment and impacts outcome. Structural, socioeconomic, and environmental factors are associated with health inequity and onset-to-arrival in adult stroke. We aimed to assess the association between health inequity and onset-to-arrival in a pediatric comprehensive stroke center.

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Perinatal stroke describes a group of focal, vascular brain injuries that occur early in development, often resulting in lifelong disability. Two types of perinatal stroke predominate, arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) and periventricular venous infarction (PVI). Though perinatal stroke is typically considered a motor disorder, other comorbidities commonly exist including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and deficits in executive function.

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Importance: Pediatric large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke has a poor natural history. However, uptake of mechanical thrombectomy is hindered by a lack of clinical trial data in children. A randomized clinical trial is not feasible due to small sample sizes and absence of equipoise.

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Article Synopsis
  • Surgical revascularization can lower long-term stroke risks in children with moyamoya arteriopathy, but increases stroke risk during surgery, highlighting a need for improved perioperative care practices.
  • Experts used a modified Delphi process to gather insights from 30 specialists on effective management strategies for these patients, culminating in 39 consensus statements.
  • Key recommendations include preadmission for high-risk children, mandatory intravenous fluids around surgery, continuous aspirin usage, and rigorous monitoring of vital signs and neurological status post-surgery.
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Perinatal stroke causes most hemiparetic cerebral palsy and cognitive dysfunction may co-occur. Compensatory developmental changes in the intact contralesional hemisphere may mediate residual function and represent targets for neuromodulation. We used morphometry to explore cortical thickness, grey matter volume, gyrification, and sulcal depth of the contralesional hemisphere in children, adolescents, and young adults after perinatal stroke and explored associations with motor, attention, and executive function.

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Childhood stroke occurs from birth to 18 years of age, ranks among the top ten childhood causes of death, and leaves lifelong neurological impairments. Arterial ischemic stroke in infancy and childhood occurs due to arterial occlusion in the brain, resulting in a focal lesion. Our understanding of mechanisms of injury and repair associated with focal injury in the developing brain remains rudimentary.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study analyzed how various factors like age at stroke, lesion size, and socioeconomic status affect neurocognitive functioning in young people who experienced pediatric strokes.
  • Results showed that larger lesion sizes and lower socioeconomic status were linked to poorer outcomes, particularly in areas like attention and executive functioning.
  • Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of understanding these predictors to help clinicians assess and develop better treatment plans for youth recovering from strokes.
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Although many children who experience ischemic stroke come from bilingual backgrounds, it is unclear whether bilingual exposure affects poststroke development. Our research evaluates bilingual and monolingual exposure on linguistic/cognitive development poststroke across 3 stroke-onset groups. An institutional stroke registry and medical charts were used to gather data on 237 children across 3 stroke-onset groups: neonatal, <28 days; first-year, 28 days to 12 months; and childhood, 13 months to 18 years.

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Article Synopsis
  • Children who have had a pediatric stroke are more likely to face behavioral issues, particularly elevated hyperactivity levels, as noted by parents in a study involving 210 children (average age 9).
  • The study utilized evaluations like the BASC-2 and BRIEF to assess externalizing behaviors and executive functions, finding no major differences between those who had perinatal versus childhood strokes.
  • While there was a correlation between externalizing behaviors and executive functions, female gender emerged as a predictor for increased hyperactivity, but ADHD diagnosis rates did not show significant gender differences.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how adolescents who have experienced a stroke adjust to their new reality by using interviews with 14 young stroke survivors aged 13 to 25.
  • Five key themes of adjustment were identified, including processing the stroke experience, facing loss and challenges, recognizing personal changes, finding keys to recovery, and achieving acceptance.
  • The findings indicate that mental health support is crucial for helping young people cope with their emotions and adaptations after a stroke, as they often face academic pressures and shifts in their personal interests and future plans.
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We examined the utility of clinical and research processes in the reanalysis of publicly-funded clinical exome sequencing data in Ontario, Canada. In partnership with eight sites, we recruited 287 families with suspected rare genetic diseases tested between 2014 and 2020. Data from seven laboratories was reanalyzed with the referring clinicians.

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Pediatric stroke is unfortunately not a rare condition. It is associated with severe disability and mortality because of the complexity of potential clinical manifestations, and the resulting delay in seeking care and in diagnosis. Neuroimaging plays an important role in the multidisciplinary response for pediatric stroke patients.

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