The Interface between Depression and Alzheimer's Disease. A Comprehensive Approach.

Depression and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are frequent interacting diseases in the elderly with a negative impact on the quality of life of patients and caregivers. Late-life depression may be regarded either as an early symptom of AD or a risk factor for AD, depending on the context. This review was focused on the latest developments in the fields of the neurobiological basis and treatment of depression in AD.

Frontal Dysexecutive Syndrome in Brain Tumors: A Pragmatic Insight to an Old Problem.

Brain tumors have long been considered one of the most prevalent causes of potentially reversible cognitive impairment. An accurate underlying cause of cognitive impairment due to brain tumor needs to be evaluated pragmatically. Patterns of cognitive impairment associated with brain tumors depend mainly on their location, lateralization, pathological classification and secondary effects of the treatment, as well as the structural plasticity and diaschisis.

The effects of pregnancy on relapse rates, disability and peripartum outcomes in women with multiple sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Although previous cohort studies of women with multiple sclerosis (MS) yielded a reduction in relapse rate during pregnancy, the effect size has not been quantified in a comprehensive manner. In addition, the effects on disability progression and peripartum outcomes have been controversial. The purpose of this work is to assess the effect of pregnancy on disease activity, and to assess the effects of MS on pregnancy as well.

Apathy and neurocognitive correlates: review from the perspective of 'precision psychiatry'.

Purpose Of Review: From the perspective of motivated behaviour and the so-called 'precision psychiatry', we try to identify recent advances in the neurocognitive and biological correlates of apathy.

Recent Findings: New evidence supports the notion that apathy is a common transdiagnostic and heterogeneous clinical syndrome, now conceptualized as a reduction in 'goal-directed' activity. Similarly, abundant evidence has been found related to neurocognitive correlates of apathy and the associations between clinical apathy and the processes primarily responsible for mediating motivational drive and effort-based decision making.

The Risk of Symptomatic Intracranial Hemorrhage after Thrombolysis for Acute Stroke: Current Concepts and Perspectives.

Background: Thrombolysis is the standard of treatment for acute ischemic stroke, with a time window of up to 4½ h from stroke onset. Despite the long experience with the use of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator and the adherence to protocols symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH) may occur in around 6% of cases, with high-mortality rate and poor-functional outcomes. Many patients are excluded from thrombolysis on the basis of an evaluation of known risk factors, but there are other less known factors involved.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and brain volumetry in mild cognitive impairment. A prospective study.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and brain volumetry in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to predict conversion to probable Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Forty-eight patients fulfilling the criteria of amnestic MCI who underwent a conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) followed by MRS, and T1-3D on 1.5 Tesla MR unit.

Cerebellar vermis: a vulnerable location of remote brain haemorrhages after thrombolysis for ischaemic stroke.

Extra-ischaemic (remote) brain heamorrhages after thrombolysis for ischaemic stroke occur in less than 3 % of treated patients, but it worsens prognosis. Little attention has been paid to the location of the haematomas. Among 12 patients with remote brain haemorrhage after thrombolysis, we report three patients with haemorrhage in the cerebellar vermis (25 %), with poor outcome.

Retinal nerve fiber layer and macular thickness in patients with schizophrenia: Influence of recent illness episodes.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been recently used to investigate neuropsychiatric disorders. We aimed to study retinal OCT measures of patients with schizophrenia with respect to healthy controls, and to evaluate possible differences between recent illness episode (RIE) and non-recent illness episode (NRIE) patients. Thirty schizophrenia patients were classified as RIE (n=10) or NRIE (n=20), and compared with 30 matched controls.

Higher glutamate+glutamine and reduction of N-acetylaspartate in posterior cingulate according to age range in patients with cognitive impairment and/or pain.

Rationale And Objectives: The aim of the study was to analyze 1) whether the metabolite levels in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) are different in healthy individuals compared to a group of patients with cognitive impairment and/or pain and 2) whether there exists a correlation between brain metabolites and the age of a patient.

Materials And Methods: Two hundred seven patients with cognitive impairment and/or pain (66 mild cognitive impairment, 54 fibromyalgia, 36 Alzheimer disease, 33 interictal migraine, 10 somatization disorder, and 8 after trigeminal neuralgia, and 193 healthy participants adjusted for gender and age. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the brain was performed with the voxel placed in the ventral PCC and postprocessed with LCModel (Stephen Provencher, Oakville, Ontario, Canada).

Retinal alterations in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: an optical coherence tomography study.

Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFL) measured by means of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has been used as a marker not only of ophthalmologic diseases but also of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The purpose of this work was to demonstrate that patients with amnestic MCI show an intermediate RNFL thickness between normality and AD, and a macular volume and thickness as well. In a cross-sectional study we consecutively recruited 18 patients with AD, 21 with MCI, and 41 healthy controls.

Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay: MR and Clinical Results in Lower-Limb Musculature.

Objective: Peripheral neuropathy is a cardinal manifestation of the autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix- Saguenay (ARSACS), although its type of neuromuscular involvement has not been definitely established, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays an important role in the assessment of muscle and nerve diseases. The objective of this work has been to define the patterns of muscle weakness and of abnormal muscular MRI in ARSACS.

Patients And Methods: Five patients with a molecular diagnosis of ARSACS, aged 39 to 59 years, whose electrophysiological findings were consistent with an axonal neuropathy of distal distribution superimposed on a developmental defect of myelinization, underwent neurological and MRI lower-limb examinations.

The predictive value of the memory impairment screen in patients with subjective memory complaints: a prospective study.

Objective: The use of biomarkers in early Alzheimer's disease detection is growing. However, it is not clear whether sophisticated biomarker testing is more efficient than neuropsychological tests focused on memory. The goal of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of the Memory Impairment Screen (MIS), a simple and brief memory test, in elderly subjects with subjective memory loss.

Longitudinal magnetic resonance spectroscopy as marker of cognitive deterioration in mild cognitive impairment.

Objective: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is highly predictive of Alzheimer's disease but the pace of deterioration varies across patients. We hypothesize that magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) could be a useful surrogate marker to monitor progression of cognitive impairment in patients with amnestic MCI.

Methods: A cohort of patients with amnestic MCI underwent single-voxel (1)H-MRS at baseline and at 2-year follow-up.

Magnetic resonance imaging based clinical research in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in elderly people in western countries. However important goals are unmet in the issue of early diagnosis and the development of new drugs for treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and volumetry of the medial temporal lobe structures are useful tools for diagnosis.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the prediction of early conversion from amnestic mild cognitive impairment to dementia: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of an amnestic type is a common condition in older people and highly predictive of Alzheimer's disease (AD). To date, there is no clear consensus regarding the best antecedent biomarker to predict early conversion to AD.

Objective: The aim of the study is to demonstrate that (1)H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the brain in MCI patients may predict early conversion to dementia within the 2-year period after baseline assessment.

New findings in the ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay.

The aim of the study was to enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of the ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay, based on the findings presented herein. Five patients with a molecular diagnosis of this disease underwent clinical, radiological, ophthalmologic and electrophysiological examinations. Five novel mutations, which included nonsense and missense variants, were identified, with these resulting in milder phenotypes.

Brain glutamate levels are decreased in Alzheimer's disease: a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Glutamate (Glu) is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS) and is involved in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in which there is an increased excitotoxicity. Biochemical composition of living tissues including the levels of Glu was analyzed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Previous reports point to decreased levels of Glu in AD.

Is the ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay a developmental disease?

The autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) is considered a neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in the SACS gene, located on chromosome 13q12.12. It is a syndrome that comprises skeletal, retinal and neurological manifestations, among which feature spasticity, cerebellar ataxia and peripheral neuropathy.

Correlation of findings in advanced MRI techniques with global severity scales in patients with Parkinson disease.

Rationale And Objectives: This work is aimed at determining whether magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) may correlate with disease severity in a series of Parkinson disease (PD) patients.

Materials And Methods: We recruited a consecutive sample of 39 PD patients in several stages of the disease according to Hoehn and Yahr scale. There were 22 men, and the mean age was 74.