Publications by authors named "Sara Carta"
West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurotropic mosquito-borne orthoflavivirus, representing a relevant public health threat. Identification of biomarkers that would predict the course of WNV infection is of interest for the early identification of patients at risk and for supporting decisions on therapeutic interventions. In this study, serum levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (sGFAP) and neurofilament light chain (sNfL), which are markers of brain tissue damage and inflammation, were analysed in 103 subjects with laboratory-confirmed WNV infection, comprising 13 asymptomatic blood donors, 23 with WN fever (WNF), 50 with encephalitis/meningoencephalitis (E/ME) and 17 with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection increases the risk of having multiple sclerosis (MS). Data on adults with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) are lacking.
Objective: To compare EBV serological status in MOGAD versus MS.
Hearing impairment alters the sound input received by the human auditory system, reducing speech comprehension in noisy multi-talker auditory scenes. Despite such difficulties, neural signals were shown to encode the attended speech envelope more reliably than the envelope of ignored sounds, reflecting the intention of listeners with hearing impairment (HI). This result raises an important question: What speech-processing stage could reflect the difficulty in attentional selection, if not envelope tracking? Here, we use scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to test the hypothesis that the neural encoding of phonological information (i.
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- The study applied the 2022 international consensus criteria for optic neuritis (ICON) to 160 patients with acute optic neuritis to assess its effectiveness in classification.
- About 50% of the patients were classified as definite optic neuritis, while 43% were not classified as having ON, mainly due to the absence of critical symptoms like relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD) and dyschromatopsia.
- The adjusted criteria led to a higher classification of 79% of patients as having optic neuritis, highlighting the importance of thorough examinations for accurate diagnosis.*
Article Synopsis
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can lead to autoimmune neurological issues, including movement disorders (MD), which are rare but potentially serious side effects of cancer treatment.
- A study reviewed 26 articles involving 28 patients who experienced MDs as immune-related adverse events (irAEs) after receiving ICIs, revealing varied clinical presentations and often occurring alongside other irAEs.
- Most cases showed signs of inflammation in cerebrospinal fluid, and treatment with steroids or stopping ICIs generally helped, though some patients faced relapses or severe outcomes.
Serum Biomarker Profiles Discriminate AQP4 Seropositive and Double Seronegative Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder.
Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm
January 2024
Background And Objectives: Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) serum levels are useful to define disease activity in different neurologic conditions. These biomarkers are increased in patients with aquaporin-4 antibody-positive NMOSD (AQP4+NMOSD) during clinical attacks suggesting a concomitant axonal and glial damage. However, there are contradictory results in double seronegative NMOSD (DS-NMOSD).
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- Differentiating neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) from similar conditions is essential to prevent misdiagnosis, particularly without the presence of aquaporin-4-IgG.* -
- A systematic review of 68 cases identified various non-demyelinating disorders that were misdiagnosed as NMOSD, with 82% of patients not meeting the 2015 diagnostic criteria; common symptoms included myelopathy and optic neuropathy.* -
- Key red flags for misdiagnosis included absence of cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, lack of response to immunotherapy, progressive disease course, and no gadolinium enhancement in MRI scans.*
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the relationship between myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody associated disease (MOGAD) and tumors, finding only 1% of MOGAD patients had a neoplasm within 2 years of disease onset.
- It reports on a total of 17 cases (including two from their cohort and 15 from literature), highlighting that most patients are around 39 years old with varied clinical presentations (like ADEM and optic neuritis).
- The findings suggest MOG antibodies have a low association with paraneoplastic neurological syndromes, with a wide range of tumor types observed and a high rate of treatment improvement in patients.
Background And Purpose: Longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (LETM) associated with aquaporin-4 autoantibodies (AQP4-IgG) can cause severe disability. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are critical to prevent relapses. A novel score is described based on clinical and neuroimaging characteristics that predicts AQP4-IgG positivity in patients with LETM.
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- Optic neuritis (ON) often signals the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS) and other related disorders, with high-dose corticosteroids recommended for treatment but not adequately studied regarding timing and patient antibodies.
- The Acute Optic Neuritis Network (ACON) aims to investigate how the timing of corticosteroid treatment affects visual outcomes 6 months post-ON onset by enrolling patients who present within 30 days of initial symptoms.
- The study will collect extensive data on various ON subtypes and factors like visual acuity, imaging results, and patient-reported outcomes from 28 hospitals globally, targeting a recruitment of 200 patients across different ON classifications.
Anti-Argonaute antibodies as a potential biomarker in NMOSD.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
September 2023
Article Synopsis
- * A study tested 104 patients for these autoantibodies along with anti-Argonaute antibodies (Ago-Abs), finding Ago-Abs in 7 patients (6.7%).
- * The presence of Ago-Abs is associated with a severe course of disease and myelitis symptoms, indicating they may serve as a unique biomarker for NMOSD in some patients.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the significance of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody positivity in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for diagnosing MOG antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), analyzing data from 11 medical centers.
- A total of 255 patients were evaluated, with 56.8% showing MOG-Abs in both serum and CSF, while others had MOG-Abs present in either serum or CSF only.
- Results indicated that patients with MOG-Abs positive in both serum and CSF experienced worse disability and more frequent motor, sensory, and sphincter symptoms compared to those with only serum positivity.
Background: Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibodies (MOG-Abs) may rarely be associated with peripheral nervous system involvement. We aimed to test MOG-Abs in patients with undetermined peripheral neuropathy (PN).
Methods: Consecutive patients with available sural nerve biopsy and paired serum sample were retrospectively identified (January, 1st 2016-November, 1st 2021) and tested for MOG-Abs with live cell-based assay (CBA).
Article Synopsis
- Linguistic phrases in sentences are automatically tracked by the brain, even though there is no direct acoustic marker in the speech signal.
- Previous studies have only compared situations with linguistic information versus those without, leaving it unclear whether phrase tracking is driven by language content or simply by attention to matching timescales.
- Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), this study found stronger tracking of phrasal rates in the brain during sentence processing, and that the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) plays a key role in integrating information across different perceptual tasks.
Background: Aquaporin-4 IgG seropositive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (AQP4-IgG NMOSD) might occur in association with cancer. According to diagnostic criteria, a probable paraneoplastic NMOSD can be diagnosed only in patients with isolated myelitis and adenocarcinoma or tumors expressing AQP4. The aim of this study was to explore the features of paraneoplastic NMOSD through a data-driven approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 67-years-old woman developed subacute oculomotor nerve palsy and cerebellar gait instability while receiving avelumab as immunotherapy for Merkel cell carcinoma. Brain MRI revealed oculomotor nerve T2/FLAIR hyperintensity and contrast enhancement, CSF cell number and protein concentration were slightly increased. Antibodies against intracellular and surface antigens were excluded through commercial assays, but home-made immunohistochemistry on rat brain sections showed a "neurofilament-like" pattern.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOligoclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) bands (OCBs) are a useful diagnostic tool to detect a central humoral response. In particular, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-restricted OCBs represent a hallmark of multiple sclerosis (MS), where they can be detected in > 90% of cases and support its diagnosis, although a specific causative agent inducing B cell activation has not yet been identified. The determination of intrathecal IgM, including IgM/lipid-specific IgM OCBs, on the other hand, seems to be of prognostic relevance and is associated with a more aggressive disease course.
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- The study investigates the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-associated disorder (MOGAD), aiming to understand the pandemic's impact on this condition.
- Researchers analyzed SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels in newly diagnosed MOGAD patients compared to controls, finding a higher prevalence of antibodies in MOGAD patients but with no significant statistical difference.
- The data shows an increase in diagnosed MOGAD cases over the past three years, suggesting that COVID-19 might act as a trigger for these inflammatory disorders.
The persistence of neurological symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as the presence of late axonal damage, is still unknown. We performed extensive systemic and neurological follow-up evaluations in 107 out of 193 consecutive patients admitted to the COVID-19 medical unit, University Hospital of Verona, Italy between March and June 2020. We analysed serum neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in all cases including a subgroup (n = 29) of patients with available onset samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNervous system: subclinical target of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
September 2020
Article Synopsis
- Diagnosing peripheral neuropathies is difficult, so this study examines the use of sural nerve biopsy and serum neurofilament light chain levels (NfL) as biomarkers for axonal damage.
- The study involved 82 patients, mostly older adults, revealing that neuropathy often starts slowly, primarily affects the lower limbs, and presents with more sensory than motor symptoms; various neuropathological patterns were identified.
- Although nerve biopsy provided a definitive diagnosis in some cases, there was a correlation between elevated serum NfL levels and active axonal degeneration, suggesting that NfL could be a valuable, accessible biomarker for these conditions.