Is Diffusion Tensor Imaging a Good Biomarker for Early Parkinson's Disease?

To assess white matter abnormalities in Parkinson's disease (PD). A hundred and thirty-two patients with PD (mean age 60.93 years; average disease duration 7.

Longitudinal evaluation of cerebral and spinal cord damage in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Objective: To evaluate MRI-based parameters as biomarkers of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) progression.

Methods: Twenty-seven patients and 27 controls performed two clinical and MRI acquisitions 8 months apart. ALSFRS-R scale was used to quantify disease severity at both time points.

Transcultural validation of the ALS-CBS Cognitive Section for the Brazilian population.

Cognitive decline (CD) is common but often under-recognized in ALS due to the scarcity of adequate cognitive screening methods. In this scenario, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Cognitive Behavioural Screen (ALS-CBS) is the most investigated instrument and presents high sensitivity to identify CD. Currently, there are no validated cognitive screening tools for ALS patients in the Brazilian population and little is known about the frequency of ALS related CD in the country.

Relation between aerobic fitness and brain structures in amnestic mild cognitive impairment elderly.

Mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a clinical condition, with high risk to develop Alzheimer's disease. Physical exercise may have positive effect on cognition and brain structure in older adults. However, it is still under research whether these influences are true on aMCI subjects with low Ab_42 and high total tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is considered a biomarker for AD.

Nonneurological Involvement in Late-Onset Friedreich Ataxia (LOFA): Exploring the Phenotypes.

Friedreich's ataxia (FDRA) is the most common inherited ataxia worldwide, caused by homozygous GAA expansions in the FXN gene. Patients usually have early onset ataxia, areflexia, Babinski sign, scoliosis and pes cavus, but at least 25 % of cases have atypical phenotypes. Disease begins after the age of 25 in occasional patients (late-onset Friedreich ataxia (LOFA)).

Longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study shows progressive pyramidal and callosal damage in Friedreich's ataxia.

Introduction: Spinal cord and peripheral nerves are classically known to be damaged in Friedreich's ataxia, but the extent of cerebral involvement in the disease and its progression over time are not yet characterized. The aim of this study was to evaluate longitudinally cerebral damage in Friedreich's ataxia.

Methods: We enrolled 31 patients and 40 controls, which were evaluated at baseline and after 1 and 2 years.

Dystonia in Machado-Joseph disease: Clinical profile, therapy and anatomical basis.

Introduction: Dystonia is frequent in Machado-Joseph disease, but several important aspects are not yet defined, such as the detailed clinical profile, response to treatment and anatomical substrate.

Methods: We screened 75 consecutive patients and identified those with dystonia. The Burke-Marsden-Fahn Dystonia Rating Scale was employed to quantify dystonia severity.

Cortical correlates of affective syndrome in dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are prevalent, however their relationship with patterns of cortical atrophy is not fully known. Objectives To compare cortical atrophy's patterns between AD patients and healthy controls; to verify correlations between neuropsychiatric syndromes and cortical atrophy. Method 33 AD patients were examined by Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).

Multimodal MRI-based study in patients with SPG4 mutations.

Mutations in the SPG4 gene (SPG4-HSP) are the most frequent cause of hereditary spastic paraplegia, but the extent of the neurodegeneration related to the disease is not yet known. Therefore, our objective is to identify regions of the central nervous system damaged in patients with SPG4-HSP using a multi-modal neuroimaging approach. In addition, we aimed to identify possible clinical correlates of such damage.

Diffuse decreased gray matter in patients with idiopathic craniocervical dystonia: a voxel-based morphometry study.

Background: Recent studies have addressed the role of structures other than the basal ganglia in the pathophysiology of craniocervical dystonia (CCD). Neuroimaging studies have attempted to identify structural abnormalities in CCD but a clear pattern of alteration has not been established. We performed whole-brain evaluation using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify patterns of gray matter (GM) changes in CCD.