Neuropsychiatric symptoms and brain morphology in patients with mild cognitive impairment, cerebrovascular disease and Parkinson disease: A cross sectional and longitudinal study.

Objectives: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) increase risk of developing dementia and are linked to various neurodegenerative conditions, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI due to Alzheimer's disease [AD]), cerebrovascular disease (CVD), and Parkinson's disease (PD). We explored the structural neural correlates of NPS cross-sectionally and longitudinally across various neurodegenerative diagnoses.

Methods: The study included individuals with MCI due to AD, (n = 74), CVD (n = 143), and PD (n = 137) at baseline, and at 2-years follow-up (MCI due to AD, n = 37, CVD n = 103, and PD n = 84).

White matter hyperintensities and smaller cortical thickness are associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are a core feature of most neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases. White matter hyperintensities and brain atrophy have been implicated in NPS. We aimed to investigate the relative contribution of white matter hyperintensities and cortical thickness to NPS in participants across neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Cognitive correlates of antisaccade behaviour across multiple neurodegenerative diseases.

Oculomotor tasks generate a potential wealth of behavioural biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. Overlap between oculomotor and disease-impaired circuitry reveals the location and severity of disease processes via saccade parameters measured from eye movement tasks such as prosaccade and antisaccade. Existing studies typically examine few saccade parameters in single diseases, using multiple separate neuropsychological test scores to relate oculomotor behaviour to cognition; however, this approach produces inconsistent, ungeneralizable results and fails to consider the cognitive heterogeneity of these diseases.

Neuropsychiatric Symptom Burden across Neurodegenerative Disorders and its Association with Function.

Objective: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are prevalent in neurodegenerative disorders, however, their frequency and impact on function across different disorders is not well understood. We compared the frequency and severity of NPS across Alzheimer's disease (AD) (either with mild cognitive impairment or dementia), Cerebrovascular disease (CVD), Parkinson's disease (PD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and explored the association between NPS burden and function.

Methods: We obtained data from Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI) that included following cohorts: AD ( = 111), CVD ( = 148), PD ( = 136), FTD ( = 50) and ALS ( = 36).

Characteristics of the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative cohort.

Introduction: Understanding synergies between neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular pathologies that modify dementia presentation represents an important knowledge gap.

Methods: This multi-site, longitudinal, observational cohort study recruited participants across prevalent neurodegenerative diseases and cerebrovascular disease and assessed participants comprehensively across modalities. We describe univariate and multivariate baseline features of the cohort and summarize recruitment, data collection, and curation processes.

Targeted copy number variant identification across the neurodegenerative disease spectrum.

Background: Although genetic factors are known to contribute to neurodegenerative disease susceptibility, there remains a large amount of heritability unaccounted for across the diagnoses. Copy number variants (CNVs) contribute to these phenotypes, but their presence and influence on disease state remains relatively understudied.

Methods: Here, we applied a depth of coverage approach to detect CNVs in 80 genes previously associated with neurodegenerative disease within participants of the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (n = 519).

Investigating the contribution of white matter hyperintensities and cortical thickness to empathy in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Change in empathy is an increasingly recognised symptom of neurodegenerative diseases and contributes to caregiver burden and patient distress. Empathy impairment has been associated with brain atrophy but its relationship to white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is unknown. We aimed to investigate the relationships amongst WMH, brain atrophy, and empathy deficits in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Contribution of rare variant associations to neurodegenerative disease presentation.

Genetic factors contribute to neurodegenerative diseases, with high heritability estimates across diagnoses; however, a large portion of the genetic influence remains poorly understood. Many previous studies have attempted to fill the gaps by performing linkage analyses and association studies in individual disease cohorts, but have failed to consider the clinical and pathological overlap observed across neurodegenerative diseases and the potential for genetic overlap between the phenotypes. Here, we leveraged rare variant association analyses (RVAAs) to elucidate the genetic overlap among multiple neurodegenerative diagnoses, including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), mild cognitive impairment, and Parkinson's disease (PD), as well as cerebrovascular disease, using the data generated with a custom-designed neurodegenerative disease gene panel in the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI).

The prevalence of Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder. We sought to synthesize studies on the prevalence of PD to obtain an overall view of how the prevalence of this disease varies by age, by sex, and by geographic location. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for epidemiological studies of PD from 1985 to 2010.

Extrastriatal dopaminergic dysfunction in tourette syndrome.

Objective: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder presenting with tics and a constellation of nonmotor symptoms that includes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and impulse control disorders. Accumulated evidence from pharmacological trials and postmortem analyses suggests that abnormalities of dopaminergic neurotransmission play a key role in the pathogenesis of TS. A substantial body of evidence has also accrued to implicate regions outside the striatum in the generation of tics.

Neurobiological basis of serotonin-dopamine antagonists in the treatment of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a heritable neuropsychiatric disorder that presents in childhood with a constellation of motor and non-motor symptoms. The defining feature of the disorder is the presence of brief, stereotyped, motor or vocal behaviours called tics. Although tics are themselves voluntary, they are typically performed secondary to involuntary sensory symptoms or irresistible urges.

Coital hemorrhage of an arteriovenous malformation after premedication with tadalafil (Cialis).

Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE 5) inhibitors are widely used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. However, the results on the cerebral vasculature are unknown. Several cases of intraparenchymal hemorrhage in the setting of PDE 5 inhibitor use have been reported.

EEG changes in a patient with steroid-responsive encephalopathy associated with antibodies to thyroperoxidase (SREAT, Hashimoto's encephalopathy).

A 56-year-old woman presented with an acute confusional state and moderate global aphasia. Thyroperoxidase antibody level was elevated (3,890 IU/mL) and SREAT was diagnosed. MRI findings were normal.