Vision transformer-equipped Convolutional Neural Networks for automated Alzheimer's disease diagnosis using 3D MRI scans.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative ailment that is becoming increasingly common, making it a major worldwide health concern. Effective care depends on an early and correct diagnosis, but traditional diagnostic techniques are frequently constrained by subjectivity and expensive costs. This study proposes a novel Vision Transformer-equipped Convolutional Neural Networks (VECNN) that uses three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging to improve diagnosis accuracy.

Advancing healthcare through multimodal data fusion: a comprehensive review of techniques and applications.

With the increasing availability of diverse healthcare data sources, such as medical images and electronic health records, there is a growing need to effectively integrate and fuse this multimodal data for comprehensive analysis and decision-making. However, despite its potential, multimodal data fusion in healthcare remains limited. This review paper provides an overview of existing literature on multimodal data fusion in healthcare, covering 69 relevant works published between 2018 and 2024.

Elevated serum IGFBP-1 levels correlate with cognitive deficits in treatment-resistant and chronic medicated schizophrenia patients.

Background: Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder with diverse cognitive impairments. Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 (IGFBP-1), a ubiquitous negative regulator of IGF signaling, crosses the blood-brain barrier after peripheral synthesis. Given the crucial role of IGF signaling in cognitive function, we reasoned that altered serum IGFBP-1 concentrations might be associated with cognitive impairments in schizophrenia.

Mitochondrial Protein TAMM41 Modulates Depressive-like Behaviors.

Several lines of evidence have highlighted the crucial role of mitochondria-based therapy in depression. However, there are still less mitochondrial targets for the depression treatment. TAM41 mitochondrial translocator assembly and maintenance homolog (TAMM41) is a mitochondrial inner membrane protein for maintaining mitochondrial function, which is tightly related to many brain diseases including Alzheimer's diseases and epilepsy.

Systemic inflammatory biomarkers in Schizophrenia are changed by ECT administration and related to the treatment efficacy.

Immune inflammation has long been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Despite as a rapid and effective physical therapy, the role of immune inflammation in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for schizophrenia remains elusive. The neutrophils to lymphocytes (NLR), platelets to monocytes (PLR) and monocytes to lymphocytes (MLR) are inexpensive and accessible biomarkers of systemic inflammation.

Variations of plasma oxidative stress levels in male patients with chronic schizophrenia. Correlations with psychopathology and matrix metalloproteinase-9: a case-control study.

Background: Accumulating evidence has indicated that oxidative stress (OS) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) may contribute to the mechanism of schizophrenia. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the associations of OS parameters and MMP-9 levels with psychopathological symptoms in male chronic schizophrenia patients.

Methods: This study was an observational, cross-sectional, retrospective case-control study.

Altered brain functional networks in schizophrenia with persistent negative symptoms: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.

Objective: To investigate brain structural and functional characteristics of three brain functional networks including default mode network (DMN), central executive network (CEN), and salience network (SN) in persistent negative symptoms (PNS) patients.

Methods: We performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of functional connectivity (FC) studies and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies to detect specific structural and functional alterations of brain networks between PNS patients and healthy controls.

Results: Seventeen VBM studies and twenty FC studies were included.

Causal role of immune cells in schizophrenia: Mendelian randomization (MR) study.

Background: Complex immune-brain interactions that affect neural development, survival and function might have causal and therapeutic implications for psychiatric illnesses. However, previous studies examining the association between immune inflammation and schizophrenia (SCZ) have yielded inconsistent findings.

Methods: Comprehensive two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to determine the causal association between immune cell signatures and SCZ in this study.

Empathy deficit in male patients with schizophrenia and its relationships with impulsivity and premeditated violence.

Objective: To explore the pattern of empathy characteristics in male patients with schizophrenia (SCH) and to examine whether empathy deficit is associated with impulsivity and premeditated violence.

Methods: One hundred and fourteen male SCH patients were enrolled in this study. The demographic data of all patients were collected and the subjects were divided into two groups, namely, the violent group, including 60 cases, and the non-violent group, comprising 54 cases, according to the Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS).

The association between inflammation and kynurenine pathway metabolites in electroconvulsive therapy for schizophrenia: Implications for clinical efficacy.

The kynurenine pathway (KP) of tryptophan has been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and its interaction with the immune system has been suggested to play a role. In this study, 28 schizophrenia patients and 25 healthy controls were recruited and divided into different inflammatory subgroups using a two-step recursive clustering analysis. Cytokine gene expression and plasma KP metabolites were measured before, during and after treatment.

A neuromarker for deficit syndrome in schizophrenia from a combination of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Aim: Deficit schizophrenia (DS), defined by primary and enduring negative symptoms, has been proposed as a promising homogeneous subtype of schizophrenia. It has been demonstrated that unimodal neuroimaging characteristics of DS were different from non-deficit schizophrenia (NDS), however, whether multimodal-based neuroimaging features could identify deficit syndrome remains to be determined.

Methods: Functional and structural multimodal magnetic resonance imaging of DS, NDS and healthy controls were scanned.

The motivation and pleasure deficits but not expressivity affects social functioning through cognitive function in male patients with schizophrenia: A structural equation model.

Objective: This study aims to compare cognitive function and social functioning in male schizophrenia patients with deficit syndrome (DS) and non-DS, and to explore the associations among two different dimensions of negative symptoms (motivation and pleasure (MAP) and expressivity (EXP) deficits), cognitive function and social functioning base on a Structural Equation Model (SEM).

Methods: The current study enrolled 161 male schizophrenia patients and 120 age- and education- matched healthy controls. The DS and non-DS group were categorized by the Chinese version of Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome (SDS).

Abnormal functional connectivity of the nucleus accumbens subregions mediates the association between anhedonia and major depressive disorder.

Background: The nucleus accumbens (Nac) is a crucial brain region in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with anhedonia. However, the relationship between the functional imaging characteristics of Nac subregions and anhedonia remains unclear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the role of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the Nac subregions between MDD and anhedonia.

The Predictive Value of Monocyte/High-Density Lipoprotein Ratio (MHR) and Positive Symptom Scores for Aggression in Patients with Schizophrenia.

: Schizophrenia with aggression often has an inflammatory abnormality. The monocyte/high-density lipoprotein ratio (MHR), neutrophil/high-density lipoprotein ratio (NHR), platelet/high-density lipoprotein ratio (PHR) and lymphocyte/high-density lipoprotein ratio (LHR) have lately been examined as novel markers for the inflammatory response. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between these new inflammatory biomarkers and aggression in schizophrenia patients.

The Role of Two Factors of Negative Symptoms and Cognition on Social Functioning in Male Patients with Schizophrenia: A Mediator Model.

Objective: This study aims to compare the cognitive function and social functioning in male patients with deficit syndrome (DS) and non-DS, and to explore whether cognitive function serves as a mediator in the relationship between the two factors of negative symptoms (motivation and pleasure (MAP) and expressivity (EXP) deficits, and social functioning in schizophrenia patients.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-six male patients with schizophrenia and 109 age- and education-matched normal controls were enrolled in the current study. The Chinese version of a Schedule for Deficit Syndrome (SDS) was used for DS and non-DS categorization.

Identifying risk factors to predict violent behaviour in community patients with severe mental disorders: A retrospective study of 5277 patients in China.

Background: Patients with Severe Mental Disorders (SMD) have a higher risk of violent behaviour than the general population. The study aimed to investigate the predictive factors for the occurrence of violent behaviour in community SMD patients.

Methods: The cases and follow-up data were collected from SMD patient Information Management system in Jiangning District, Jiangsu Province.

Serum Metabolic Profile in Schizophrenia Patients With Antipsychotic-Induced Constipation and Its relationship With Gut Microbiome.

Background And Hypothesis: Antipsychotics (APs), the cornerstone of schizophrenia treatment, confer a relatively high risk of constipation. However, the mechanisms underpinning AP-induced constipation are poorly understood. Thus, we hypothesized that (1) schizophrenia patients with AP-induced constipation have distinct metabolic patterns; (2) there is more than one mechanism at play in producing this adverse drug effect; and (3) AP-associated changes in the gut microbiome are related to the altered metabolic profiles.

Network connectivity between benevolent childhood experiences and uncertainty stress among Chinese university students.

Background: The purpose of this study was to explore the association between benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) and uncertainty stress among Chinese university students by network analysis.

Methods: A total of 1,830 university students from three Chinese cities were recruited. Respondents' BCEs and uncertainty stress were self-reported using online questionnaire.

Meta-analysis of structural and functional brain abnormalities in schizophrenia with persistent negative symptoms using activation likelihood estimation.

Background: Persistent negative symptoms (PNS) include both primary and secondary negative symptoms that persist after adequate treatment, and represent an unmet therapeutic need. Published magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evidence of structural and resting-state functional brain abnormalities in schizophrenia with PNS has been inconsistent. Thus, the purpose of this meta-analysis is to identify abnormalities in structural and functional brain regions in patients with PNS compared to healthy controls.

Exosomes in schizophrenia: Pathophysiological mechanisms, biomarkers, and therapeutic targets.

While schizophrenia (SCZ) is a devastating psychiatric disorder that detrimentally affects a significant portion of the worldwide population, its diagnosis is traditionally based on a relatively subjective assessment of current symptoms and medical history, devoid of an objective diagnostic modality. Antipsychotic medications are commonly used in the treatment of SCZ; however, some patients have low remission rates or forsake treatment due to the associated multiple side effects, resulting in recurrent episodes of the disease and poor prognosis. These situations imply that the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of SCZ need to be improved to increase the odds of a better outcome.

Effects of expressive art therapy on health status of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a community-based cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background And Objective: This study was performed to investigate the effect of expressive art therapy (EAT) on the health status of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Methods: This community-based cluster randomized controlled trial involved patients with COPD from 16 communities in China. Participants received either EAT plus usual care (UC) or UC only.