Use of clonazepam in REM sleep behavior disorder is not associated with fall-related injuries.

Schenck CH, Zucconi M, Ferri R. Use of clonazepam in REM sleep behavior disorder is not associated with fall-related injuries. .

REM Sleep EEG Instability in REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and Clonazepam Effects.

Study Objectives: We aimed to analyze quantitatively rapid eye movement (REM) sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) in controls, drug-naïve idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder patients (iRBD), and iRBD patients treated with clonazepam.

Methods: Twenty-nine drug-naïve iRBD patients (mean age 68.2 years), 14 iRBD patients under chronic clonazepam therapy (mean age 66.

Muscle Activity During Sleep in Human Subjects, Rats, and Mice: Towards Translational Models of REM Sleep Without Atonia.

Study Objectives: Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep without atonia (RSWA) is a marker of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and is common in narcolepsy. Available techniques for electromyogram (EMG) analysis are species-specific, limiting translational research on RSWA. We developed an automated technique based on distributions of normalized EMG values (DNE) to overcome this limitation.

Future MRI tools in multiple sclerosis.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is extremely sensitive in detecting multiple sclerosis (MS)-related abnormalities. As a consequence, it has become an established tool to diagnose the disease and to monitor its evolution. In patients at presentation with clinically isolated syndromes suggestive of MS, MRI has been formally included in the diagnostic work up and ad hoc criteria have been proposed and are updated on a regular basis.

Overcoming the clinical-MR imaging paradox of multiple sclerosis: MR imaging data assessed with a random forest approach.

Background And Purpose: In MS, the relation between clinical and MR imaging measures is still suboptimal. We assessed the correlation of disability and specific impairment of the clinical functional system with overall and regional CNS damage in a large cohort of patients with MS with different clinical phenotypes by using a random forest approach.

Materials And Methods: Brain conventional MR imaging and DTI were performed in 172 patients with MS and 46 controls.

Multicenter stability of diffusion tensor imaging measures: a European clinical and physical phantom study.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) detects white matter damage in neuro-psychiatric disorders, but data on reliability of DTI measures across more than two scanners are still missing. In this study we assessed multicenter reproducibility of DTI acquisitions based on a physical phantom as well as brain scans across 16 scanners. In addition, we performed DTI scans in a group of 26 patients with clinically probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 12 healthy elderly controls at one single center.

MR imaging of multiple sclerosis.

Owing to its ability to depict the pathologic features of multiple sclerosis (MS) in exquisite detail, conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has become an established tool in the diagnosis of this disease and in monitoring its evolution. MR imaging has been formally included in the diagnostic work-up of patients who present with a clinically isolated syndrome suggestive of MS, and ad hoc diagnostic criteria have been proposed and are updated on a regular basis. In patients with established MS and in those participating in treatment trials, examinations performed with conventional MR pulse sequences provide objective measures to monitor disease activity and progression; however, they have a limited prognostic role.

Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging tractography in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Background: Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging tractography allows quantification of in vivo white matter tract damage.

Methods: Using tractography, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging metrics were obtained from the superior and middle cerebellar peduncles and major cerebral white matter tracts in 5 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy and 13 controls.

Results: Patients showed severe intrinsic damage to the superior cerebellar peduncle, corpus callosum, and cingulum bilaterally.

Relationship between brain MRI lesion load and short-term disease evolution in non-disabling MS: a large-scale, multicentre study.

Background And Objectives: We evaluated clinical and conventional MRI features of a large population of patients with non-disabling MS to identify potential markers of a benign disease course.

Methods: In seven MAGNIMS centres we retrospectively identified 182 patients with benign (B) MS (EDSS score ≤ 3.0, disease duration ≥ 15 years) and 187 patients with non-disabling relapsing-remitting MS (NDRRMS) (Expanded Disability Status Scale score ≤ 3.

The contribution of MRI in assessing cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis.

Cognitive impairment affects a large proportion of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and has a profound impact on their daily-life activities. Improving the knowledge of the pathophysiology of cognitive impairment in MS and of the mechanisms responsible for its evolution over time might contribute to development of better outcome measures and targets for innovative treatment strategies. Due to their ability to detect MS-related abnormalities, MRI techniques are a valuable tool to achieve these goals.

Intracortical lesions: relevance for new MRI diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To generate and validate new MRI diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS) taking into account not only white matter lesions but also intracortical lesions (ICLs).

Methods: Brain double inversion recovery and brain and cord T2- and postcontrast T1-weighted scans were acquired in a training (80 patients with clinically isolated syndromes [CIS], median follow-up = 55.3 months) and a validation (39 patients with CIS, median follow-up = 28.

Thalamic damage and long-term progression of disability in multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To estimate the relative contributions of baseline thalamic atrophy and abnormalities shown at magnetization transfer (MT) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, as well as their 12-month changes, in predicting accumulation of disability in a relatively large sample of patients with relapse-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) during an 8-year period.

Materials And Methods: The study was conducted with approval of the institutional review board. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant.

MRI and cognition in multiple sclerosis.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have contributed to ameliorate the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the accumulation of cognitive impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis. Earlier studies demonstrated a relationship of the location of T2-visible lesions in critical brain regions and atrophy of several brain compartments with the severity of cognitive impairment in these patients. More recently, the development of new postprocessing approaches and the application of quantitative MR techniques for the assessment of structural disease-related damage in the brain normal-appearing white matter and gray matter resulted in a better understanding of the factors associated with the onset and development of deficits of several cognitive domains.

The in vivo distribution of brain tissue loss in Richardson's syndrome and PSP-parkinsonism: a VBM-DARTEL study.

In this study, we wished to test, using magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry (VBM), whether specific cortical and subcortical patterns of brain grey (GM) and white matter (WM) tissue loss can be detected in patients with Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS) and progressive supranuclear palsy-parkinsonism (PSP-P), and possibly account for their clinical heterogeneity. Twenty patients with PSP, classified as PSP-RS (10 patients) or PSP-P (10 patients), and 24 healthy controls were studied. The Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM5) and the Diffeomorphic Anatomical Registration using Exponentiated Lie algebra method were used to perform a VBM analysis.

The brain functional networks associated to human and animal suffering differ among omnivores, vegetarians and vegans.

Empathy and affective appraisals for conspecifics are among the hallmarks of social interaction. Using functional MRI, we hypothesized that vegetarians and vegans, who made their feeding choice for ethical reasons, might show brain responses to conditions of suffering involving humans or animals different from omnivores. We recruited 20 omnivore subjects, 19 vegetarians, and 21 vegans.

Intercenter differences in diffusion tensor MRI acquisition.

Purpose: To assess the effect on diffusion tensor (DT) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of acquiring data with different scanners.

Materials And Methods: Forty-four healthy controls and 36 multiple sclerosis patients with low disability were studied using eight MR scanners with acquisition protocols that were as close to a standard protocol as possible. Between 7 and 13 subjects were studied in each center.

Assessment of brain white matter fiber bundle atrophy in patients with Friedreich ataxia.

Purpose: To investigate in vivo severity and topographic distribution of brain white matter (WM) fiber bundle atrophy in patients with Friedreich ataxia, a condition characterized by an uneven involvement of brain WM, and to correlate such findings with the clinical status of the patients.

Materials And Methods: The study was conducted with institutional review board approval. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant.

Effects of aging on mindreading ability through the eyes: an fMRI study.

Theory of Mind--ToM, the capacity to understand one's own and other people's mental states and to refer to them to foresee and explain the behaviour--relies upon a circumscribed neural system: the posterior end of the superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the adjacent temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), the temporal pole (TP), the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the adjacent paracingulate cortex. To our knowledge, the neural basis of mentalizing has not yet been studied in a developmental perspective covering old age, so the aim of this work is to compare the neural basis of a specific aspect of ToM, the mindreading ability through the eyes, in healthy young and old subjects. Two groups of healthy adults (young: 25.

Motor learning in healthy humans is associated to gray matter changes: a tensor-based morphometry study.

We used tensor-based morphometry (TBM) to: 1) map gray matter (GM) volume changes associated with motor learning in young healthy individuals; 2) evaluate if GM changes persist three months after cessation of motor training; and 3) assess whether the use of different schemes of motor training during the learning phase could lead to volume modifications of specific GM structures. From 31 healthy subjects, motor functional assessment and brain 3D T1-weighted sequence were obtained: before motor training (time 0), at the end of training (two weeks) (time 2), and three months later (time 3). Fifteen subjects (group A) were trained with goal-directed motor sequences, and 16 (group B) with non purposeful motor actions of the right hand.

Imaging biomarkers in multiple sclerosis.

Recent years have witnessed impressive advances in the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the assessment of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Complementary to the clinical evaluation, conventional MRI provides crucial pieces of information for the diagnosis of MS. However, the correlation between the burden of lesions observed on conventional MRI scans and the clinical manifestations of the disease remains weak.

Novel MRI approaches to assess patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose Of Review: This review summarizes novel MRI approaches for the investigation of lesion burden and understanding of the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Recent Findings: Recent technical advances are improving our ability to detect and define the nature of focal lesions and 'diffuse' tissue damage in MS as well as the functional consequences of such structural abnormalities. New contrast agents allow to monitor the pluriformity of MS inflammation.

EFNS guidelines on the use of neuroimaging in the management of motor neuron diseases.

Background And Purpose: These European Federation of Neurological Societies guidelines on neuroimaging of motor neuron diseases (MNDs) are designed to provide practical help for the neurologists to make appropriate use of neuroimaging techniques in patients with MNDs, which ranges from diagnostic and monitoring aspects to the in vivo study of the pathobiology of such conditions.

Methods: Literature searches were performed before expert members of the Task Force wrote proposal. Then, consensus was reached by circulating drafts of the manuscript to the Task Force members and by discussion of the classification of evidence and recommendations.

Preserved brain adaptive properties in patients with benign multiple sclerosis.

Objectives: We investigated motor network function in patients with benign multiple sclerosis (BMS) and contrasted the results with those obtained from patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and healthy controls (HC) to elucidate better the factors associated with a favorable clinical evolution in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: Diffusion tensor (DT) and fMRI scans during the performance of a simple motor task were prospectively acquired from 17 patients with BMS, 15 patients with SPMS, and 17 HC. Patients with BMS and SPMS were matched for age, gender, and disease duration.