JAMA neurology
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Lack of objective biomarkers for brain damage hampers acute diagnosis and clinical decision making about return to play after sports-related concussion. ⋯ Sports-related concussion in professional ice hockey players is associated with acute axonal and astroglial injury. This can be monitored using blood biomarkers, which may be developed into clinical tools to guide sport physicians in the medical counseling of athletes in return-to-play decisions.
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Clinical Trial
The idiopathic intracranial hypertension treatment trial: clinical profile at baseline.
To our knowledge, there are no large prospective cohorts of untreated patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) to characterize the disease. ⋯ The Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension Treatment Trial represents the largest prospectively analyzed cohort of untreated patients with IIH. Our data show that IIH is almost exclusively a disease of obese young women. Patients with IIH with mild visual loss have typical symptoms, may have mild acuity loss, and have visual field defects, with predominantly arcuate loss and enlarged blind spots that require formal perimetry for detection.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of Parkinson risk in Ashkenazi Jewish patients with Gaucher disease and GBA heterozygotes.
Information on age-specific risk for Parkinson disease (PD) in patients with Gaucher disease (GD) and glucocerebrosidase (GBA) heterozygotes is important for understanding the pathophysiology of the genetic association and for counseling these populations. ⋯ Patients with GD and GBA heterozygotes have an increased age-specific risk for PD compared with control individuals, with a similar magnitude of PD risk by 80 years of age; however, the number of mutant alleles may play an important role in age at PD onset.
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Currently, diagnosis of Parkinson disease is mainly based on clinical criteria characterized by motor symptoms including bradykinesia, rigidity, resting tremor, and postural instability. Reliable in vivo biomarkers to monitor disease severity and reflect the underlying dopaminergic degeneration are important for future disease-modifying therapy in Parkinson disease. ⋯ In PD, 18F-DTBZ PET is a potential imaging biomarker for measuring dopaminergic degeneration in vivo and monitoring the severity of disease.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A randomized clinical trial of high-dosage coenzyme Q10 in early Parkinson disease: no evidence of benefit.
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), an antioxidant that supports mitochondrial function, has been shown in preclinical Parkinson disease (PD) models to reduce the loss of dopamine neurons, and was safe and well tolerated in early-phase human studies. A previous phase II study suggested possible clinical benefit. ⋯ Coenzyme Q10 was safe and well tolerated in this population, but showed no evidence of clinical benefit.