Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Oct 2015
Review Meta AnalysisPresymptomatic and longitudinal neuroimaging in neurodegeneration-from snapshots to motion picture: a systematic review.
Recent quantitative neuroimaging studies have been successful in capturing phenotype and genotype-specific changes in dementia syndromes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. However, the majority of imaging studies are cross-sectional, despite the obvious superiority of longitudinal study designs in characterising disease trajectories, response to therapy, progression rates and evaluating the presymptomatic phase of neurodegenerative conditions. ⋯ Although longitudinal imaging studies have the potential to provide crucial insights into the presymptomatic phase and natural trajectory of neurodegenerative processes a standardised design is required to enable meaningful data interpretation.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Oct 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyLevetiracetam versus phenytoin for seizure prophylaxis during and early after craniotomy for brain tumours: a phase II prospective, randomised study.
Phenytoin (PHT) is routinely used for seizure prophylaxis in patients with brain tumours during and after craniotomy, despite incomplete evidence. We performed a prospective, randomised study to investigate the significance of prophylactic use of levetiracetam (LEV), in comparison with PHT, for patients with supratentorial tumours in the perioperative period. ⋯ Prophylactic use of LEV in the perioperative period is recommended because it is safe and significantly reduces the incidence of seizures in this period.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Oct 2015
Multicenter StudyValidation of genetic modifiers for Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a multicentre study assessing SPP1 and LTBP4 variants.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is characterised by progressive muscle weakness. It has recently been reported that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in the SPP1 and LTBP4 loci can account for some of the inter-individual variability observed in the clinical disease course. The validation of genetic association in large independent cohorts is a key process for rare diseases in order to qualify prognostic biomarkers and stratify patients in clinical trials. ⋯ This study underlines the importance of replicating genetic association studies for rare diseases in large independent cohorts to identify the most robust associations. We anticipate that genotyping of validated genetic associations will become important for the design and interpretation of clinical trials.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Oct 2015
ReviewUltrasound in the diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy: structure meets function in the neuromuscular clinic.
Peripheral nerve ultrasound (US) has emerged as a promising technique for the diagnosis of peripheral nerve disorders. While most experience with US has been reported in the context of nerve entrapment syndromes, the role of US in the diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy (PN) has recently been explored. ⋯ This review describes the characteristic US findings in PN reported to date and a classification of abnormal nerve US patterns in PN is proposed. Closer scrutiny of nerve abnormalities beyond assessment of nerve calibre may allow for more accurate diagnostic classification of PN, as well as contribute to the understanding of the intersection of structure and function in PN.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Oct 2015
Comparative StudyDifferentiating between right-lateralised semantic dementia and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: an examination of clinical characteristics and emotion processing.
Right-lateralised semantic dementia (right SD) and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) appear clinically similar, despite different patterns of underlying brain changes. This study aimed to elucidate distinguishing clinical and cognitive features in right SD versus bvFTD, emphasising emotion processing and its associated neural correlates. ⋯ This study demonstrates comparable deficits in facial emotion processing in right SD and bvFTD, in keeping with their similar clinical profiles. These deficits are attributable to divergent neural substrates in each patient group, namely, right lateralised regions in right SD, versus predominantly left lateralised regions in bvFTD.