Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2016
Relation between subcortical grey matter atrophy and conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease.
To investigate whether subcortical grey matter atrophy predicts progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to compare subcortical volumes between AD, MCI and controls. To assess the correlation between subcortical grey matter volumes and severity of cognitive impairment. ⋯ In addition to the hippocampus, the nucleus accumbens volume loss was also associated with increased risk of progression from MCI to AD. Furthermore, volume loss of subcortical grey matter structures was associated with severity of cognitive impairment.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2016
Review Meta AnalysisAssociation of the APOE-ε4 allele with outcome of traumatic brain injury in children and youth: a meta-analysis and meta-regression.
To disentangle the temporal relationship between the APOE-ε4 allele and outcomes of paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). ⋯ This meta-analysis provides cumulative evidence that the APOE-ε4 allele is important to the prognosis of paediatric TBI, but may have a different effect compared with adult TBI; moreover, this effect may be time dependent.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2016
Review Meta AnalysisSun exposure is an environmental factor for the development of blepharospasm.
Adult-onset isolated focal dystonia may present with various phenotypes including blepharospasm and cervical dystonia. Although inherited in an autosomal dominant manner with a markedly reduced penetrance, environmental factors are considered important in disease penetrance and expression. We observed a marked variation by latitude in the reports of the frequency of patients with blepharospasm relative to those with cervical dystonia; we hypothesised that sun exposure is an environmental risk factor for the development of blepharospasm in genetically susceptible individuals. ⋯ The increase in the blepharospasm: cervical dystonia case ratio with decreasing latitude and increasing insolation suggests that sunlight exposure is an environmental risk factor for the development of blepharospasm (rather than cervical dystonia) in individuals genetically susceptible to adult-onset dystonia.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 2016
Review Meta AnalysisIntermittent head drops: the differential spectrum.
Intermittent Head Drops are episodic head flexion movements that can occur in a number of conditions. Typically, the term has mainly been related to epileptic episodes, but the spectrum of clinical conditions associated with this feature is wide-ranging even if never discussed in detail. By searching the electronic database, we may find that apart from the epileptic conditions, Intermittent Head Drops have been in fact reported in the setting of movement disorders, sleep disorders and even internal medicine disorders, such as Sandifer syndrome. We render an in-depth description of this characteristic phenomenon in different diseases, describing the clinical clues and neurophysiological patterns that may help the clinician to distinguish between the different settings of occurrence.