Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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Artificial neural networks (ANNs) effectively analyze non-linear data sets. The aimed was A review of the relevant published articles that focused on the application of ANNs as a tool for assisting clinical decision-making in neurosurgery. A literature review of all full publications in English biomedical journals (1993-2013) was undertaken. ⋯ Of these, 50 articles were eligible for inclusion in this review. The synthesis of the data showed several applications of ANN in neurosurgery, including: (1) diagnosis and assessment of disease progression in low back pain, brain tumours and primary epilepsy; (2) enhancing clinically relevant information extraction from radiographic images, intracranial pressure processing, low back pain and real-time tumour tracking; (3) outcome prediction in epilepsy, brain metastases, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar disc herniation, childhood hydrocephalus, trauma mortality, and the occurrence of symptomatic cerebral vasospasm in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage; (4) the use in the biomechanical assessments of spinal disease. ANNs can be effectively employed for diagnosis, prognosis and outcome prediction in neurosurgery.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2015
Somatic symptom count scores do not identify patients with symptoms unexplained by disease: a prospective cohort study of neurology outpatients.
Somatic symptoms unexplained by disease are common in all medical settings. The process of identifying such patients requires a clinical assessment often supported by clinical tests. Such assessments are time-consuming and expensive. Consequently the observation that such patients tend to report a greater number of symptom has led to the use of self-rated somatic symptom counts as a simpler and cheaper diagnostic aid and proxy measure for epidemiological surveys. However, despite their increasing popularity there is little evidence to support their validity. ⋯ Self-rated symptom count scores should not be used to identify patients with symptoms unexplained by disease.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2015
Cortical thickness in ALS: towards a marker for upper motor neuron involvement.
Examine whether cortical thinning is a disease-specific phenomenon across the spectrum of motor neuron diseases in relation to upper motor neuron (UMN) involvement. ⋯ PCG cortical thinning was found to be specific for motor neuron disease with clinical UMN involvement. Normal levels of cortical thickness in mimic disorders or LMN phenotypes suggest that cortical thinning reflects pathological changes related to UMN involvement. Progressive cortical thinning in the temporal lobe suggests recruitment of non-motor areas, over time.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2015
Case ReportsBiphasic neurovascular changes in prolonged migraine aura in familial hemiplegic migraine type 2.
To report biphasic changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the acute phase of hemiplegic migraine with prolonged aura (HMPA), in which aura symptoms lasted longer than 24 h, in three patients with familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) carrying a p.H916L mutation in ATP1A2 gene. ⋯ This is the first report showing biphasic CBF changes during the prolonged aura of FHM2. This study suggested that the results of cross-sectional CBF studies should be interpreted carefully. Initial multifocal hypoperfusion is likely due to functional depression of multifocal origin in the affected hemisphere, but the mechanism of persistent hyperperfusion requires further investigation.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Mar 2015
Clinical and neuroradiological differences of paediatric acute disseminating encephalomyelitis with and without antibodies to the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein.
Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibodies have been recently described in children with acute disseminating encephalomyelitis (ADEM), but the clinical and neuroradiological characterisation of this subgroup is lacking. ⋯ Patients with ADEM with MOG antibodies in our cohort had a uniform MRI characterised by large, bilateral and widespread lesions with an increased frequency of longitudinal extensive transverse myelitis and a favourable clinical outcome in contrast to children lacking MOG antibodies.