Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2012
Meta AnalysisDiffusion tensor imaging studies of mild traumatic brain injury: a meta-analysis.
To assess the possibility that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can detect white matter damage in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients via systematic review and meta-analysis. ⋯ Our meta-analysis revealed the posterior part of the CC was more vulnerable to mTBI compared with the anterior part, and suggested the potential utility of DTI to detect white matter damage in the CC of mTBI patients.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialPosiphen as a candidate drug to lower CSF amyloid precursor protein, amyloid-β peptide and τ levels: target engagement, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in humans.
A first in human study to evaluate tolerability and pharmacokinetics followed by an early proof of mechanism (POM) study to determine whether the small orally, available molecule, Posiphen tartrate (Posiphen), lowers secreted (s) amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) α and -β, amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), tau (τ) and inflammatory markers in CSF of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). ⋯ These results confirm preclinical POM studies, demonstrate that pharmacologically relevant drug/metabolite levels reach brain and support the continued clinical optimisation and evaluation of Posiphen for MCI and Alzheimer's disease.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2012
Review'A Leg to Stand On' by Oliver Sacks: a unique autobiographical account of functional paralysis.
Oliver Sacks, the well known neurologist and writer, published his fourth book, 'A Leg to Stand On', in 1984 following an earlier essay 'The Leg' in 1982. The book described his recovery after a fall in a remote region of Norway in which he injured his leg. ⋯ In the first edition of his book Sacks explicitly rejected the diagnosis of 'hysterical paralysis' as it was then understood, although he approached this diagnosis more closely in subsequent revisions. In this article we propose that, in the light of better understanding of functional neurological symptoms, Sacks' experiences deserve to be reappraised as a unique insight in to a genuinely experienced functional/psychogenic leg paralysis following injury.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2012
Medial temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with neuronal fibre loss and paradoxical increase in structural connectivity of limbic structures.
It has been hypothesised that seizure induced neuronal loss and axonal damage in medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) may lead to the development of aberrant connections between limbic structures and eventually result in the reorganisation of the limbic network. In this study, limbic structural connectivity in patients with MTLE was investigated, using diffusion tensor MRI, probabilistic tractography and graph theory based network analysis. ⋯ These results suggest that MTLE is associated with reorganisation of the limbic system. These results corroborate the concept of MTLE as a network disease, and may contribute to the understanding of network excitability dynamics in epilepsy and MTLE.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2012
Comparative StudyAmyloid imaging in Alzheimer's disease: comparison of florbetapir and Pittsburgh compound-B positron emission tomography.
Amyloid imaging provides in vivo detection of the fibrillar amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The positron emission tomography (PET) ligand, Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB-C11), is the most well studied amyloid imaging agent, but the short half-life of carbon-11 limits its clinical viability. Florbetapir-F18 recently demonstrated in vivo correlation with postmortem Aβ histopathology, but has not been directly compared with PiB-C11. ⋯ These data support the hypothesis that florbetapir-F18 provides comparable information with PiB-C11.