Frontiers in neurology
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2017
A Systematic Review of the Usefulness of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein for Predicting Acute Intracranial Lesions following Head Trauma.
The extensive use of computed tomography (CT) after acute head injury is costly and carries potential iatrogenic risk. This systematic review examined the usefulness of blood-based glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) for predicting acute trauma-related CT-positive intracranial lesions following head trauma. The main objective was to summarize the current evidence on blood-based GFAP as a potential screening test for acute CT-positive intracranial lesions following head trauma. ⋯ Intracranial CT-positive trauma lesions were associated with elevated GFAP levels in the majority of studies. Methodological heterogeneity in GFAP assessments and the lack of well-designed diagnostic studies with commercially validated GFAP platforms hinder the level of evidence, and variability in levels of GFAP with no clearly established cutoff for abnormality limit the clinical usefulness of the biomarker. However, blood-based GFAP holds promise as a means of screening for acute traumatic CT-positive lesion following head trauma.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2017
The Impact of Carotid Artery Stenting on Cerebral Perfusion, Functional Connectivity, and Cognition in Severe Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis Patients.
Asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis can lead to not only stroke but also cognition impairment. Although it has been proven that carotid artery stenting (CAS) can reduce the risk of future strokes, the effect of CAS on cognition is conflicting. In recent years, pulsed arterial spin labeling (pASL) MRI and resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) have been employed in cognitive impairment studies. For the present study, cognition is evaluated in severe asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis patients undergoing CAS, and the mechanisms underlying the cognitive change are explored by pASL MRI and R-fMRI. ⋯ Successful CAS can partly improve cognition in asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis patients. The cognition improvement may be partly attributed to the increased perfusion in the left frontal gyrus, increased ALFF in the right precentral gyrus, and increased connectivity to the PCC in the right supra frontal gyrus.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2017
Structural, Functional, and Metabolic Brain Markers Differentiate Collision versus Contact and Non-Contact Athletes.
There is growing concern about how participation in contact sports affects the brain. Retrospective evidence suggests that contact sports are associated with long-term negative health outcomes. However, much of the research to date has focused on former athletes with significant health problems. ⋯ In contrast, the collision group showed significant reductions in functional connectivity and the NAA/Cr metabolite ratio, relative to only the non-contact group, while the contact group overlapped with both non-contact and collision groups. For brain regions associated with contact sport participation, athletes with a history of concussion also showed greater alterations in FA and functional connectivity, indicating a potential cumulative effect of both contact exposure and concussion history on brain physiology. These findings indicate persistent differences in brain physiology for athletes participating in contact and collision sports, which should be considered in future studies of concussion and subconcussive impacts.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2017
Anti-Inflammatory and Neuroprotective Effects of Co-UltraPEALut in a Mouse Model of Vascular Dementia.
Vascular dementia (VaD), the second most common cause of cognitive impairment in the population, is a disease that results from reduction in regional cerebral blood flow and involves oxidative stress and inflammation. Co-ultramicronized PEALut (co-ultra PEALut) is a new compound with beneficial effects, which include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Recently, co-ultraPEALut has been shown to exhibit neuroprotective effects in models of Parkinson's disease, cerebral ischemia and Alzheimer's disease. ⋯ Furthermore following carotid arteries ligation, mice treated with co-ultraPEALut showed a modification of proinflammatory, proapoptotic proteins and of oxidative stress as evidenced by the expression of IκB-α, NF-κB p65, Bax, Bcl-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and cyclooxygenase-2. In order, co-ultraPEALut treatment restored VaD-induced loss of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and neurotrophins 3 (NT-3) expression in mice. These results confirmed that the neuroprotective effects of co-ultraPEALut were associated with its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
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Frontiers in neurology · Jan 2017
Investigating the Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Functional MRI Response to a Verbal Fluency Task in Early Stroke before and after Hemodynamic Scaling.
Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) has been extensively used as a marker of brain dysfunction and subsequent recovery following stroke. However, growing evidence suggests that straightforward interpretation of BOLD fMRI changes with aging and disease is challenging. In this study, we investigated the effect of calibrating task fMRI data by applying a hemodynamic calibration method using the resting-state fluctuation amplitude (RSFA). Task fMRI responses were obtained during a covert verbal fluency task in a group of early stage stroke patients and matched healthy normal controls. ⋯ BOLD fMRI changes with aging and disease is confounded by changes in neurofunctional coupling leading to challenges in the straightforward interpretation of task fMRI results. Application of the hemodynamic calibration using the RSFA technique in the current study appeared to mitigate any differences between stroke and age-matched healthy controls. Our study indicates that estimating neural activity after applying hemodynamic scaling is important for studies of aging and for studies tracking post-stroke changes. We recommend that further investigation of hemodynamic calibration with RSFA in healthy subjects and in stroke in larger samples is necessary.