Does side of onset influence the pattern of cerebral atrophy in Parkinson's disease?

Imaging studies have revealed widespread neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD), but only a few considered the issue of asymmetrical clinical presentations. To investigate if the side of onset influences the pattern of gray matter (GM) atrophy in PD. Sixty patients (57.87 +/- 10.27 years) diagnosed with idiopathic PD according to the U.K. Brain Bank criteria, 26 with right-sided disease onset (RDO) and 34 with left-sided disease onset (LDO), were compared to 80 healthy controls (HC) (57.1 +/- 9.47 years). We acquired T1-weighted images on a 3 T scanner. Images were processed and analyzed with VBM8 (SPM8/Dartel) on Matlab R2012b platform. Statistic assessments included a two-sample test (family-wise error p < 0.05) with extent threshold of 20 voxels. Compared to HC, LDO patients had GM atrophy in the insula, putamen, anterior cingulate, frontotemporal cortex, and right caudate, while the RDO group showed atrophy at the anterior cingulate, insula, frontotemporal, and occipital cortex. This study revealed widespread GM atrophy in PD, predominantly in the left hemisphere, regardless of the side of onset. Future investigations should also consider handedness and side of onset to better characterize cerebral involvement and its progression in PD7CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP74873/2010-22012/05286-

Diffuse decreased gray matter in patients with idiopathic craniocervical dystonia: a voxel-based morphometry study

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Background: Recent studies have addressed the role of structures other than the basal ganglia in the pathophysiology of craniocervical dystonia (CCD). Neuroimaging studies have attempted to identify structural abnormalities in CCD but a clear pattern of alteration has not been established. We performed whole-brain evaluation using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify patterns of gray matter (GM) changes in CCD. Methods: We compared 27 patients with CCD matched in age and gender to 54 healthy controls. VBM was used to compare GM volumes. We created a two-sample t-test corrected for subjects' age, and we tested with a level of significance of p < 0.001 and false discovery rate (FDR) correction (p < 0.05). Results: Voxel-based morphometry demonstrated significant reductions of GM using p < 0.001 in the cerebellar vermis IV/V, bilaterally in the superior frontal gyrus, precuneus, anterior cingulate and paracingulate, insular cortex, lingual gyrus, and calcarine fissure; in the left hemisphere in the supplementary motor area, inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal gyrus, temporal pole, supramarginal gyrus, rolandic operculum, hippocampus, middle occipital gyrus, cerebellar lobules IV/V, superior, and middle temporal gyri; in the right hemisphere, the middle cingulate and precentral gyrus. Our study did not report any significant result using the FDR correction. We also detected correlations between GM volume and age, disease duration, duration of botulinum toxin treatment, and the Marsden-Fahn dystonia scale scores. Conclusion: We detected large clusters of GM changes chiefly in structures primarily involved in sensorimotor integration, motor planning, visuospatial function, and emotional processing.Recent studies have addressed the role of structures other than the basal ganglia in the pathophysiology of craniocervical dystonia (CCD). Neuroimaging studies have attempted to identify structural abnormalities in CCD but a clear pattern of alteration ha5FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [2010/11085-9]2010/11085-

Exploratory structural assessment in craniocervical dystonia: global and differential analyses

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOOur goal was to investigate the cortical thickness and subcortical volume in subjects with craniocervical dystonia and its subgroups. We studied 49 subjects, 17 with cervical dystonia, 18 with blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia, and 79 healthy cont128FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO2013/13270-62010/11085-92013/07559-

Clinical predictors of cognitive impairment and psychiatric complications in Parkinson’s disease

Objective To estimate the clinical and demographics aspects that may contribute to cognitive impairment and psychiatric symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Method All patients answered a structured standardized clinical questionnaire. Two movement disorders specialists performed the following scale: Unified Parkinson’s disease rating score (UPDRS), the modified Hoehn and Yahr staging, Schwab and England Scale, SCOPA cognition (SCOPA-COG), SCOPA-Psychiatric complications (SCOPA-PC) and Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS). We built a generalized linear model to assess predictors for the SCOPA-COG and SCOPA-PC scores. Results Almost 37% of our patients were demented as per SCOPA-COG scores. Level of education and the UPDRS-Subscale III were predictors of cognitive impairment. Higher scores in domain 3 of NMSS and male gender were associated with psychiatric complications as assessed per the SCOPA-PC. Conclusion Level of education and disease severity are predictors of dementia in PD. Psychiatric complications are more commonly observed in men

Culex quinquefasciatus from areas with the highest incidence of microcephaly associated with Zika virus infections in the Northeast Region of Brazil are refractory to the virus

Submitted by Sandra Infurna ([email protected]) on 2017-10-10T13:28:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ROSILAYNY_FERNANDES_ETAL_IOC_2017.PDF: 205188 bytes, checksum: b457ccde6d4eb3d26a1c6b78eb7bef9c (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Sandra Infurna ([email protected]) on 2017-10-10T13:34:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ROSILAYNY_FERNANDES_ETAL_IOC_2017.PDF: 205188 bytes, checksum: b457ccde6d4eb3d26a1c6b78eb7bef9c (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-10T13:34:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ROSILAYNY_FERNANDES_ETAL_IOC_2017.PDF: 205188 bytes, checksum: b457ccde6d4eb3d26a1c6b78eb7bef9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Zika virus (ZIKV) is widely distributed in Brazil and the Northeast Region (NE) is the most affected zone, showing the highest incidence of microcephaly associated with ZIKV congenital infections worldwide. We report attempts to infect three populations of Culex quinquefasciatus from severely affected sites in the NE and Southeast Region (SE) of Brazil with three strains of ZIKV isolated from these localities. An Aedes aegypti population from the SE was used as a positive control. All tested Cx. quinquefasciatus populations were refractory to the ZIKV isolates. For these reasons, we believe Cx. quinquefasciatus should not be considered a potential vector of ZIKV in Brazil

Exploratory structural assessment in craniocervical dystonia: Global and differential analyses.

Our goal was to investigate the cortical thickness and subcortical volume in subjects with craniocervical dystonia and its subgroups.We studied 49 subjects, 17 with cervical dystonia, 18 with blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia, and 79 healthy controls. We performed a whole group analysis, followed by a subgroup analysis. We used Freesurfer software to measure cortical thickness, subcortical volume and to perform a primary exploratory analysis in the craniocervical dystonia group, complemented by a region of interest analysis. We also performed a secondary analysis, with data generated from Freesurfer for subgroups, corrected by false discovery rate. We then performed an exploratory generalized linear model with significant areas for the previous steps using clinical features as independent variables.The primary exploratory analysis demonstrated atrophy in visual processing regions in craniocervical dystonia. The secondary analysis demonstrated atrophy in motor, sensory, and visual regions in blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia, as well as in limbic regions in cervical dystonia. Cervical dystonia patients also had greater cortical thickness than blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia patients in frontal pole and medial orbitofrontal regions. Finally, we observed an association between precuneus, age of onset of dystonia and age at the MRI exam, in craniocervical dystonia; between motor and limbic regions and age at the exam, clinical score and time on botulinum toxin in cervical dystonia and sensory regions and age of onset and time on botulinum toxin in blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia.We detected involvement of visual processing regions in craniocervical dystonia, and a pattern of involvement in cervical dystonia and blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia, including motor, sensory and limbic areas. We also showed an association of cortical thickness atrophy and younger onset age, older age at the MRI exam, higher clinical score and an uncertain association with longer time on botulinum toxin