4,035 research outputs found
Brain, language, and handedness: a family affair
The left planum temporale is a marker of left hemisphere language specialization. We investigated the effect of individual handedness and familial sinistrality on left planum temporale surface area and found the size is reduced in proportion with the number of left-handed immediate family members and is lowest when one's mother is left-handed. This reduction is independent of an individual's handedness or sex and has no counterpart in the right hemisphere
Multi-Channel Stochastic Variational Inference for the Joint Analysis of Heterogeneous Biomedical Data in Alzheimer's Disease
The joint analysis of biomedical data in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is
important for better clinical diagnosis and to understand the relationship
between biomarkers. However, jointly accounting for heterogeneous measures
poses important challenges related to the modeling of the variability and the
interpretability of the results. These issues are here addressed by proposing a
novel multi-channel stochastic generative model. We assume that a latent
variable generates the data observed through different channels (e.g., clinical
scores, imaging, ...) and describe an efficient way to estimate jointly the
distribution of both latent variable and data generative process. Experiments
on synthetic data show that the multi-channel formulation allows superior data
reconstruction as opposed to the single channel one. Moreover, the derived
lower bound of the model evidence represents a promising model selection
criterion. Experiments on AD data show that the model parameters can be used
for unsupervised patient stratification and for the joint interpretation of the
heterogeneous observations. Because of its general and flexible formulation, we
believe that the proposed method can find important applications as a general
data fusion technique.Comment: accepted for presentation at MLCN 2018 workshop, in Conjunction with
MICCAI 2018, September 20, Granada, Spai
Prior events predict cerebrovascular and coronary outcomes in the PROGRESS trial
<p><b>Background and Purpose:</b> The relationship between baseline and recurrent vascular events may be important in the targeting of secondary prevention strategies. We examined the relationship between initial event and various types of further vascular outcomes and associated effects of blood pressure (BP)–lowering.</p>
<p><b>Methods:</b> Subsidiary analyses of the Perindopril Protection Against Recurrent Stroke Study (PROGRESS) trial, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial that established the benefits of BP–lowering in 6105 patients (mean age 64 years, 30% female) with cerebrovascular disease, randomly assigned to either active treatment (perindopril for all, plus indapamide in those with neither an indication for, nor a contraindication to, a diuretic) or placebo(s).</p>
<p><b>Results:</b> Stroke subtypes and coronary events were associated with 1.5- to 6.6-fold greater risk of recurrence of the same event (hazard ratios, 1.51 to 6.64; P=0.1 for large artery infarction, P<0.0001 for other events). However, 46% to 92% of further vascular outcomes were not of the same type. Active treatment produced comparable reductions in the risk of vascular outcomes among patients with a broad range of vascular events at entry (relative risk reduction, 25%; P<0.0001 for ischemic stroke; 42%, P=0.0006 for hemorrhagic stroke; 17%, P=0.3 for coronary events; P homogeneity=0.4).</p>
<p><b>Conclusions:</b> Patients with previous vascular events are at high risk of recurrences of the same event. However, because they are also at risk of other vascular outcomes, a broad range of secondary prevention strategies is necessary for their treatment. BP–lowering is likely to be one of the most effective and generalizable strategies across a variety of major vascular events including stroke and myocardial infarction.</p>
Associations of centrally acting ACE inhibitors with cognitive decline and survival in Alzheimer’s disease
BACKGROUND: Cognitive improvement has been reported in patients receiving centrally acting angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (C-ACEIs). AIMS: To compare cognitive decline and survival after diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease between people receiving C-ACEIs, non-centrally acting angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (NC-ACEIs), and neither. METHOD: Routine Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores were extracted in 5260 patients receiving acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and analysed against C-/NC-ACEI exposure at the time of Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. RESULTS: In the 9 months after Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, MMSE scores significantly increased by 0.72 and 0.19 points per year in patients on C-ACEIs and neither respectively, but deteriorated by 0.61 points per year in those on NC-ACEIs. There were no significant group differences in score trajectories from 9 to 36 months and no differences in survival. CONCLUSIONS: In people with Alzheimer's disease receiving acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, those also taking C-ACEIs had stronger initial improvement in cognitive function, but there was no evidence of longer-lasting influence on dementia progression. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: R.S. has received research funding from Pfizer, Lundbeck, Roche, Janssen and GlaxoSmithKline. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license
Heteromodal brain areas common to production, listening and reading tasks at the word Level: an fMRI study of 144 right-handers from the BIL&GIN
International audienc
Migraine and risk of haemorrhagic stroke in women: prospective cohort study
Objectives To examine the association between migraine and migraine aura status with risk of haemorrhagic stroke
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