Annals of neurology
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Annals of neurology · Oct 2020
Case ReportsIntact Brain Network Function in an Unresponsive Patient with COVID-19.
Many patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain unresponsive after surviving critical illness. Although several structural brain abnormalities have been described, their impact on brain function and implications for prognosis are unknown. ⋯ When prognosticating for survivors of severe COVID-19, clinicians should consider that brain networks may remain functionally intact despite structural injury and prolonged unresponsiveness. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:851-854.
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Annals of neurology · Nov 2021
Stratifying the Presymptomatic Phase of Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia by Serum NfL and pNfH: A Longitudinal Multicentre Study.
Although the presymptomatic stages of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) provide a unique chance to delay or even prevent neurodegeneration by early intervention, they remain poorly defined. Leveraging a large multicenter cohort of genetic FTD mutation carriers, we provide a biomarker-based stratification and biomarker cascade of the likely most treatment-relevant stage within the presymptomatic phase: the conversion stage. ⋯ Blood NfL and pNfH provide dynamic stage-dependent stratification and, potentially, treatment response biomarkers in presymptomatic FTD, allowing demarcation of the conversion stage. The proposed biomarker cascade might pave the way towards a biomarker-based precision medicine approach to genetic FTD. ANN NEUROL 2021.
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Annals of neurology · Dec 2020
Clinical TrialSubthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation Modulates 2 Distinct Neurocircuits.
Current understanding of the neuromodulatory effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on large-scale brain networks remains elusive, largely due to the lack of techniques that can reveal DBS-induced activity at the whole-brain level. Using a novel 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible stimulator, we investigated whole-brain effects of subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation in patients with Parkinson disease. ⋯ Concurrent DBS-fMRI using 3T revealed 2 distinct circuits that responded differentially to STN-DBS and were related to divergent symptoms, a finding that may provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying DBS. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:1178-1193.
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Annals of neurology · Dec 2020
Remote Blood Biomarkers of Longitudinal Cognitive Outcomes in a Population Study.
The longitudinal association of the blood biomarkers total tau (t-tau), neurofilament light (Nf-L), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) with common sporadic Alzheimer disease (AD) and cognitive decline is not established. ⋯ Serum t-tau, Nf-L, and GFAP predict the development of sporadic AD and cognitive decline, and changes in structural brain characteristics, suggesting their usefulness not only as screening and predictive biomarkers, but also in capturing the pathogenesis of Alzheimer dementia. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:1065-1076.
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Severe complications of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) include arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) in adults and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Whether stroke is a frequent complication of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 is unknown. This study aimed to determine the proportion of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 cases with ischemic stroke and the proportion of incident pediatric strokes with SARS-CoV-2 in the first 3 months of the pandemic in an international cohort. ⋯ As in adults, pediatric stroke is an infrequent complication of SARS-CoV-2, and SARS-CoV-2 was detected in only 4.6% of pediatric patients with ischemic stroke tested for the virus. However, < 50% of strokes were tested. To understand the role of SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric stroke better, SARS-CoV-2 testing should be considered in pediatric patients with stroke as the pandemic continues. ANN NEUROL 2021;89:657-665.