Comorbidities Are Associated With Unfavorable Outcome in Aquaporin-4 Antibody Positive Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders and Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein Antibody-Associated Disease: Exploratory Study From the CROCTINO Cohort.

Background: Comorbidities occur in aquaporin-4 antibody-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (AQP4-NMOSD), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), and double seronegative NMOSD (DN-NMOSD), potentially contributing to a less favorable disease course.

Objectives: To characterize comorbidities in AQP4-NMOSD, MOGAD, and DN-NMOSD and assess their association with optic neuritis (ON) outcomes by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in AQP4-NMOSD.

Methods: Four hundred and forty-two participants from the CROCTINO cohort were evaluated for comorbidities.

The TransEuro open-label trial of human fetal ventral mesencephalic transplantation in patients with moderate Parkinson's disease.

Transplantation of human fetal ventral mesencephalic tissue in individuals with Parkinson's disease has yielded clinical benefits but also side effects, such as graft-induced dyskinesias. The open-label TransEuro trial ( NCT01898390 ) was designed to determine whether this approach could be further developed into a clinically useful treatment. Owing to poor availability of human fetal ventral mesencephalic tissue, only 11 individuals were grafted at two centers using the same tissue preparation protocol but different implantation devices.

Liver disease is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular outcomes - A UK Biobank study.

Background & Aims: Chronic liver disease (CLD) is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. We investigated whether early signs of liver disease (measured by iron-corrected T1-mapping [cT1]) were associated with an increased risk of major CVD events.

Methods: Liver disease activity (cT1) and fat (proton density fat fraction [PDFF]) were measured using LiverMultiScan® between January 2016 and February 2020 in the UK Biobank imaging sub-study.

Cardiac abnormalities in Long COVID 1-year post-SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Background: Long COVID is associated with multiple symptoms and impairment in multiple organs. Cross-sectional studies have reported cardiac impairment to varying degrees by varying methodologies. Using cardiac MR (CMR), we investigated a 12-month trajectory of abnormalities in Long COVID.

Multi-organ impairment and long COVID: a 1-year prospective, longitudinal cohort study.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of organ impairment in long COVID patients at 6 and 12 months after initial symptoms and to explore links to clinical presentation.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Participants: Individuals.

Functional Specialization of the Medial Temporal Lobes in Human Recognition Memory: Dissociating Effects of Hippocampal versus Parahippocampal Damage.

A central debate in the systems neuroscience of memory concerns whether different medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures support different processes in recognition memory. Using two recognition memory paradigms, we tested a rare patient (MH) with a perirhinal lesion that appeared to spare the hippocampus. Consistent with a similar previous case, MH showed impaired familiarity and preserved recollection.

Retinal Optical Coherence Tomography in Neuromyelitis Optica.

Background And Objectives: To determine optic nerve and retinal damage in aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-IgG)-seropositive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) in a large international cohort after previous studies have been limited by small and heterogeneous cohorts.

Methods: The cross-sectional Collaborative Retrospective Study on retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) in neuromyelitis optica collected retrospective data from 22 centers. Of 653 screened participants, we included 283 AQP4-IgG-seropositive patients with NMOSD and 72 healthy controls (HCs).

Contrasting the brain imaging features of MOG-antibody disease, with AQP4-antibody NMOSD and multiple sclerosis.

Background: Identifying magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers in myelin-oligodendrocytes-glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder-aquaporin-4 positive (NMOSD-AQP4) and multiple sclerosis (MS) is essential for establishing objective outcome measures.

Objectives: To quantify imaging patterns of central nervous system (CNS) damage in MOGAD during the remission stage, and to compare it with NMOSD-AQP4 and MS.

Methods: 20 MOGAD, 19 NMOSD-AQP4, 18 MS in remission with brain or spinal cord involvement and 18 healthy controls (HC) were recruited.

Hepatic Steatosis, Rather Than Underlying Obesity, Increases the Risk of Infection and Hospitalization for COVID-19.

Obesity is a risk factor for SARS-COV2 infection and is often associated with hepatic steatosis. The aim of this study was to determine if pre-existing hepatic steatosis affects the risk of infection and severity for COVID-19. Prospective cohort study (UK Biobank).

Foveal changes in aquaporin-4 antibody seropositive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder are independent of optic neuritis and not overtly progressive.

Background And Purpose: Foveal changes were reported in aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-Ab) seropositive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) patients; however, it is unclear whether they are independent of optic neuritis (ON), stem from subclinical ON or crossover from ON in fellow eyes. Fovea morphometry and a statistical classification approach were used to investigate if foveal changes in NMOSD are independent of ON and progressive.

Methods: This was a retrospective longitudinal study of 27 AQP4-IgG + NMOSD patients (49 eyes; 15 ON eyes and 34 eyes without a history of ON [NON eyes]), follow-up median (first and third quartile) 2.

Quantitative spinal cord MRI in MOG-antibody disease, neuromyelitis optica and multiple sclerosis.

Spinal cord involvement is a hallmark feature of multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica with AQP4 antibodies and MOG-antibody disease. In this cross-sectional study we use quantitative spinal cord MRI to better understand these conditions, differentiate them and associate with relevant clinical outcomes. Eighty participants (20 in each disease group and 20 matched healthy volunteers) underwent spinal cord MRI (cervical cord: 3D T1, 3D T2, diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer ratio; thoracic cord: 3D T2), together with disability, pain and fatigue scoring.

Cohort profile: a collaborative multicentre study of retinal optical coherence tomography in 539 patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (CROCTINO).

Purpose: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) captures retinal damage in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). Previous studies investigating OCT in NMOSD have been limited by the rareness and heterogeneity of the disease. The goal of this study was to establish an image repository platform, which will facilitate neuroimaging studies in NMOSD.

SynGAP splice variants display heterogeneous spatio-temporal expression and subcellular distribution in the developing mammalian brain.

The SynGAP protein is a major regulator of synapse biology and neural circuit function. Genetic variants linked to epilepsy and intellectual disability disrupt synaptic function and neural excitability. SynGAP has been involved in multiple signaling pathways and can regulate small GTPases with very different roles.

Pathologic tearfulness after limbic encephalitis: A novel disorder and its neural basis.

Objective: We investigated the nature and neural foundations of pathologic tearfulness in a uniquely large cohort of patients who had presented with autoimmune limbic encephalitis (aLE).

Methods: We recruited 38 patients (26 men, 12 women; median age 63.06 years; interquartile range [IQR] 16.

Network-wide abnormalities explain memory variability in hippocampal amnesia.

Patients with hippocampal amnesia play a central role in memory neuroscience but the neural underpinnings of amnesia are hotly debated. We hypothesized that focal hippocampal damage is associated with changes across the extended hippocampal system and that these, rather than hippocampal atrophy per se, would explain variability in memory between patients. We assessed this hypothesis in a uniquely large cohort of patients (n = 38) after autoimmune limbic encephalitis, a syndrome associated with focal structural hippocampal pathology.

Hippocampal network abnormalities explain amnesia after VGKCC-Ab related autoimmune limbic encephalitis.

Objective: Limbic encephalitis associated with antibodies to components of the voltage-gated potassium channel complex (VGKCC-Ab-LE) often leads to hippocampal atrophy and persistent memory impairment. Its long-term impact on regions beyond the hippocampus, and the relationship between brain damage and cognitive outcome, are poorly understood. We investigated the nature of structural and functional brain abnormalities following VGKCC-Ab-LE and its role in residual memory impairment.

Retinal ganglion cell loss in neuromyelitis optica: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are inflammatory conditions of the central nervous system and an important differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Unlike MS, the course is usually relapsing, and it is unclear, if progressive neurodegeneration contributes to disability. Therefore, we aimed to investigate if progressive retinal neuroaxonal damage occurs in aquaporin4-antibody-seropositive NMOSD.

Clinical presentation and prognosis in MOG-antibody disease: a UK study.

See de Seze (doi:10.1093/brain/awx292) for a scientific commentary on this article. A condition associated with an autoantibody against MOG has been recently recognized as a new inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, but the disease course and disability outcomes are largely unknown.

Attentional Modulation of Change Detection ERP Components by Peripheral Retro-Cueing.

Change detection is essential for visual perception and performance in our environment. However, observers often miss changes that should be easily noticed. A failure in any of the processes involved in conscious detection (encoding the pre-change display, maintenance of that information within working memory, and comparison of the pre and post change displays) can lead to change blindness.