Neuroanatomical Correlate of Memory Impairment in Parkinson's Disease Assessed by Composite Recall and Recognition Test with MMSE.

Introduction: Memory impairment in Parkinson's disease is characterized mainly by impaired recall with preserved recognition. Despite its clinical importance, there are only a limited number of simple bedside memory tests that can assess both recall and recognition memory together, and that can also be used to detect the neuroanatomical changes in Parkinson's disease. To address this issue, we examined whether a simple memory test that can evaluate both recall and recognition memory can detect cortical abnormalities related to memory impairment in Parkinson's disease.

System-wise balance evaluation and its association with structural brain changes in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Balance dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) involves complex mechanisms beyond simple reflex impairment. Common clinical assessments, such as the pull test, lack multidimensional evaluation and are not optimized for quantifying balance impairment. In contrast, the Mini Balance Evaluation Systems Test (MiniBESTest) can assess balance dysfunction from multiple perspectives, offering a more comprehensive and quantitative assessment.

Associations among blood biomarkers, clinical subtypes, and prognosis in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Early identification of the poor prognosis subtype by surrogate markers would be advantageous for selecting treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of the present study was to test whether plasma neurofilament light chain (NF-L), total tau (t-tau), ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1), fatty acid-binding protein 3 (FABP3), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) can be used as prognostic biomarkers in PD.

Methods: In the present study, both retrospective and prospective studies were performed.

Association Between the Number of Deliveries and Cognitive Impairment Considering the Presence of Subclinical Cerebrovascular Diseases: The Ohasama Study.

Although the association between the number of deliveries and cognitive impairment has been previously examined, the influence of subclinical cerebrovascular diseases (SCDs), such as silent cerebrovascular lesions and carotid atherosclerosis, on this association remains unclear. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine whether SCDs mediated the association between the number of deliveries and cognitive impairment. Among 627 Japanese women with a mean age of 73 years, the number of deliveries was collected in the 1998 survey and classified into four groups (0-1, 2, 3, ≥ 4), with two deliveries as the reference.

FABP2 is Involved in Intestinal α-Synuclein Pathologies.

Background: Recently, the hypothesis that pathological α-Synuclein propagates from the gut to the brain has gained attention. Although results from animal studies support this hypothesis, the specific mechanism remains unclear. This study focused on the intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (FABP2), which is one of the subtypes of fatty acid binding proteins localizing in the gut, with the hypothesis that FABP2 is involved in the gut-to-brain propagation of α-synuclein.

Nuclear Imaging Data-Driven Classification of Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and nonmotor symptoms. Several features have prognostic importance and have been used as key indicators for identifying clinical subtypes. However, the symptom-based classification approach has limitations with respect to the stability of the obtained subtypes.

Associations of Dental Health With the Progression of Hippocampal Atrophy in Community-Dwelling Individuals: The Ohasama Study.

Background And Objectives: Although tooth loss and periodontitis have been considered risk factors of Alzheimer disease, recent longitudinal researches have not found a significant association with hippocampal atrophy. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify a longitudinal association between the number of teeth present (NTP) and hippocampal atrophy dependent on the severity of periodontitis in a late middle-aged and older adult population.

Methods: This study included community-dwelling individuals aged 55 years or older who had no cognitive decline and had undergone brain MRI and oral and systemic data collection twice at 4-year intervals.

Plasma sphingolipid abnormalities in neurodegenerative diseases.

Background: In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that several lipid metabolism abnormalities play an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is still unclear which lipid metabolism abnormalities play the most important role in neurodegenerative diseases. Plasma lipid metabolomics (lipidomics) has been shown to be an unbiased method that can be used to explore lipid metabolism abnormalities in neurodegenerative diseases.

Bedside evaluation of swallowing function to predict aspiration pneumonia in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Objective: Aspiration pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death in patients with muscular dystrophy; therefore, it is important to predict its occurrence in the clincal setting. We aimed to examine the usefulness of repeated saliva swallowing test (RSST), modified water swallowing test (MWST), and flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) for evaluating the Hyodo score at the bedside, to predict the risk of aspiration pneumonia in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study involving 43 patients, we evaluated the swallowing function using the RSST, MWST, and FEES, and predicted the likelihood of aspiration pneumonia within 2 years after the assessment.

Impact of Catheter Ablation on Brain Microstructure and Blood Flow Alterations for Cognitive Improvements in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: A Pilot Longitudinal Study.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) predisposes patients to develop cognitive decline and dementia. Clinical and epidemiological data propose that catheter ablation may provide further benefit to improve neurocognitive function in patients with AF, but the underlying mechanism is poorly available. Here, we conducted a pilot prospective study to investigate whether AF ablation can alter regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and brain microstructures, using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique.

The characteristics of dysphagia and the incidence of pneumonia in Myotonic dystrophy type 1 patients especially concerning swallowing function evaluated by endoscopy.

Objective: The objectives of the study were to clarify the characteristics of dysphagia and the incidence of pneumonia in Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) patients, and to investigate the relationship between the development of pneumonia and the DM1 patient's background, especially concerning swallowing function evaluated by endoscopy.

Methods: The subjects were 88 DM1 patients who underwent swallowing function evaluation. The severity of disease in DM1patients was assessed based on the muscular impairment rating scale (MIRS), and the number of CTG repeats.

Neuroimaging-pathological correlations of [F]THK5351 PET in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Recent positron emission tomography (PET) studies have demonstrated the accumulation of tau PET tracer in the affected region of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) cases. To confirm the binding target of radiotracer in PSP, we performed an imaging-pathology correlation study in two autopsy-confirmed PSP patients who underwent [F]THK5351 PET before death. One patient with PSP Richardson syndrome showed elevated tracer retention in the globus pallidus and midbrain.

A Case of Low-Grade Primary Cardiac Lymphoma with Pericardial Effusion Diagnosed by Combined 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography (FDG-PET/CT) Imaging and Effusion Cytology.

BACKGROUND Primary cardiac lymphoma is rare and can be an aggressive disease, depending on the grade. A case is reported of low-grade primary cardiac lymphoma associated with a pericardial effusion. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) imaging was useful in the diagnosis and in evaluating the disease activity in this case.

Posterior Associative and Cingulate Cortex Involvement of Brain Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging in Semantic Dementia with Probable Alzheimer Disease Pathology: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND Semantic dementia (SD) is a type of primary progressive aphasia with prominent language dysfunction, mostly within the spectrum of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Although there is an overlap in clinical manifestations of SD attributable to FTLD and neuropathologically proven Alzheimer disease (AD), clinical diagnostic clues are not readily available. We present a characteristic finding based on a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)-based regional cerebral blood flow study and its statistical imaging analysis for a rare case of SD with AD-like pathology.

Reduced CBF recovery detected by longitudinal 3D-SSP SPECT analyses predicts outcome of postoperative patients after subarachnoid haemorrhage.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of cerebral blood flow (CBF) recovery obtained from brain single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images on postoperative outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Twenty-nine patients who had undergone surgical clipping for ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms were analyzed prospectively. Routine measurements of CBF were performed using technetium-99 m hexamethyl propyleneamine oxine SPECT on days 4 and 14 after SAH.

Neuro-Myelomatosis of the Brachial Plexus - An Unusual Site of Disease Visualized by FDG-PET/CT: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND Peripheral or cranial nerve root dysfunction secondary to invasion of the CNS in multiple myeloma is a rare clinical event that is frequently mistaken for other diagnoses. We describe the clinical utility of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)/CT scanning for diagnosing neuro-myelomatosis. CASE REPORT A 63-year-old woman whose chief complaints were right shoulder and upper extremity pain underwent MRI and 18F-FDG PET/CT scan.

Asymptomatic Mild Hyperperfusion for the Prediction of Clinical Outcome in Postoperative Patients After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

BACKGROUND Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) is one of the main causes of poor outcomes after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The early identification of DCI by noninvasive imaging modalities would provide valuable information of therapeutic intervention for improving the patient outcomes. We aimed to describe the clinical features of cerebral blood flow (CBF) data obtained from the single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) during the risk period for DCI after SAH.

Introduction and overview of the special issue "Brain imaging and aging": The new era of neuroimaging in aging research.

It is well known that the brain is one of the organs particularly affected by aging in terms of function, relative to the gastrointestinal tract and liver, which exhibit less functional decline. There is also a wide range of age-related neurological disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Therefore, it is very important to understand the relationship between functional age-related change and neurological dysfunction.