Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative condition, especially among elderly people. The presence of cortical β-amyloid deposition, together with tau phosphorylation and ...intracellular accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) is the main neuropathologic criteria for AD diagnosis. Additionally, a role of inflammatory, mitochondrial, and metabolic factors has been suggested. Tramiprosate binds to soluble amyloid, thus inhibiting its aggregation in the brain. It reduced oligomeric and fibrillar (plaque) amyloid, diminished hippocampal atrophy, improved cholinergic transmission, and stabilized cognition in preclinical and clinical studies. In this narrative review, current information on the efficacy and safety of tramiprosate, both in AD and in other neurocognitive disorders, is presented. Possible directions for future studies with tramiprosate are also discussed.
Accurate assessment of balance and gait is necessary to monitor the clinical progress of Parkinson's disease (PD). Conventional clinical scales can be biased and have limited accuracy. Novel ...interactive devices are potentially useful to detect subtle posture or gait-related impairments.
Posturographic and single and dual-task gait assessments were performed to 54 individuals with PD and 43 healthy controls with the Wii Balance Board and the Kinect v2 and the, respectively. Individuals with PD were also assessed with the Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment, the Functional Gait Assessment and the 10-m Walking Test. The influence of demographic and clinical variables on the performance in the instrumented posturographic and gait tests, the sensitivity of these tests to the clinical condition and phenotypes, and their convergent validity with clinical scales were investigated.
Individuals with PD in H&Y I and I.5 stages showed similar performance to controls. The greatest differences in posture and gait were found between subjects in H&Y II.5 and H&Y I-I.5 stage, as well as controls. Dual-tasking enhanced the differences among all groups in gait parameters. Akinetic/rigid phenotype showed worse postural control and gait than other phenotypes. High significant correlations were found between the limits of stability and most of gait parameters with the clinical scales.
Low-cost devices showed potential to objectively quantify posture and gait in established PD (H&Y ≥ II). Dual-tasking gait evaluation was more sensitive to detect differences among PD stages and compared to controls than free gait. Gait and posture were more impaired in akinetic/rigid PD.
Conformado por nueve trabajos de algunos de los filólogos más reputados actualmente en el ámbito de la filología latina medieval, el presente volumen constituye un espléndido homenaje a Giovanni ...Orlandi (†2007), uno de los latinistas más prestigiosos del pasado siglo, cuya impronta en el terreno de la filología mediolatina se ve reflejada no solo en sus numerosísimas contribuciones, sino también en las brillantes carreras de sus discípulos.
Background and purpose
Reduced facial expression of emotions is a very frequent symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) and has been considered part of the motor features of the disease. However, the ...neural correlates of hypomimia and the relationship between hypomimia and other non‐motor symptoms of PD are poorly understood.
Methods
The clinical and structural brain correlates of hypomimia were studied. For this purpose, cross‐sectional data from the COPPADIS study database were used. Age, disease duration, levodopa equivalent daily dose, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS‐III), severity of apathy and depression and global cognitive status were collected. At the imaging level, analyses based on gray matter volume and cortical thickness were used.
Results
After controlling for multiple confounding variables such as age or disease duration, the severity of hypomimia was shown to be indissociable from the UPDRS‐III speech and bradykinesia items and was significantly related to the severity of apathy (β = 0.595; p < 0.0001). At the level of neural correlates, hypomimia was related to motor regions brodmann area 8 (BA 8) and to multiple fronto‐temporo‐parietal regions involved in the decoding, recognition and production of facial expression of emotions.
Conclusion
Reduced facial expressivity in PD is related to the severity of symptoms of apathy and is mediated by the dysfunction of brain systems involved in motor control and in the recognition, integration and expression of emotions. Therefore, hypomimia in PD may be conceptualized not exclusively as a motor symptom but as a consequence of a multidimensional deficit leading to a symptom where motor and non‐motor aspects converge.
Hypomimia in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is related to the severity of symptoms of apathy and is mediated by the dysfunction of brain systems involved in motor control and in the recognition, integration and expression of emotions. Hypomimia in PD may be conceptualized not exclusively as a motor symptom but as a consequence of a multidimensional deficit where motor and non‐motor aspects converge.
Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) and LRRK2-associated PD (LRRK2-PD) might be expected to differ clinically since the neuropathological substrate of LRRK2-PD is heterogeneous. The range and ...severity of extra-nigral nonmotor features associated with LRRK2 mutations is also not well-defined.
To evaluate the prevalence and time of onset of nonmotor symptoms (NMS) in LRRK2-PD patients.
The presence of hyposmia and of neuropsychiatric, dysautonomic and sleep disturbances was assessed in 33 LRRK2-G2019S-PD patients by standardized questionnaires and validated scales. Thirty-three IPD patients, matched for age, gender, duration of parkinsonism and disease severity and 33 healthy subjects were also evaluated.
University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) scores in LRRK2-G2019S-PD were higher than those in IPD (23.5±6.8 vs 18.4±6.0; p = 0.002), and hyposmia was less frequent in G2019S carriers than in IPD (39.4% vs 75.8%; p = 0.01). UPSIT scores were significantly higher in females than in males in LRRK2-PD patients (26.9±4.7 vs 19.4±6.8; p<0.01). The frequency of sleep and neuropsychiatric disturbances and of dysautonomic symptoms in LRRK2-G2019S-PD was not significantly different from that in IPD. Hyposmia, depression, constipation and excessive daytime sleepiness, were reported to occur before the onset of classical motor symptoms in more than 40% of LRRK2-PD patients in whom these symptoms were present at the time of examination.
Neuropsychiatric, dysautonomic and sleep disturbances occur as frequently in patients with LRRK2-G2019S-PD as in IPD but smell loss was less frequent in LRRK2-PD. Like in IPD, disturbances such as hyposmia, depression, constipation and excessive daytime sleepiness may antedate the onset of classical motor symptoms in LRRK2-G2019S-PD.
Blood homocysteine appears to be increased in Parkinson's disease (PD) and may play a role in the development and progression of this disorder. However, the specific contribution of abnormal ...homocysteine levels to cortical degeneration in PD remains elusive.
To characterize the cortical structural correlates of homocysteine levels in PD.
From the COPPADIS cohort, we identified a subset of PD patients and healthy controls (HC) with available homocysteine and imaging data. Surface-based vertex-wise multiple regression analyses were performed to investigate the cortical macrostructural (cortical thinning) and microstructural (increased intracortical diffusivity) correlates of homocysteine levels in this sample.
A total of 137 PD patients and 43 HC were included. Homocysteine levels were increased in the PD group (t = −2.2, p = 0.03), correlating in turn with cognitive performance (r = −0.2, p = 0.03). Homocysteine in PD was also associated with frontal cortical thinning and, in a subset of patients with available DTI data, with microstructural damage in frontal and posterior-cortical regions (p < 0.05 Monte-Carlo corrected).
Homocysteine in PD appears to be associated with cognitive performance and structural damage in the cerebral cortex. These findings not only reinforce the presence and importance of cortical degeneration in PD, but also suggest that homocysteine plays a role among the multiple pathological processes thought to be involved in its development.
•Parkinson's disease (PD) patients appear to show increased homocysteine levels.•Homocysteine correlated in turn with cognitive performance in our PD sample.•Homocysteine was also associated with cortical macro- and microstructural alterations.•This metabolic marker may play a role in cortical degeneration in the PD population.
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