It is increasingly being recognized that new declarative, consciously accessible information can be learned in anterograde amnesia, but it is not clear whether this learning is supported by episodic ...or semantic memory. We report a case of a 55-year-old man who experienced severe amnesia after limited damage to the medial temporal lobe following neurosurgical complications. His general cognitive performance and knowledge of new French words and public events that occurred before and after the onset of amnesia were assessed. Performance remained satisfactory on post-morbid vocabulary and public events, with a drop in performance observed for very recent public events only, while knowledge of very recent vocabulary was comparable to that of the control subjects. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the underlying learning mechanisms are discussed. This is the first report of acquisition of consciously accessible postmorbid knowledge of public events in a patient with severe amnesia.
MRI plays a key role in the preoperative staging of rectal cancers and choice of neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy. Yet, the acquisition and interpretation of rectum magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) turn ...out to be unequal, impacting patients'care. The present study aims at evaluating the quality of the acquisition of technical parameters of the rectal MRI performed by comparing them according to the various guidelines.
The medical MRI reports of all consecutive patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated in a curative intent, by preoperative RCT and completion surgery were retrospectively reviewed over two periods (January 2010-December 2014 and January 2018 and December 2020) according to international 2012 and 2016 ESGAR and 2017 SAR MRI recommendation reports.
During the first period (69 MRI performed), 58% of these MRI abided by the recommendations and 75% of essential criteria could be found in 25.5% of MRI reportings. During the second period (73 MRI performed), the protocol used by 6.8% of MR images abided by the 2016 Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) recommendations and 39.7% abided by the Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) recommendations. 75% of essential criteria could be found in 52.3% of MRI reportings and 90% of essential criteria could be found in 6.2% of MRI reportings.
In an era of increasing individualized patient care and conservative treatment focused on tumour response and prognostic factors, the present study showed that compliance to MRI protocols and reporting guidelines needs improving to upgrade patient care.
Abstract
Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) is classified as an astrocytic glioma occurring most often in children or young adults. Molecular alterations in PXA are not fully known, especially those ...associated with tumor progression. We describe a patient with several relapses of a PXA. The tumor showed an acquired ATRX loss through tumor evolution. We tested alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) with the C-circle test. While the test was negative in the first tumor, a high circle activity was detected in the last relapse, suggesting an acquired ALT phenotype. Our data not only confirm previous findings of the possible occurrence of ATRX mutations in PXA but also suggest that this alteration is linked to PXA progression. In small biopsies, tumors with ATRX loss, without IDH or histone mutation, pathologists should consider the diagnosis of PXA, especially if associated with BRAF V600E mutation, CDKN2A deletion, and ALT.
Abstract
We used the method of direct electrostimulation combined with navigated tractography to map the frontal "aslant" tract, enabling us to perform reliable anatomo-functional correlation in a ...patient undergoing awake surgery to remove a left frontal glioma. The findings enhanced our understanding of the organization of language within the human brain.
Abstract Childhood trauma strongly impacts emotional responses in schizophrenia. We have explored an association between early trauma and the amygdala functional connectivity using generalized ...psychophysiological interaction during an emotional task. Twenty-one schizophrenia patients and twenty-five controls were included. In schizophrenia patients, higher levels of sexual abuse and physical neglect during childhood were associated with decreased connectivity between the amygdala and the posterior cingulate/precuneus region. Additionally, patients showed decreased coupling between the amygdala and the posterior cingulate/precuneus region compared to controls. These findings suggest that early trauma could impact later connectivity in specific stress-related circuits affecting self-consciousness and social cognition in schizophrenia.
Background
Pseudoprogression in gliomas has been extensively described after radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy, but not after chemotherapy alone. Here we describe the occurrence of ...pseudoprogression in patients with anaplastic oligodendrogliomas treated with postoperative procarbazine, lomustine and vincristine (PCV) chemotherapy alone.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the medical and radiological files of patients with 1p/19q codeleted, IDH‐mutant anaplastic oligodendrogliomas treated with PCV chemotherapy alone who presented magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) modifications suggestive of tumour progression and in whom the final diagnosis was a pseudoprogression.
Results
We identified six patients. All patients underwent a surgical resection and were treated with PCV chemotherapy without radiotherapy. After a median of 11 months following the initiation of chemotherapy (range: 3–49 months), the patients developed asymptomatic white matter MRI modifications around the surgical cavity leading to the suspicion of a tumour progression. These modifications appeared as hyperintense on T2‐fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence, hypointense on T1 sequence, and lacked mass effect (0/6), contrast enhancement (0/6), restriction on diffusion‐weighted imaging (0/4), relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) increase on perfusion MRI (0/4), and hypermetabolism on 18F‐fluoro‐L‐dopa positron emission tomography (18F‐DOPA PET) scan (0/3). One patient underwent a surgical resection demonstrating no tumour recurrence; the five other patients were considered as having post‐therapeutic modifications based on imaging characteristics. After a median follow‐up of 4 years all patients were progression‐free.
Conclusions
Anaplastic oligodendroglioma patients treated with postoperative PCV chemotherapy alone occasionally develop T2/FLAIR hyperintensities around the surgical cavity that can wrongly suggest tumour progression. Multimodal imaging and close follow‐up should be considered in this situation.