Frontiers in Neurology最新文献

Endovascular mechanical thrombectomy (EMT) is an effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke and identifying the precise thrombus size remains key to a successful EMT. However, no imaging modality has been able to provide this information simultaneously and efficiently in an emergency setting. The present study introduces a novel technique named dual-channel bolus contrast injection (Dc-BCI) for determining thrombus size and location during EMT. In the in vitro study, the Dc-BCI demonstrated an accurate projection of the thrombus size, as the actual thrombus diameter (R² = 0.92, p < 0.01) and length (R² = 0.94, p < 0.01) exhibited a high degree of correlation with that of obtained from Dc-BCI. Consequently, between February 2023 and August 2024, 87 patients diagnosed with acute cerebral large vessel occlusions were enrolled in the study and received EMT for the treatment of acute cerebral large vessel occlusions. The Dc-BCI was successfully performed in all patients to measure the diameter and length of the thrombus. These information were used to select an appropriate stent-retriever for EMT. The restoration of blood flow was achieved in 84 patients (96.6%) to an mTICI score of 2b/3. Additionally, a low incidence of postoperative complications was observed (e.g., subarachnoid hemorrhage 8% and cerebral hemorrhage 5.7%). In conclusion, it can be posited that the Dc-BCI has the potential to enhance the outcomes of EMT, as it is capable of revealing the thrombus size information, which optimizes the interaction between the stent retriever and the thrombus, while simultaneously reducing the risk of vascular injury that is associated with the prolonged use of the stent retriever.

Background: Compared with the general population, patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (ESHD) exhibit a higher incidence of cognitive impairment. Early identification of cognitive impairment in these patients is crucial for reducing disability and mortality rates. Examining the characteristics of static and dynamic regional spontaneous activities in ESHD cases may provide insights into neuropathological damage in these patients.

Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance images were acquired from 40 patients with early ESHD (3 or 4 times/week for more than 30 days but less than 12 months) and 31 healthy matched controls. Group differences in regional static and dynamic regional homogeneity (ReHo) were identified, and correlations examined with clinical variables, including neuropsychological scale scores, while controlling for covariates. Receiving operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were conducted to assess the accuracy of ReHo abnormalities for predicting cognitive decline among early ESHD.

Results: The ESHD group exhibited significantly reduced static and dynamic ReHo in the temporal and parietal lobes, including regions involved in basal ganglia-thalamus-cortex circuits, the default mode network, and ventral attentional network. Several static and dynamic ReHo abnormalities (including those in the right parietal and left middle temporal gyrus) were significantly correlated with neurocognitive scale scores. In addition, the dynamic ReHo value of the left superior temporal gyrus was positively correlated with depression scale scores. Comparing the ROC curve area revealed that numerous brain regions with altered ReHo can effectively distinguish between patients with ESHD and those without cognitive impairment.

Conclusion: Our study found that spontaneous activity alterations located in the basal ganglia-thalamus-cortex circuit, default mode network, and ventral attentional network are associated with the severity of cognitive deficits and negative emotion in early ESHD patients. These findings provide further insight into the relationship between cognitive impairment and underlying neuropathophysiological mechanisms underlying the interplay between the kidneys and the nervous system in ESRD patients, and provide further possibilities for developing effective clinical intervention measures.

Background and aims: Elevated cardiac troponin (cTn) levels (representing myocardial injury) are frequently found in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH). Overall, the relationship between sICH and elevated cTn levels is not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate patient characteristics and clinical parameters in patients with sICH and myocardial injury.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational study based on the Mannheim Stroke database. Consecutive patient cases with acute symptomatic sICH and available high-sensitivity cTn I (hs-cTnI) at hospital admission between 2015 and 2021 were included. Group comparisons of patient, clinical and imaging characteristics were performed between groups with and without hs-cTnI elevation. In addition, variables with suspected predictive clinical significance for hs-cTnI elevation were analyzed for their predictive value using multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results: A total of 93/498 patients with sICH (18.7%; mean age 73 ± 15 years; 51.9% females) had a hs-cTnI elevation. These patients did not have a more pronounced cerebrovascular risk profile and had a comparably low prevalence of coronary artery disease (18.5%, p = NS) compared to those without elevated hs-cTnI levels. Elevated hs-cTnI levels had no impact on in-hospital mortality (21.5 vs. 20.5%, p = NS) or functional outcome at discharge. Solely clinically relevant aortic valve stenosis, graded as moderate or higher, independently predicted hs-cTnI elevation (p < 0.003). Other cardiac preconditions or neurological functional parameters did not serve as significant predictors.

Conclusions: Myocardial injury is common in patients with sICH. Unlike in AIS patients, elevated hs-cTnI levels were not associated with a worse functional or mortality-related in-hospital outcome. Except for clinically relevant aortic valve stenosis, structural heart disease had no significant influence as a predictor. We therefore suggest that hs-cTnI elevation in patients with sICH is related to acute myocardial damage along the brain-heart axis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1519894.].

Introduction: Dynamic survival analysis has become an effective approach for predicting time-to-event outcomes based on longitudinal data in neurology, cognitive health, and other health-related domains. With advancements in machine learning, several new methods have been introduced, often using a two-stage approach: first extracting features from longitudinal trajectories and then using these to predict survival probabilities.

Methods: This work compares several combinations of longitudinal and survival models, assessing their predictive performance across different training strategies. Using synthetic and real-world cognitive health data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), we explore the strengths and limitations of each model.

Results: Among the considered survival models, the Random Survival Forest consistently delivered strong results across different datasets, longitudinal models, and training strategies. On the ADNI dataset the best performing method was Random Survival Forest with the last visit benchmark and super landmarking with an average tdAUC of 0.96 and brier score of 0.07. Several other methods, including Cox Proportional Hazards and the Recurrent Neural Network, achieve similar scores. While the tested longitudinal models often struggled to outperform simple benchmarks, neural network models showed some improvement in simulated scenarios with sufficiently informative longitudinal trajectories.

Discussion: Our findings underscore the importance of aligning model selection and training strategies with the specific characteristics of the data and the target application, providing valuable insights that can inform future developments in dynamic survival analysis.

Aim: Acute kidney injury (AKI) and coagulation disorders are two common complications of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that are associated with poor prognosis. However, the relationship between early coagulation disorders and the risk of severe AKI in TBI patients remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the association between early coagulation disorders and the risk of severe AKI in TBI patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, adults diagnosed with TBI were selected from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-IV database. The outcome was the risk of severe AKI within 7 days of ICU admission in TBI patients. Covariates including sociodemographic information, vital signs, scoring systems, and laboratory parameters were extracted from the database. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to assess the association between early coagulation disorders and the risk of severe AKI within 7 days of admission to the ICU in TBI patients. Subgroup analyses based on age and the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score were further conducted to assess the association.

Results: A total of 846 patients were finally included, of whom 187 (22.10%) had severe AKI. After adjusting for all covariates, the TBI patients with early coagulation disorders had a higher risk of developing severe AKI within 7 days of ICU admission compared to the TBI patients without early coagulation disorders (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.40, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-1.89), particularly among those aged ≥65 years (HR = 1.46, 95%CI: 1.01-2.04) and those with a GCS score ≤ 13 (HR = 1.91, 95%CI: 1.16-3.15).

Conclusion: TBI patients with early coagulation disorders had a higher risk of developing severe AKI within 7 days of ICU admission. This may serve as a promising biomarker and could be helpful for managing kidney health in TBI patients.

Although Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) have distinct pathophysiological mechanisms, they are both neurodegenerative conditions that involve mitochondrial dysfunction. MS is an autoimmune disease that is characterized by demyelination and neuroinflammation; and LHON is a mitochondrial disorder predominantly affecting the optic nerves, resulting in severe vision loss. Recent studies have highlighted the coexistence of these two conditions, particularly in females, suggesting that mitochondrial variants in LHON may predispose individuals to develop MS or affect its progression. Similar to MS, LHON-MS presents with visual impairment, neurological deficits, white matter lesions, and brain atrophy, which further supports a shared underlying pathophysiology. While MS is not inherently a mitochondrial disorder, its neuroinflammatory processes can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. Reciprocally, mitochondrial impairment may be exacerbated in LHON-MS. Therefore, the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in these diseases is central, with impaired mitochondrial function contributing to cellular damage and neuroinflammation. This review explores the intersections of MS and LHON, emphasizing the need for further research to better understand mitochondrial dysfunction in these disorders.

Background: Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP) is a heterogeneous group of inherited neurological disorders characterized by progressive weakness and spasticity in the lower limbs, significantly affecting gait capacity (endurance and speed). Although specific interventions have been already investigated, there is currently a lack of comprehensive, structured neurorehabilitation programs to improve gait capacity in adults with HSP. Thus, this protocol aims to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a composite training targeting flexibility, muscle strength, motor control, balance, and aerobic capacity.

Methods: 20 adults diagnosed with HSP will participate in 10 to 16 therapist-guided sessions (intervention), lasting 60 to 120 minutes each, occurring once or twice weekly based on individual preferences. Depending on the number and frequency of sessions, the intervention period may vary in between five to 10 weeks. Upon completion, participants will receive a transfer package (manual, video tutorials) to stimulate long-term exercise at home. Assessments will take place before intervention (T0), at the end of the intervention (T1), and 12 weeks post-T1 (T2). Primary outcomes will focus on feasibility (recruitment, retention, adherence, absence of adverse events, and patient's satisfaction). Secondary outcomes will evaluate improvements in gait capacity and specific contributing factors such as reduced spasticity, increased muscle strength, and improved balance.

Relevance: The significance of this protocol is to provide valuable insights for clinicians regarding the feasibility and potential efficacy of a comprehensive, clinical-oriented program to improve gait capacity in adults with HSP, and inform future translational research studies in the field.

Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT06742697.

Objective: Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) is the treatment of choice for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), but some patients develop early neurological deterioration (END) within 24 h after IVT. Therefore, we aimed to identify predictors of END in AIS patients following treatment with IVT.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 621 AIS patients who received IVT with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) at the Stroke Centre of the People's Hospital of Lu'an City, China, from July 2018 to July 2023. Clinical data, including demographic characteristics, clinical assessment results, underlying diseases, and laboratory indices, were collected at the time of admission. The patients were divided into training and validation cohorts, after which LASSO regression was applied to select the most important predictor variables, and multivariate logistic regression was used to construct a nomogram. The discriminative power of the model was determined by calculating the area under the curve (AUC), and calibration and decision curve analyses (DCA) were performed.

Results: The platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.01-1.01, p < 0.001), mean platelet corpuscular volume (MPV) (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.67-2.69, p < 0.001), and admission NIHSS score (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.16-1.36, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with the development of END. The AUC of the prediction model constructed from these three factors was 0.896 (95% CI 0.862-0.93), and the calibration curve was close to the diagonal.

Conclusion: This predictive model can be used for the early identification of the risk of developing END after IVT and development of active interventions to improve the prognosis of AIS.

Background: To investigate the risk factors for symptomatic adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) 5 years after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and develop and evaluate predictive models.

Methods: A total of 655 patients who underwent ACDF were randomly assigned to the training set (n = 393) or validation set (n = 262) at a ratio of 6:4. Independent predictors of ASD were selected by LASSO regression and logistic regression analysis. A calibration curve, ROC curve and DCA curve were used to evaluate the model performance.

Results: LASSO regression combined with logistic regression analysis revealed that age, cervical canal stenosis, smaller T1S and smaller cervical lordosis (CL) were risk factors for ASD 5 years after surgery. Nomographic analysis using appeal factors was used to predict the risk of ASD. The area under the ROC curve was 0.711 (95% CI: 0.643-0.780) in the training set and 0.701 (95% CI: 0.618-0.785) in the validation set. The calibration curve showed no significant bias in either set. The DCA indicated that using the nomogram to predict the risk of ASD would be more accurate when the risk threshold probability was 12-53% in the training set and 6-43% in the validation set.

Conclusion: Age, cervical spinal stenosis, a smaller T1S, and a smaller CL are independent risk factors for ASD 5 years after ACDF surgery. Based on these four indicators, we constructed a new clinical prediction model that has a certain predictive effect and is conducive to clinical decision-making and treatment planning.