Ideggyogyaszati Szemle-Clinical Neuroscience最新文献

Aneurysmal bone cysts are benign but locally aggressive bone tumours, most often affecting children and young adults. In this case report, we present the clinical  picture of a 15-year-old boy with progressive, chronic back pain. An MRI of thoracic spine  confirmed a T2 cystic spinal tumour. After considering potential options surgical removal was our choice and gross total removal was achieved with T1-3 short-segment fixation. Aneurysmal bone cysts are often rapidly expanding lesions with vascular  transformation. In order to avoid irreversible damage, in addition to early diagnosis, it is necessary to carefully consider the therapeutic options, perform surgical removal and stabilization as necessary. In case of the presented patient, extensive surgical removal and short-segmentation were performed. At 18 months of follow-up, he had no complaints and was asymptomatic. Follow-up imaging studies showed no residual or recurrent tumour to date.

Background and purpose:

Glioblastoma (GBM), a highly aggressive form of brain tumors, has been extensively studied using OMICS methods, and the most characteristic molecular determinants have been incorporated into the histopathological diagnosis. Research data, nevertheless, only partially have been adopted in clinical practice. Here we aimed to present results of our epige­no­mic GBM profiling to better understand early and late determinants of these tumors, and to share main elements of our findings with practicing professionals.

Methods:

GBM specimens were surgically obtained after first diagnosis (GBM1) and at recurrence (GBM2). DNA was extracted from 24 sequential pairs of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissues. The Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing kit was used for library preparation. Pooled libraries were sequenced on an Illumina NextSeq 550 instrument. Methylation controls (MC) were obtained from a publicly available database. Bioinformatic analyses were performed to identify differentially methylated pathways and their elements in cohorts of MC, GBM1 and GBM2.

Results:

Several differentially methylated pathways involved in basic intracellular and brain tissue developmental processes were identified in the GBM1 vs. MC and GBM2 vs. MC comparisons. Among differentially me­thylated pathways, those involved in immune regulation, neurotransmitter (particularly dopaminergic, noradrenergic and glutaminergic) responses and regulation of stem cell differentiation and proliferation stood out in the GBM2 vs. GBM1 comparisons.

Conclusion:

Our study revealed biological complexity of early and late gliomagenesis encompassing mechanisms from basic intracellular through distorted neurodevelopmental processes to more specific immune and highjacked neurotransmitter pathways in the tumor microenvironment. These findings may offer considerations for therapeutic approaches.

Background and purpose:

The aim of the study was to investigate the question: Can MRI radiomics analysis of the periaqueductal gray region elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying various migraine subtypes, and can a machine learning model using these radiomics features accurately differentiate between migraine patients and healthy individuals, as well as between migraine subtypes, including atypical cases with overlapping symptoms?

Methods:

The study analyzed initial MRI images of individuals taken after their first migraine diagnosis, and additional MRI scans were acquired from healthy subjects. Radiomics modeling was applied to analyze all the MRI images in the periaqueductal gray region. The dataset was randomized, and oversampling was used if there was class imbalance between groups. The optimal algorithm-based feature selection method was employed to select the most important 5-10 features to differentiate between the two groups. The classification performance of AI algorithms was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis to calculate the area under the curve, classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity values. Participants were required to have a confirmed diagnosis of either episodic migraine, probable migraine, or chronic migraine. Patients with aura, those who used migraine-preventive medication within the past six months, or had chronic illnesses, psychiatric disorders, cerebrovascular conditions, neoplastic diseases, or other headache types were excluded from the study. Additionally, 102 healthy subjects who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included. 

Results:

The algorithm-based information gain method for feature reduction had the best performance among all methods, with the first-order, gray-level size zone matrix, and gray-level co-occurrence matrix classes being the dominant feature classes. The machine learning model correctly classified 82.4% of migraine patients from healthy subjects. Within the migraine group, 74.1% of the episodic migraine-probable migraine patients and 90.5% of the chronic migraine patients were accurately classified. No significant difference was found between probable migraine and episodic migraine patients in terms of the periaqueductal gray region radiomics features. The kNN algorithm showed the best performance for classifying episodic migraine-probable migraine subtypes, while the Random Forest algorithm demonstrated the best performance for classifying the migraine group and chronic migraine subtype.

Conclusion:

A radiomics-based machine learning model, utilizing standard MR images obtained during the diagnosis and follow-up of migraine patients, shows promise not only in aiding migraine diagnosis and classification for clinical approach, but also in understanding the neurological mechanisms underlying migraines. 

Background and purpose:

Atrial fibrillation diagnosed after stroke (AFDAS) is a new term used for AF resulting from autonomic dysregulation. It is associated with a lower stroke recurrence compared to patients with known AF before a stroke (KAF). The aim of the study was to explore the characteristics and mortality rates in AFDAS patients.

Methods:

134 ischemic stroke patients (66.1±14.2 years old, n=73 male) were consecutively included in the study. While patients who had known AF with anticoagulant therapy were grouped as KAF, patients with newly documented AF rhythm (either by daily ECG or ambulatory ECG monitoring) were classified as AFDAS. All patients were followed for 1 year to obtain all-cause mortality, cardiac mortality, and neurogenic mortality.

Results:

Of the 134 stroke patients, AF was detected newly in 38 patients and grouped as AFDAS. KAF patients had higher CHA2DS2VASc scores, hs-CRP and NT-proBNP levels, and more insular cortex involvement than the SR group. During the one-year follow-up, 35 stroke patients died. The mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with KAF (12/22; 54.5%) while the mortality rates were similar between AFDAS patients (11/38; 28.9%) and patients with sinus rhythm (SR) (12/74; 16.2%). KAF was an independent predictor when adjusted by age, sex, CHA2DS2VASc and NIHSS scores, and insular cortex involvement. While AFDAS had increased the mortality risk compared to SR, the difference was not significant in univariable and multivariable models.

Conclusion:

AFDAS patients have similar CHA2DS2VASc scores and mortality rates to patients with SR, which implies that AFDAS might be a relatively benign form of AF.

Background and purpose:

Epidural fibrosis after all spinal surgeries is an important surgical issue. Various biological and non-biological materials have been tried to inhibit epidural fibrosis, which is deemed to be the most important cause of pain after spinal surgery. Olive oil, nigella sativa oil and soybean oil employed in oral nutrition in clinics involving liquid fatty acids, palmatic acid, linoleic acid, stearic acid and palmitoleic acid. The effectiveness of olive oil, nigella sativa oil and soybean oil on epidural fibrosis was researched on for the first time in laminectomy model.

Methods:

Fifty adult male Wistar albino rats weighing between 300 and 400 grams were used in the research. A total of 5 groups were formed: sham (Group I) (n = 10), no application was created; Group II (n = 10) 1 cc saline; Group III (n = 10) 1 cc olive oil; Group IV (n = 10) 1 cc nigella sativa oil; Group V (n = 10); 1 cc soybean oil was applied topically to the epidural region after laminectomy. The total spine of the rats was dissected, histopathological and immuno­chemical measurements were conducted. Neuro-histopathological results were scored semi-quantitatively in terms of vascular modification, neuron degeneration, gliosis and bleeding criteria.

Results:

The lowest level of fibrosis and connective tissue proliferation was observed in the group where nigella sativa oil was used after the operation, followed by the group treated with olive oil and lastly with the group given soybean oil.

Conclusion:

Nigella sativa oil and olive oil are very efficient for lowering the degree of epidural fibrosis and adhesions following laminectomy and can be employed as a simple, inexpensive and highly biocompatible material in clinical practice.

Background and purpose:

Hippocampi are the structures located in the medial depths of both temporal lobes, mainly responsible for memory, navigation and regulation of emotions, and activated during the processing of pain and the modification of nociceptive stimuli. Chronic pain is thought to have stress-like detrimental modulatory effects on the hippocampal neurogenesis, and adults with chronic pain have been showed to have lower hippocampal volumes. The present study aims to show the relationship between headaches and hippocampal volume by comparing the right, left and total hippocampal volumes of patients with Episodic Migraine (EM), Chronic Migraine (CM) and Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) to those of the healthy control group using the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique, also by looking into the correlation between the number of painful days and attacks and the current hippocampal volumes.

Methods:

A total of 30 patients (10 EM, 10 CM, 10 MOH) from 18 to 45 years of age diagnosed with migraine and also followed up by the neurology outpatient clinic from February to May 2022 and 30 healthy volunteers of similar ages and sexes to the patient group were included in the study. In addition to the routine cranial MRI protocols of all the participants, further cranial images were taken with the addition of the T1W 3D FSPGR sequence adjusted to the hippocampal body in the coronal plane and covering the whole brain. Hippocampal volumes were measured manually.

Results:

There were 27 females and 3 males in the patient group versus 28 females and 2 males in the control group, and no statistically significant differences in age and sex were found between the groups. The control group had higher average right, left and total hippocampal volumes than the whole patient group, but only the total hippocampal volume was significantly different between the groups. There was a negative correlation between the number of painful days and the measured right hippocampal and total hippocampal volumes; however, the measured values were not statistically significant. 

Conclusion:

It was concluded that the changes in the hippocampal volume in migraine might be associated with the pain characteristics of the disorder. 

Background and purpose:

Spinal surgery has an important place in neurosurgery practice. Surgical procedures on the lumbar spine include stabilization, discectomy, foraminotomy and decompression. Lumbar and lower thoracic spinal surgery can be safely performed under spinal anesthesia (SA). However, there are not many studies on the safety and efficacy of spinal anesthesia in patients who have undergone long segment stabilization surgery.

Methods:

Patients who underwent lumbar and lower thoracic spinal instrumentation operations with general anesthesia (GA) or spinal anesthesia were included in the study. Demographic characteristics and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status of the patients were all recorded. Visual analog scale and quality of life scores were obtained before and after the operation.

Results:

572 patients with SA and 598 patients with GA were included in the study, 352 / 347 had only-lumbar region and 220 / 251 had thoracolumbar region operations, respectively. All patients underwent short/long segment stabilization. Mean operating time was 106.1 / 156.7 minutes. Average blood loss was 375 / 390 mL. All patients were mobilized 16-24 / 24-36 hours after surgery. In our patient group, there were both high-risk and normal-risk subgroups in terms of ASA physical status. During the clinical follow-up, a statistically significant improvement was found for VAS and quality of life scores for both groups (p<0.05).

Conclusion:

Spinal anesthesia appears to be a very effective method in lumbar and thoracolumbar surgery. Along with careful patient selection, using this highly effective method provides a comfortable space for the surgeon.

Background and purpose:

Although headaches are often comorbid with psychological symptoms, the underlying psychological processes, e.g. the role of personality dimensions as headache determinants remains unclear. Studies found associations between headaches and various personality traits; according to the Big Five model of personality, persons suffering from headaches exhibit a higher rate in neuroticism, while a lower rate in extraversion, openness to experiences and positive emotions. This is the first study to clarify the associations among duration, intensity, and frequency of headaches and personality dimensions. Through this study we could get into the personality dimensions in the background of pain experience and that which personality dimensions bear a part in the behaviour of the persons, who suffered from headache, but do not seek treatment through this complaint. 

Methods:

Treated (Group1) and untreated (Group2) headache patients and healthy controls (Group3) were investigated (total of 360 participants). The main headache components of intensity, duration, and frequency were used as dependent variables with personality dimensions in the Big Five concept investigated by the NEO-PI-R Personality Inventory.

Results:

Employing multiple regression analysis, facets of personality described 14.7% of headache intensity, 10.9 % of duration, and 18.7 % of frequency variance. Group1 and Group2 reached significantly higher values on the dimension of anxiety, depression, and vulnerability to stress than Group3. Group1 showed a significantly higher value on trust personality dimension than Group3 and Group2. Group3 exhibited a significantly higher value in the trust dimension than Group2. Concerning vulnerability to stress, the highest value was yielded by the “treated and suffering from headaches” group and there was a significant difference also with the “untreated and suffering from headaches” group and with the control group. In this dimension, the “untreated and suffering from headaches” group’s point value was significantly higher than the control group’s (p<0.01, U=-4.501).

Conclusion:

Our study demonstrates that the three headache components are not independent from personality traits, and personality traits may interact with treatment seeking behavior even in the presence of significant headache complaints. The role of the personality traits are significant in the intensity, duration and frequency of headaches. 

Background and purpose:

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP), cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP), and brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) response characteristics and to understand the pathophy­siology of vestibular dysfunction in female migraineurs with vertigo symptoms. We also aimed to assess the electrophysiological di­­agnostic significance of the VEMP respon­ses in vestibular migraine (VM). 

Methods:

23 patients with migraine without aura (MoA), 23 patients with VM, and 20 sex-and age-matched healthy controls, a total of 66 female participants were enrolled in this study. The outcome parameters were asymmetry ratios (ARs), amplitudes of oVEMP, cVEMP, N1P1, P13N23, and the respective latencies (mean ± SD). From the BAEP graphs, absolute and interpeak interval latencies of waves were analyzed. 

Results:

30.4% of the MoA group and 21.7% of the VM group had uni- or bilaterally absent cVEMP responses which were statistically significant only in the MoA group (p=0.035) in comparison to control group. Both groups displayed statistically insignificant absent or asymmetrical responses for oVEMP (13.1%). Cervical VEMP P13 and N23 latency, peak-to-peak amplitude, interaural latencies, and amplitude ARs did not show any significant difference between MoA and VM patients and healthy controls. No significant difference was detected among the three groups in the oVEMP and BAEP parameters.

Conclusion:

Although absent cVEMP responses were more common in MoA and VM patients than in healthy individuals, the VEMP and BAEP test results should not be used in the differential diagnosis of VM and MoA. 

Introduction - Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are effective drugs in cancer treatment that block immune checkpoints and stimulate an attack on cancer cells. However, various side effects were reported with ICIs. Peripheral nervous system (PNS) side effects are three times more frequent than those in the central nervous system.
Case report - A 63-year-old male patient was admitted to our department with a 10-day history of dyspnea, diplopia, and generalized weakness. He had a diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer, which was treated with pembrolizumab. His neurological symptoms appeared one week after the second course of pembrolizumab, and gradually worsened. His neurological examination showed nasal speech, bilateral ptosis, tongue and neck flexor weakness, prominent asymmetrical upper limb weakness, and mild lower limb weakness. Deep tendon reflexes and sensory examination were normal. He had an elevated creatine kinase level (4430 U/L). Needle electromyography (EMG) showed a myopathic pattern, and single fiber EMG demonstrated an increased jitter in the right frontal muscle. Pembrolizumab treatment was discontinued, and intravenous methylprednisolone followed by intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) were initiated. His symptoms gradually improved. However, his weakness began to worsen after a month, and repeated nerve conduction studies showed a predominantly motor axonal polyneuropathy. Thereafter, the patient was treated with IVIg infusions (0.4 g/every two weeks) to maintain his motor function.
Conclusion - Our case showed that ICIs could simultaneously or sequentially cause damage in multiple domains of the PNS. Early recognition of these adverse events is essential since the outcome is favorable with rapid cessation of the causative ICI and administration of immune-modulator treatment.