Neurology
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Timing of Biomarker Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease
In a longitudinal multicenter, nested case-control study of cognitive normal participants from China, the time courses of key Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers were identified during the 20 years preceding clinical diagnosis of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease.
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Post-Traumatic Epilepsy and the Risk of Dementia
A subset of people with head injury will develop post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). This prospective cohort study demonstrated a 4.5-fold increased risk of dementia in those with PTE compared to people without head trauma or epilepsy, and that this risk exceeds that observed in people with head trauma or epilepsy alone.
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Acute Small Fiber Neuropathy
Acute-onset small fiber neuropathy most often is precipitated by infections, medication side effects, or vaccinations. Most cases recover spontaneously.
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Cholinergic Basal Forebrain Involvement in Posture, Gait, and Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease
The features of gait difficulty, postural instability, and cognitive deficits in patients with Parkinson’s disease appear to be attributable to degeneration of cholinergic basal forebrain systems, including loss of fiber tract integrity and reduction of cortical projections.
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Medications for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: A Note of Caution
In this post hoc secondary analysis of a Phase II/III randomized clinical trial of davunetide for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), investigators found that patients with PSP prescribed benzodiazepine derivatives experienced more rapid worsening of their PSP Rating Scale scores over time.
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Neuropeptides in Patients with Restless Legs Syndrome
The diurnal onset of restless legs syndrome (RLS) has been replicated in a mouse model using central instillation of the main melanocortin agonist, α-MSH, which stimulates excessive locomotion and grooming in rodents as well as a state of hyperalgesia. The actions of β-endorphin (β-EDP) oppose those of α-MSH, since β-EDP promotes passivity and analgesia. In this study, these prohormones were measured in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid in patients with RLS and compared to controls. Patients with RLS had elevated levels of α-MSH and lower levels of β-EDP compared to the control group.
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Posterior Cortical Atrophy: An Important Variant of Alzheimer’s Disease
This is the first comprehensive international study of patients with posterior cortical atrophy, including clinical, biomarker, and pathology data from 1,092 patients. These patients present at a younger age, have a very high prevalence of amyloid positivity on cerebrospinal fluid studies and positron emission tomography, and 94% had autopsy evidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Identifying Risk Factors for Young-Onset Dementia
In this large, population-based prospective cohort study, the investigators identified 15 risk factors that have strong associations with young-onset dementia. Modifications of these risk factors might delay the onset of, or prevent the development of, young-onset dementia.
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Sleeping Away Dementia
In this long-term observational study of sleep efficiency in the Framingham Heart Study population, researchers found a strong correlation between a decline in duration of slow-wave sleep during aging and the risk of incident dementia from all causes. However, a direct cause-and-effect relationship cannot be determined from this observational study.
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Examining Microbiome Metabolites and Parkinson’s Disease
A Mendelian randomization study shows that trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and its precursor metabolites are not associated with risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) but have both positive and negative causal effects on some indicators of PD severity and progression.