ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Dysconnectivity hypothesis of schizophrenia has been increasingly emphasized. Recent researches showed that this dysconnectivity might be related to occurrence of auditory hallucination (AH). However, there is still no consistent conclusion. This study aimed to explore intrinsic dysconnectivity pattern of whole-brain functional networks at voxel level in schizophrenic with AH.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Auditory hallucinated patients group (n = 42 APG), no hallucinated patients group (n = 42 NPG) and normal controls (n = 84 NCs) were analyzed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The functional connectivity metrics index (degree centrality [DC]) across the entire brain networks was calculated and evaluated among three groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>DC decreased in the bilateral putamen and increased in the left superior frontal gyrus in all the patients. However, in APG, the changes of DC were more obvious compared with NPG. Symptomology scores were negatively correlated with the DC of bilateral putamen in all patients. AH score of APG positively correlated with the DC in left superior frontal gyrus but negatively correlated with the DC in bilateral putamen.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our findings corroborated that schizophrenia was characterized by functional dysconnectivity, and the abnormal DC in bilateral putamen and left superior frontal gyrus might be crucial in the occurrence of AH.</p>
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Young Adult , Brain Mapping , Gyrus Cinguli , Pathology , Hallucinations , Pathology , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Methods , Putamen , Pathology , Schizophrenia , PathologyABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Reliable early prediction response to therapy and time-to-progression (TTP) remain an important goal of high-grade gliomas (HGGs) research. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) has been applied with variable success in clinical application, and we hypothesize that (1)H-MRS in predictive value should perform well as a marker of TTP in patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) after surgery.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>(1)H-MRS was performed before surgery on 25 patients who had undergone resection of HGGs; then the ratios of lipid/creatine (Lip/Cr) and myo-inositol/creatine (mI/Cr) were determined in the solid tumor. RT response was classified as follows: complete resolution (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PD) by comparison of pre-treatment and post-radiotherapy scans. TTP was defined at the time to radiographic progression by MacDonald criteria. Correlation was evaluated between the ratios of Lip/Cr, mI/Cr and treatment response, TTP. The chi-square test and Pearson correlation test were used for data analyses.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Multivariate analysis revealed that the prognostic value of spectroscopic variables was independent of age, sex, WHO histologic grade, extent of surgery, and Karnofsky score (KPS). The correlation between the ratios of lipid/Cr and TTP was significant (r = 0.894, P = 0.000), and between the ratios of mI/Cr and TTP was also significant (r = 0.891, P = 0.000). As predicted, RT response correlated significantly with TTP (r = 0.59, P = 0.002): median TTP was 49.9 days for patients with PD compared with 202.7 days for SD, 208.0 days for PR, and 234.5 days for CR.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The ratios of Lip/Cr and mI/Cr of the solid tumor region before surgery could provide important information in predicting RT response and TTP in patients with HGGs treated by radiation alone after surgery.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Glioma , Radiotherapy , General Surgery , Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy , Methods , Multivariate AnalysisABSTRACT
Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristic of regional cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with Wilson's disease (WD) using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET.Methods Thirteen WD patients and 12 normal controls were studied by brain 18F-FDG PET, and the data were analyzed by visual analysis, semi-quantification and statistical parametric mapping (SPM). The radioactivity ratios of lenticular nuclei, caudate, thalamus and cerebellum to cerebral cortex and the ratio of lenticular nuclei to caudate were calculated, respectively. SPSS 11.0 software for statistics was also used to analyze the data. Results In WD patients, radioactivity of lenticular nuclei and candate was significantly decreased compared with controls. The radioactivity ratios of lenticular nuclei and caudate to cerebral cortex in WD patients were both significantly lower than that in normal controls (0.95±0.05 vs 1.26±0.05, t =15, P < 0.05 ; 1.02±0.06 vs 1.17±0.05, t = 8, P < 0.05), and the ratio of lenticular nuclei to caudate in WD patients was significantly higher than that in normal controls (0.93±0.06 vs 1.09±0.06, t =9, P< 0.05). Conclusion As compared with normal controls, patients with WD had significantly decreased glucose utilization in the basal ganglia, especially in the lenticullar nuclei.
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<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To deduce all potential ligands undiscovered experimentally by searching all the proteins containing same C-termini, which can bind a certain PDZ domain.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We developed a JAVA program for searching short exact sequence matches at C-terminus. According to the known C-termini, which PDZ domains recognized experimentally, Swissprot database has been searched by this program for all potential ligands.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Some PDZ domains may have more potential ligand proteins, which are undiscovered yet experimentally. These bioinformatic results also provide clues for studying functions of hypothetical proteins and PDZ domains' protein interactions in many different organisms.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results may provide useful clues for discovering potential functions of hypothetical proteins and new functions of known proteins.</p>
Subject(s)
Amino Acid Sequence , Binding Sites , Conserved Sequence , Ligands , Protein Binding , Proteins , Chemistry , Metabolism , SoftwareABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the presence of occult brain tissue damage in patients with relapsing neuromyelitis optica(RNMO)and its possible mechanism by using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).Methods DTI scans were performed in 16 patients with RNMO and 16 sex-and age-matched healthy controls.Histogram analysis of mean diffusivity (MD)and fractional anisotropy (FA)was performed in brain tissue (BT),white matter (WM)and gray matter (GM)to detect the presence of occult brain tissue damage in RNMO patients.Region of interest(ROI )analysis of MD and FA was also performed in 6 dedicated regions with or without direct connection with spinal cord or optic nerve to determine the relationship between occult brain tissue damage and the damage of spinal cord and optic nerve.Results Patients with RNMO had a significantly higher average MD of the BT[RNMO(0.95?0.02)? 10~(-3)mm~2/s,controls (0.91?0.03)?10~(-3)mm~2/s,t = 3.940,P