Structural Brain Alterations in Individuals Post-COVID-19: A Systematic Review / Alteraciones Estructurales Cerebrales en Individuos Post COVID-19: Una Revisión Sistemática

SUMMARY: Although COVID-19 is primarily considered a respiratory pathology, it has been observed to impact other bodily systems, including the nervous system. While several studies have investigated anatomical changes in brain structures, such as volume or thickness post-COVID-19, there are no comprehensive reviews of these changes using imaging techniques for a holistic understanding. The aim of this study was to systematically analyze the literature on brain changes observed through neuroimaging after COVID-19. We conducted a systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines using Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, Pubmed, Sciencedirect, and LitCOVID. We selected studies that included adult patients during or after COVID-19 development, a control group or pre-infection images, and morphometric measurements using neuroimaging. We used the MSQ scale to extract information on sample characteristics, measured anatomical structures, imaging technique, main results, and methodological quality for each study. Out of 1126 identified articles, we included 19 in the review, encompassing 1155 cases and 1284 controls. The results of these studies indicated a lower volume of the olfactory bulb and variable increases or decreases in cortical and limbic structures' volumes and thicknesses. Studies suggest that brain changes occur post-COVID-19, primarily characterized by a smaller olfactory bulb. Additionally, there may be variations in cortical and limbic volumes and thicknesses due to inflammation or neuroplasticity, but these findings are not definitive. These differences may be attributed to methodological, geographical, and temporal variations between studies. Thus, additional studies are required to provide a more comprehensive and quantitative view of the evidence.

Aunque el COVID-19 se considera principalmente una patología respiratoria, se ha observado que afecta otros sistemas corporales, incluido el sistema nervioso. Si bien varios estudios han investigado los cambios anatómicos en las estructuras cerebrales, como el volumen o el grosor posteriores a la COVID-19, no hay revisiones exhaustivas de estos cambios que utilicen técnicas de imágenes para una comprensión holística. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar sistemáticamente la literature sobre los cambios cerebrales observados a través de neuroimagen después de COVID-19. Realizamos una revisión sistemática de acuerdo con las pautas PRISMA utilizando Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, Pubmed, Sciencedirect y LitCOVID. Seleccionamos estudios que incluyeron pacientes adultos durante o después del desarrollo de COVID-19, un grupo de control o imágenes previas a la infección y mediciones morfométricas mediante neuroimagen. Utilizamos la escala MSQ para extraer información sobre las características de la muestra, las estructuras anatómicas medidas, la técnica de imagen, los principales resultados y la calidad metodológica de cada estudio. De 1126 artículos identificados, incluimos 19 en la revisión, que abarca 1155 casos y 1284 controles. Los resultados de estos estudios indicaron un menor volumen del bulbo olfatorio y aumentos o disminuciones variables en los volúmenes y espesores de las estructuras corticales y límbicas. Los estudios sugieren que los cambios cerebrales ocurren después del COVID-19, caracterizados principalmente por un bulbo olfatorio más pequeño. Además, pueden haber variaciones en los volúmenes y grosores corticales y límbicos debido a la inflamación o la neuroplasticidad, pero estos hallazgos no son definitivos. Estas diferencias pueden atribuirse a variaciones metodológicas, geográficas y temporales entre estudios. Por lo tanto, se requieren estudios adicionales para proporcionar una visión más completa y cuantitativa de la evidencia.

Clinical Decision on Disorders of Consciousness After Acquired Brain Injury: Stepping Forward / 神经科学通报·英文版

Major advances have been made over the past few decades in identifying and managing disorders of consciousness (DOC) in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI), bringing the transformation from a conceptualized definition to a complex clinical scenario worthy of scientific exploration. Given the continuously-evolving framework of precision medicine that integrates valuable behavioral assessment tools, sophisticated neuroimaging, and electrophysiological techniques, a considerably higher diagnostic accuracy rate of DOC may now be reached. During the treatment of patients with DOC, a variety of intervention methods are available, including amantadine and transcranial direct current stimulation, which have both provided class II evidence, zolpidem, which is also of high quality, and non-invasive stimulation, which appears to be more encouraging than pharmacological therapy. However, heterogeneity is profoundly ingrained in study designs, and only rare schemes have been recommended by authoritative institutions. There is still a lack of an effective clinical protocol for managing patients with DOC following ABI. To advance future clinical studies on DOC, we present a comprehensive review of the progress in clinical identification and management as well as some challenges in the pathophysiology of DOC. We propose a preliminary clinical decision protocol, which could serve as an ideal reference tool for many medical institutions.

Research Progress in the Relationship Between White Matter, General Anesthesia,and Cognitive Function / 中国医学科学院学报

The role of white matter of brain has always been neglected by scholars.With the development of neuroimaging technology,the role of white matter has attracted increasing attention.Perioperative neurocognitive disorders have been a hot issue in the research on anesthesia,and recent studies have suggested that white matter may be involved in the effects of general anesthetics on cognitive function.This paper reviews the progress in the relationship between white matter,general anesthesia,and cognitive function from clinical practice and research,aiming to provide new ideas for the research on the mechanism.

The neural basis underlying primary dysmenorrhea: evidence from neuroimaging and animal model studies / 生理学报

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), cyclic menstrual pain in the absence of pelvic anomalies, is characterized by acute and chronic gynecological pain disorders in childbearing age women. PDM strongly affects the quality of life of patients and leads to economic losses. PDM generally do not receive radical treatment and often develop into other chronic pain disorders later in life. The clinical treatment status of PDM, the epidemiology of PDM and chronic pain comorbidities, and the abnormal physiological and psychological characteristics of patients with PDM suggest that PDM not only is related to the inflammation around the uterus, but also may be related to the abnormal pain processing and regulation function of patients' central system. Therefore, exploring the brain neural mechanism of PDM is indispensable and important to understand the pathological mechanism of PDM, and is also a hotspot of brain science research in recent years, which will bring new inspiration to explore the target of PDM intervention. Based on the progress of the neural mechanism of PDM, this paper systematically summarizes the evidence from neuroimaging and animal model studies.

Acupuncture-Neuroimaging Research Trends over Past Two Decades: A Bibliometric Analysis / 中国结合医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To identify topics attracting growing research attention as well as frontier trends of acupuncture-neuroimaging research over the past two decades.@*METHODS@#This paper reviewed data in the published literature on acupuncture neuroimaging from 2000 to 2020, which was retrieved from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace was used to analyze the publication years, countries, institutions, authors, keywords, co-citation of authors, journals, and references.@*RESULTS@#A total of 981 publications were included in the final review. The number of publications has increased in the recent 20 years accompanied by some fluctuations. Notably, the most productive country was China, while Harvard University ranked first among institutions in this field. The most productive author was Tian J with the highest number of articles (50), whereas the most co-cited author was Hui KKS (325). Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (92) was the most prolific journal, while Neuroimage was the most co-cited journal (538). An article written by Hui KKS (2005) exhibited the highest co-citation number (112). The keywords "acupuncture" (475) and "electroacupuncture" (0.10) had the highest frequency and centrality, respectively. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) ranked first with the highest citation burst (6.76).@*CONCLUSION@#The most active research topics in the field of acupuncture-neuroimaging over the past two decades included research type, acupoint specificity, neuroimaging methods, brain regions, acupuncture modality, acupoint specificity, diseases and symptoms treated, and research type. Whilst research frontier topics were "nerve regeneration", "functional connectivity", "neural regeneration", "brain network", "fMRI" and "manual acupuncture".

Research on migraine time-series features classification based on small-sample functional magnetic resonance imaging data / 生物医学工程学杂志

The extraction of neuroimaging features of migraine patients and the design of identification models are of great significance for the auxiliary diagnosis of related diseases. Compared with the commonly used image features, this study directly uses time-series signals to characterize the functional state of the brain in migraine patients and healthy controls, which can effectively utilize the temporal information and reduce the computational effort of classification model training. Firstly, Group Independent Component Analysis and Dictionary Learning were used to segment different brain areas for small-sample groups and then the regional average time-series signals were extracted. Next, the extracted time series were divided equally into multiple subseries to expand the model input sample. Finally, the time series were modeled using a bi-directional long-short term memory network to learn the pre-and-post temporal information within each time series to characterize the periodic brain state changes to improve the diagnostic accuracy of migraine. The results showed that the classification accuracy of migraine patients and healthy controls was 96.94%, the area under the curve was 0.98, and the computation time was relatively shorter. The experiments indicate that the method in this paper has strong applicability, and the combination of time-series feature extraction and bi-directional long-short term memory network model can be better used for the classification and diagnosis of migraine. This work provides a new idea for the lightweight diagnostic model based on small-sample neuroimaging data, and contributes to the exploration of the neural discrimination mechanism of related diseases.

Dissecting Psychiatric Heterogeneity and Comorbidity with Core Region-Based Machine Learning / 神经科学通报·英文版

Machine learning approaches are increasingly being applied to neuroimaging data from patients with psychiatric disorders to extract brain-based features for diagnosis and prognosis. The goal of this review is to discuss recent practices for evaluating machine learning applications to obsessive-compulsive and related disorders and to advance a novel strategy of building machine learning models based on a set of core brain regions for better performance, interpretability, and generalizability. Specifically, we argue that a core set of co-altered brain regions (namely 'core regions') comprising areas central to the underlying psychopathology enables the efficient construction of a predictive model to identify distinct symptom dimensions/clusters in individual patients. Hypothesis-driven and data-driven approaches are further introduced showing how core regions are identified from the entire brain. We demonstrate a broadly applicable roadmap for leveraging this core set-based strategy to accelerate the pursuit of neuroimaging-based markers for diagnosis and prognosis in a variety of psychiatric disorders.

Research on classification method of multimodal magnetic resonance images of Alzheimer's disease based on generalized convolutional neural networks / 生物医学工程学杂志

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease. Neuroimaging based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most intuitive and reliable methods to perform AD screening and diagnosis. Clinical head MRI detection generates multimodal image data, and to solve the problem of multimodal MRI processing and information fusion, this paper proposes a structural and functional MRI feature extraction and fusion method based on generalized convolutional neural networks (gCNN). The method includes a three-dimensional residual U-shaped network based on hybrid attention mechanism (3D HA-ResUNet) for feature representation and classification for structural MRI, and a U-shaped graph convolutional neural network (U-GCN) for node feature representation and classification of brain functional networks for functional MRI. Based on the fusion of the two types of image features, the optimal feature subset is selected based on discrete binary particle swarm optimization, and the prediction results are output by a machine learning classifier. The validation results of multimodal dataset from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) open-source database show that the proposed models have superior performance in their respective data domains. The gCNN framework combines the advantages of these two models and further improves the performance of the methods using single-modal MRI, improving the classification accuracy and sensitivity by 5.56% and 11.11%, respectively. In conclusion, the gCNN-based multimodal MRI classification method proposed in this paper can provide a technical basis for the auxiliary diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Contribución de la neuroimagen al diagnóstico y seguimiento de la esquizofrenia: una breve revisión sistemática / The neuroimaging contribution to the schizophrenia diagnosis and monitoring: a brief systematic review

RESUMEN: Introducción: La neuroimagen estructural y funcional en la esquizofrenia ha tomado fuerza en los últimos años, por lo que esta revisión tiene por objetivo describir hallazgos de esta técnica que contribuyen a la fisiopatología, diagnóstico y pronóstico de esta patología. Métodos: Se realizó una búsqueda en PubMed/Medline de estudios clínicos que abordan el estudio con neuroimágenes en la esquizofrenia. Resultados: La búsqueda arrojó 2200 resultados, de los cuales fueron incluidos 13 estudios, los que arrojaron hallazgos que se tradujeron en alteraciones neurocognitivas, tales como alteraciones funcionales y estructurales de la amígdala asociada a síntomas negativos, reducción morfométrica de la región frontal, alteraciones en la perfusión del giro del cíngulo anterior y la corteza parietal inferior izquierda, desregulación de la enzima histona deacetilasa, entre otros. Conclusiones: Esta revisión brinda una visión actualizada sobre los hallazgos de la neuroimagenología que pueden aportar a la comprensión de los mecanismos patológicos detrás de este trastorno psicótico, así como su utilidad diagnóstica y potencial contribución al seguimiento de esta enfermedad.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Structural and functional neuroimaging in schizophrenia has gained strength in recent years, so this review aims to describe neuroimaging findings that contribute to the physiopathological understanding, monitoring, and diagnosis of this pathology. Methods: A PubMed/Medline search was conducted for clinical studies addressing neuroimaging in schizophrenia. Results: The search yielded 2200 results, from which 13 studies were included, which provided findings, such as functional and structural alterations of the amygdala, which have shown to be associated with negative symptoms; morphometric reduction of the frontal region, alterations in the perfusion of the anterior cingulate gyrus and the lower-left parietal cortex, deregulation of the histone deacetylase enzyme, among others which translate clinically in neurocognitive deficits. Conclusions: This review provides an updated view on the findings of neuroimaging that can contribute to the understanding of the pathological mechanisms behind this psychotic disorder, its diagnostic usefulness, and its potential contribution to the prognosis and follow-up of this disease.

Influence of Islamic religion and spirituality on the well-being and quality of life of cancer patients: a meta-analysis and a hypothetical model of cerebral mechanisms / Influência da religião e da espiritualidade islâmica no bem-estar e na qualidade de vida de pacientes com câncer: uma metanálise e um modelo hipotético de mecanismos cerebrais

OBJECTIVE: To systematically analyze quantitative data about the effects of religion/spirituality and the well-being/quality of life of cancer patients. The second aim was to hypothesize a neurophysiological model of the association between religion/spirituality and the brain. METHODS: This study met the PRISMA Statement and was registered at PROSPERO database. Randomized and Controlled trials investigating religion/spirituality and well-being/quality of life of cancer patients were included. Based on neuroimaging and neurophysiology studies, a neuroanatomical model was developed to hypothesize the relationship between neuroscience and religion/spirituality. RESULTS: A large effect size was found on the improvement of well-being/quality of life (SMD = 3.90 [2.43-5.38], p < 0.01). Heterogeneity was high among studies (I2 = 98%, p < 0.01). Specific regions of the brain, such as the temporal lobes, amygdalae and hippocampus, regions from the limbic system, were hypothesized to take part in the religion/spirituality phenomena and the well-being/quality of life improvement. CONCLUSION: Religion/spirituality intervention, mainly the Islamic, promotes an improvement on wellbeing/quality of life of cancer patients.

OBJETIVO: Analisar sistematicamente dados quantitativos sobre os efeitos da religião/espiritualidade e o bem-estar/qualidade de vida de pacientes com câncer. O segundo objetivo foi levantar a hipótese de um modelo neurofisiológico da associação entre religião/espiritualidade e o cérebro. MÉTODOS: Este estudo seguiu as recomendações do PRISMA e foi registrado no PROSPERO. Estudos randomizados e controlados investigando religião/espiritualidade e o bem-estar/qualidade de vida de pacientes com câncer foram incluídos. Com base em estudos de neuroimagem e neurofisiologia, um modelo neuroanatômico foi desenvolvido para hipotetizar relações entre neurociência e religião/espiritualidade. RESULTADOS: Um tamanho de efeito grande foi encontrado na melhoria do bem-estar/qualidade de vida (SMD = 3,90 [2,43-5,38], p < 0,01). A heterogeneidade foi alta entre os estudos (I2 = 98%, p < 0,01). Regiões específicas do cérebro, como lobos temporais, amídalas e hipocampo, regiões do sistema límbico, foram hipotetizadas como participantes dos fenômenos religião/espiritualidade e melhoria do bem-estar/qualidade de vida. CONCLUSÃO: A intervenção religiosa/espiritual, principalmente islâmica, promove melhora no bem-estar/qualidade de vida em pacientes com câncer.

Déficits neuropsicológicos en mujeres con trastornos de la conducta alimentaria / Neuropsychological impairment in women with eating disorders

RESUMEN Introducción Antecedentes: La anorexia nerviosa (AN) y la bulimia nerviosa (BN) son enfermedades mentales graves y crónicas que afectan a un alto porcentaje de la población. Un número creciente de estudios han informado de alteraciones neuropsicológicas en esta población, que aparentemente contribuyen a la aparición y progresión del trastorno, y que repercuten en la eficacia del tratamiento y la recuperación. Metodología: El objetivo de esta Revisión Narrativa es resumir los hallazgos relativos al perfil neuropsicológico de las mujeres con AN y BN en diferentes fases de tratamiento. Resultados: La evidencia disponible sugiere que las mujeres con AN y BN presentan un perfil de déficits de cognición ejecutiva y social. Estos resultados son consistentes con la evidencia de los hallazgos de neuroimagen de alteraciones cerebrales estructurales en las áreas frontales y en los circuitos frontales-subcorticales. Conclusiones: El conocimiento de los perfiles neuropsicológicos de las mujeres con AN y BN ofrece información clave para entender la presentación clínica de esta población y los retos en la adherencia y beneficio del tratamiento. Los estudios futuros deberían explorar la eficacia de las intervenciones dirigidas a las deficiencias neuropsicológicas y cómo contribuyen al tratamiento habitual.

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are severe and chronic mental health illnesses that affect a high percentage of the population. A growing number of studies have reported neuropsychological impairments in this population, apparently contributing to the onset and progression of the disorder, and impacting on treatment efficacy and recovery. Methodology: This Narrative Review aimed to summarize findings regarding the neuropsychological profile of women with AN and BN at different treatment phases. Results: Available evidence suggests that women with AN and BN present a profile of executive and social cognition deficits. These results are consistent with evidence from neuroimaging findings of structural brain alterations in frontal areas and frontal-subcortical circuits. Conclusions: Knowledge about the neuropsychological profiles of AN and BN women offers key information to understand the clinical presentation of this population and challenges in adhering and benefiting from treatment. Future studies should explore the efficacy of interventions targeting neuropsychological impairments and how they contribute to treatment as usual.

To Blame or Not? Modulating Third-Party Punishment with the Framing Effect / 神经科学通报·英文版

People as third-party observers, without direct self-interest, may punish norm violators to maintain social norms. However, third-party judgment and the follow-up punishment might be susceptible to the way we frame (i.e., verbally describe) a norm violation. We conducted a behavioral and a neuroimaging experiment to investigate the above phenomenon, which we call the "third-party framing effect". In these experiments, participants observed an anonymous perpetrator deciding whether to keep her/his economic benefit while exposing a victim to a risk of physical pain (described as "harming others" in one condition and "not helping others" in the other condition), then they had a chance to punish that perpetrator at their own cost. Our results showed that the participants were more willing to execute third-party punishment under the harm frame compared to the help frame, manifesting a framing effect. Self-reported anger toward perpetrators mediated the relationship between empathy toward victims and the framing effect. Meanwhile, activation of the insula mediated the relationship between mid-cingulate cortex activation and the framing effect; the functional connectivity between these regions significantly predicted the size of the framing effect. These findings shed light on the psychological and neural mechanisms of the third-party framing effect.

MouseVenue3D: A Markerless Three-Dimension Behavioral Tracking System for Matching Two-Photon Brain Imaging in Free-Moving Mice / 神经科学通报·英文版

Understanding the connection between brain and behavior in animals requires precise monitoring of their behaviors in three-dimensional (3-D) space. However, there is no available three-dimensional behavior capture system that focuses on rodents. Here, we present MouseVenue3D, an automated and low-cost system for the efficient capture of 3-D skeleton trajectories in markerless rodents. We improved the most time-consuming step in 3-D behavior capturing by developing an automatic calibration module. Then, we validated this process in behavior recognition tasks, and showed that 3-D behavioral data achieved higher accuracy than 2-D data. Subsequently, MouseVenue3D was combined with fast high-resolution miniature two-photon microscopy for synchronous neural recording and behavioral tracking in the freely-moving mouse. Finally, we successfully decoded spontaneous neuronal activity from the 3-D behavior of mice. Our findings reveal that subtle, spontaneous behavior modules are strongly correlated with spontaneous neuronal activity patterns.

Neurologic imaging of COVID-19 patients in a tertiary referral hospital in the Philippines: A retrospective study

BACKGROUND@#Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a recently discovered disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome COV2 virus (SARS COV-2) that led to a global pandemic. COVID-19, with its rapid spread, proved to be a global threat to health. Although it is known to mainly cause respiratory symptoms, neurologic sequelae have also been reported in a growing number of patients. @*OBJECTIVES@#This study aims to provide additional evidence regarding neuro-radiographic findings among Filipino patients inflicted with COVID-19. @*METHODOLOGY@#This paper is an analytical, retrospective study of COVID-19 confirmed patients who presented with neurologic manifestation and underwent cranial CT scans between April 2020 and April 2021 at Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center. @*RESULTS@#A total of 22 patients were included in the study. Of these, 11 had acute infarcts, 5 had cerebral hemorrhage, 1 had cerebral venous thrombosis, and 5 had normal imaging findings. Fisher's test was done and revealed a significant difference between COVID-19 severity and abnormal CT scan findings. @*CONCLUSION@#Although relatively uncommon, the study showed that there is an increased incidence of abnormal neuroimaging findings among patients with COVID-19. The most common of which is cerebral infarction followed by macrohemorrhages. The severity of the disease is correlated with the increased incidence of abnormal neuroimaging findings among COVID-19 patients.

Síndrome de desmielinización osmótica, a propósito de un caso / Osmotic demyelination syndrome, a case report

El síndrome de desmielinización osmótica, antes conocido como mielinólisis central pontina, es una enfermedad que ocurre en pacientes con hiponatremia grave en los cuales se realiza una corrección rápida del sodio. Clínicamente, se presenta como una parálisis seudobulbar que consiste en tetraparesia, encefalopatía, rigidez, ataxia y movimientos anormales. El síndrome de desmielinización osmótica es una enfermedad desmielinizante no inflamatoria, secundaria a edema neuronal intenso que se produce en la protuberancia y otras regiones fuera de la protuberancia. Es una patología muy poco frecuente. Sin embargo, tiene muy mal pronóstico, y la rehabilitación es el único tratamiento eficaz. Se presenta el caso de un paciente de 51 años de edad con cuadro de déficit neurológico altamente progresivo después de la corrección rápida de una hiponatremia, con tetraparesia, encefalopatía y rigidez en los días siguientes. El paciente requirió intubación orotraqueal debido al deterioro clínico. Fue diagnosticado mediante una tomografía axial computarizada (TAC) cerebral y se confirmó el diagnóstico mediante resonancia magnética (RM).

Osmotic demyelination syndrome, previously known as central pontine myelinolysis, is a known disorder in patients with severe hyponatremia in whom rapid sodium correction is performed. It is clinically described as a pseudobulbar palsy, comprised of tetraparesis, encephalopathy, rigidity, ataxia and abnormal movements. It consists of a non-inflammatory demyelination secondary to severe neuronal edema at the pons and other extrapontine locations. It is a very rare pathology, with a poor prognosis and whose only treatment is rehabilitation. A case of a 51-year-old man with fast progressive neurological deficit following rapid correction of severe hyponatremia is presented. The patient required orotracheal intubation due to clinical deteroriation and was diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) and confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Dor neuropática na prática clínica: ênfase nos instrumentos diagnósticos / Neuropathic pain in clinical practice: emphasis on diagnostic tools

A dor neuropática é causada por uma lesão ou doença do sistema nervoso somatossensitivo. Trata-se de uma manifestação sindrômica que envolve mecanismos inflamatórios e imunes com fisiopatologia ainda pouco esclarecida. O espectro de apresentação da dor neuropática é amplo e, assim, constitui um desafio na prática clínica. Este problema de saúde pública necessita de ampla capacidade técnica dos clínicos generalistas. Torna-se relevante identificar o potencial de cronificação do sintoma e adotar abordagens mitigantes do processo lesivo, estrutural e emocional. Nesse sentido, o diagnóstico adequado da dor neuropática é o primeiro passo na abordagem ao paciente. Diante disso, essa revisão objetiva facilitar a melhor escolha dos métodos diagnósticos no manejo clínico do paciente. Dentre estes, é possível citar a imagem por ressonância magnética funcional, eletroneuromiografia, tomografia por emissão de pósitrons, microneurografia, teste quantitativo sensorial, biópsias de pele, estudos de condução nervosa e de potencial somatossensorial evocado. A dor, por ser um processo sensorial subjetivo, apresenta amplo espectro de manifestações clínicas. Por essa razão, é possível fazer uso de técnicas como métodos de triagem e exames complementares para um diagnóstico mais específico.

Neuropathic pain is caused by an injury or illness of the somatosensory nervous system. It is a syndromic manifestation that involves inflammatory and immune mechanisms, whose pathophysiology is still poorly understood. The spectrum of presentation of neuropathic pain is wide and, therefore, it is a challenge in clinical practice. This public health problem requires the broad technical capacity of general practitioners. It is relevant to identify the potential for chronicity of the symptom and adopt mitigating approaches to the harmful, structural, and emotional process. In this sense, the proper diagnosis of neuropathic pain is the first step in approaching the patient. Therefore, this review aims to facilitate the best choice of diagnostic methods in the clinical management of the patient. Among these, functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroneuromyography, positron emission tomography, microneurography, quantitative sensory testing, skin biopsies, nerve conduction and evoked somatosensory potential studies are possible. Pain, being a subjective sensory process, has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. For this reason, it is possible to make use of techniques such as screening methods and complementary exams for a more specific diagnosis.

Enfermedad de Creutzfeldt-Jakob: experiencia de 5 años en un hospital terciario de Chile / Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, experience in 17 patients

Background: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a prion affection that typically produces a rapidly progressive dementia with different neurologic and extra-neurologic manifestations. Aim: To characterize clinical, imaging and electroencephalography findings in patients with a probable CJD. Patients and Methods: A case series study of patients admitted in the Neurology department at a public hospital, between 2014 and 2019. Demographic, clinical, imaging, and electroencephalographic data of patients with probable CJD were analyzed. Results: Seventeen patients aged 63 ± 11 years (53% women) with a probable CJD were gathered. The incidence was 4.7 cases/year per million inhabitants. Twenty four percent of patients had a family history of CJD. The median time between the onset of symptoms and the hospital admission was three months with a survival of four months. The most common clinical manifestations were an amnesic syndrome in 88%, myoclonus in 76%, frontal syndrome and ataxia in 71%. Brain MRI was abnormal in all patients. The preponderant finding was the involvement of the caudate nucleus in 82% of cases. In the EEG, 94% of patients had abnormalities. All had a theta-delta slowing as a base rhythm. The pseudo-periodic pattern was observed in the 29% and status epilepticus in 18%. Conclusions: In this group of patients we observed the heterogeneity of the clinical manifestations of the disease, the frequent imaging and electroencephalographic alterations and the short evolution time leading to death.

Parkinson's disease and periodic limb movement in sleep / Doença de Parkinson e movimentos periódicos dos membros durante o sono

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease understood as a complex syndrome with motor and non-motor symptoms, including sleep-related conditions, such as periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS). This paper presents issues regarding Parkinson's disease, motor and non-motor symptoms, sleep physiology, and PLMS. In conclusion, both conditions seem to be correlated through impairment of the dopaminergic system.

A doença de Parkinson é uma doença neurodegenerativa entendida como uma síndrome complexa com sintomas motores e não motores, incluindo condições relacionadas ao sono, como movimentos periódicos dos membros durante o sono (MPMS). Este artigo apresenta questões relacionadas à doença de Parkinson, sintomas motores e não motores, fisiologia do sono e MPMS. Em conclusão, ambas as condições parecem estar correlacionadas por comprometimento do sistema dopaminérgico.

Clinical and radiological features of main dementias / Aspectos clínicos e radiológicos das principais demências

Dementia is a syndrome characterized by a decline of two or more cognitive functions, affecting social or professional life. Alzheimer's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that represents 53% of dementia cases; memory loss, inability to recognize faces, impaired judgement, disorientation and confusion are possible common symptoms. Vascular Dementia is responsible for 42% of dementia cases, due to cerebrovascular pathologies, and the clinical aspects are related to the extension and location of the brain injury. Lewy Bodies Dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder that represents 15% of dementia cases, and its symptoms include visual hallucinations, parkinsonism and fluctuating cognitive decline. Frontotemporal dementia is a group of clinical syndromes, divided in Behavioral-variant, characterized by disinhibition, compulsions, apathy, aberrant sexual behavior and executive dysfunction; and Primary Progressive Aphasia, which is subdivided in Nonfluentvariant and Semantic-variant. Vitamin B12 deficiency is a reversible cause of dementia, with a wide clinical feature, that includes psychiatric symptoms such as depression and irritability, hematological symptoms related to anemia (e.g. dyspnea and fatigue), and neurological symptoms including dementia and neuropathy. Normal pressure hydrocephalus is also reversible, presenting forgetfulness, changes in mood, decline of executive functions, reduced attention, and a lack of interest in daily activities as symptoms. The radiological findings vary depending on the etiology of dementia. For that reason, understanding neuroimaging and clinical aspects is important to diagnose effectively.

A demência é uma síndrome que consiste em um declínio de um ou mais domínios cognitivos, que afeta o desempenho social ou profissional do indivíduo. A Doença de Alzheimer é um transtorno neurocognitivo que representa 53% dos casos de demência; seus sintomas podem incluir perda de memória, incapacidade de reconhecer rostos familiares, julgamento comprometido desorientação e confusão mental. A Demência Vascular é responsável por 42% dos casos de demência e é causada por doenças cerebrovasculares, seus achados clínicos são relacionados com o local e com a extensão do dano cerebral. Já a Demência por Corpos de Lewy é uma doença neurocognitiva que representa 15% dos casos de demência, cujos sintomas incluem alucinações visuais, parkinsonismo e flutuação cognitiva. A Demência Frontotemporal, por sua vez, é um grupo de síndromes, que se dividem em variante comportamental ­ caracterizada por desinibição, compulsão, apatia, hipersexualidade e disfunções executivas ­ e Afasia Progressiva Primária, subdividida em variante não-fluente e variante semântica, que cursam com disfunções da linguagem. Há, ainda, a Deficiência de Vitamina B12, uma causa reversível de demência. Ela possui um quadro clínico variado, que inclui sintomas psiquiátricos, como depressão e irritabilidade, sintomas hematológicos relacionados a anemia, como dispneia e fadiga) e sintomas neurológicos, que incluem demência e neuropatias. Uma outra causa reversível é a Hidrocefalia de Pressão Normal, que se apresenta com esquecimentos, alterações de humor, perda de função executiva e redução da atenção e do interesse nas atividades cotidianas. Os achados de neuroimagem variam dependendo da etiologia da demência. Assim, compreender os aspectos clínicos e radiológicos é importante para um diagnóstico efetivo..

White matter hyperintensities: initial assessments / Hiperintensidades da substância branca: avaliações iniciais

The white matter hyperintensities (WMH, leucoaraiosis) represent the most common kind of ischemic vascular lesion of the white matter due to small vessel diseases, and occurs frequently in the elderly. Consequent to the neuroimaging identification arouse the need for their assessment. The group of Fazekas proposed a systematized semi-quantitative visual scale to score such lesions where two parameters were considered, extent and localization. The original scale was further modified, to a simplified version. Although other more complex scales have appeared, researchers remarked that the relatively simple Fazekas scale, in comparison to the complex ones and to volumetric measures, appeared to be sufficient when analyzing relationships between clinical parameters and WMH load in a clinical setting.

As hiperintensidades da substância branca (HSB, leucoaraiose) representam o tipo de lesão isquêmica mais comum da substância branca decorrente de doenças de pequenos vasos e ocorre frequentemente em idosos. Consequente à identificação por neuroimagem surgiu a necessidade de sua avaliação. O grupo de Fazekas propos uma escala visual semiquantitativa sistematizada para pontuar tais lesões, onde foram considerados dois parâmetros, extensão e localização. A escala original foi modificada para constituir uma versão mais simplificada. Embora outras escalas mais complexas tenham aparecido, pesquisadores comentaram que a relativamente simples escala de Fazekas, em comparação às mais complexas e a método volumétrico, mostrou-se suficiente quando é analisada a relação entre parâmetros clínicos e a carga de HSB em um cenário clínico.