Neurofilament and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis / 中华神经科杂志

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder, stimultaneously affecting cerebral pyramidal cells, motor nuclei in the brain stem, anterior horn cells of the spinal cord, and the pyramidal tract. The early diagnosis of ALS is very difficult. At present, it still lacks efficacious therapy. Its prognosis is poor, with the median survival time for about 3-5 years. The study and discovery of ALS-specific biomarkers for early diagnosis are critical to shorten diagnostic delay, explore and elucidate pathogenesis, monitor disease progression and predict prognosis. In recent years, studies have shown that the neurofilament plays an important role in the aspects above, and at present, it is considered as the most clinically valuable and promising biomarker for ALS. Thus, the article provides a review about research on neurofilament and ALS.

Associations between the behavioral psychological symptoms in Alzheimer's disease and cerebral blood flow in cerebral heteroplasia cortex / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To explore the relationship between behavioral psychological symptoms in Alzheimer' s dementia(AD) patients and region-specific alterations in cerebral blood flow. Methods 60 patients with AD randomly selected from a psychiatric outpatient department and 30 randomly selected healthy elderly community controls were administered the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). All subjects underwent a perfusion CT scan to assess blood perfusion in brain regions of interest. The AD subjects were administered the behavioral patholigy in alzheimer' s disease(BEHAVE-AD) Rating Scale classified as mild, moderate or severe based on the results of the Clinical Dementia Rating scale. Results The most incidence was conduct disorder and the next was delusion.The score was 81.7% and 58.3% in turn. The conduct disorder score was higher in the severe demented group than in the mildly and moderate demented group(P＜0. 05). The delusion score was higher in the moderate demented group than that in the mildly demented group(P＜0.05). The time to peak(TTP)scores in the four groups of subjects were significantly different in the bilateral hippocampal formation, anteroinferior subiculum and entorhinal area. The TTP score was significantly higher in the moderately demented group than that in the mildly demented group and the control group(P＜0. 05 ). Correlation analysis identified a positive correlation between conduct disorder, delusions and TTP in cerebral heteroplasia cortex (P ＜ 0. 05 ), also identified a negative correlation between mood disorder and TTP(P＜0. 05 ). Conclusion The conduct disorder,delusions and mood disorder in AD are associated with the chronicity ischemia of cerebral heteroplasia cortex leading to neural conduction disorders.