ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate regional spontaneous brain activity in mild cognition impairment (MCI) patients with amnesic (aMCI) and non-amnesic (naMCI).Methods Twenty-five aMCI patients,21 naMCI patients and 15 normal controls (NC) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.The regional homogeneity (ReHo) map of the whole brain was obtained by calculating the similarity of each voxel with its nearest 26 voxel time series.The differences of ReHo map across the whole brain among three groups were compared.Results In aMCI group,ReHo values were lower in right frontal lobe and higher in left middle temporal gyrus and left cerebellum compared with NC (P＜0.05,Alphasim correction).In naMCI group,ReHo values were higher in anterior cingulate cortex and right middle frontal gyrus and lower in right parahippocampa gyrus,right middle temporal gyrus as well as right precuneus compared with NC (P＜0.05,Alphasim correction).Compared with naMCI,the ReHo values were significantly higher in left prefrontal gyrus,left middle temporal gyrus and lower in right cerebellum (P＜0.05,Alphasim correction).Conclusion There are differences in spontaneous brain activity of left prefrontal gyrus,left middle temporal gyrus and right cerebellum between aMCI and naMCI,which may be used to differentiate brain function between aMCI and naMCI patients.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Neurosyphilis is caused by the invasion of Treponema pallidum into the central nervous system. General paresis (GP) is a type of neurosyphilis. The main manifestation of general paresis is dementia; however, this is different from the other types of dementia, which can be cured by adequate doses of penicillin in the early stage. Neurosyphilis is the "great imitator" because it can mimic many types of medical disorders. In addition, the manifestations of neurosyphilis are not typical. Psychiatric disorders as a cause of general paresis have become more common due to the use of antibiotics. Patients with a psychiatric manifestation are often misdiagnosed. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in the clinical and neuropsychological characteristics of general paresis between patients misdiagnosed as having a primary psychiatric disease and patients diagnosed correctly upon seeing a doctor. The results may assist clinicians in the early identification of neurosyphilis with a mental disorder. METHOD: The demographic and clinical manifestations, laboratory tests, and neuroimaging and neuropsychological characteristics were analysed in 55 general paresis patients with psychiatric disorders, including 29 patients misdiagnosed as primary psychiatric disease and 26 patients diagnosed as having general paresis after being seen once by a doctor. RESULT: All of the patients had positive assay results for cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) Treponema pallidum hemagglutination (TPHA). Only 43.3 % of misdiagnosed patients and 30.8 % of general paresis patients had positive results for the CSF rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test; 96.4 % patients had abnormal neuroimaging. Mood disturbances were the most common psychiatric disorder in the general paresis patients, especially agitation, between the two groups (patients with general paresis who were misdiagnosed as having primary psychiatric disease and patients who had never been misdiagnosed) (p = 0.011). CONCLUSION: Our findings reinforce the importance of performing serologic testing for syphilis. This should be a part of the evaluation of patients with psychiatric disorders, especially patients with cognitive impairment. When the syphilis serology is positive, the patient should be examined thoroughly for neurosyphilis by lumbar puncture. Brain imaging could also aid the physician in discriminating these patients from those with a functional mental disorder.
Subject(s)
Neurosyphilis/diagnosis , Neurosyphilis/physiopathology , Treponema pallidum/isolation & purification , Adolescent , Adult , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Cognition Disorders/etiology , Dementia/diagnosis , Dementia/etiology , Diagnosis, Differential , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neuroimaging , Neurosyphilis/blood , Reagins , Serologic TestsABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the cognitive characteristics and vascular risk factor between early onset de?pression and late onset depression in late life depression and provide a clue to elucidate the cause of cognitive impairment in late life depression. Method Fifty-six late life depression patients were recruited in our hospital, including 29 early on?set depression patients and 27 late onset depression patients. 25 controls were recruited from Guangzhou community. Cog?nitive evaluation were conducted in all the patients and controls, including MMSE, memory, attention, language, visuospa?tial abilities,executive function and Framingham vascular risk assessment, and analyze the cognitive and vascular risk be?tween the patients. Result There were statistically significant differences in overall cognitive assessment MMSE(24.8 ± 2.9,22.8±3.5,P=0.030), symbol digit modalities test(SDMT)(29.8±10.5, 22.9±11.8, P=0.028), clock drawing test(CDT) (3.6 ± 0.8, 2.9 ± 1.3, P=0.006) and trail making test(TMT) (60.4 ± 20.6, 74.7 ± 28.8, P=0.027) between late onset depression and early onset depression. In addition, the score of vascular risk assessment was significant between late onset depression and early onset depression(14.6±2.7,12.3±2.2,P=0.001). Conclusion Compare with early onset depression, late onset de?pression has much severe cognitive impairments and increased vascular risk factors.
