ABSTRACT
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.
ABSTRACT
Interleukin-33 (IL-33), a newly recognized IL-1 family member, is expressed in various tissues and cells, and involved in pathogenesis of many human diseases. For example, IL-33 plays a protective role in cardiovascular diseases. However, the role of IL-33 in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) remains unclear. This study aims to investigate whether IL-33 level in AIS patient serum can be used as a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker. The study included two hundred and six patients with first-ever ischemic stroke, who were admitted within 72 hours after stroke onset. The serum level of IL-33 was measured with ELISA and the severity of AIS patients on admission was evaluated based on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score. The functional outcome at 3 months was determined using the Barthel index (BI). We found that serum IL-33 was significantly higher (P < 0.001) in patients with AIS [57.68 ng/L (IQR, 44.95-76.73)] compared with healthy controls [47.48 ng/L (IQR, 38.67-53.78)]. IL-33 was an independent diagnostic biomarker for AIS with an OR of 1.051 (95%Cl, 1.018-1.085; P=0.002). Serum IL-33 was higher (P < 0.05) in the stroke patients with small cerebral infarction volume compared to AIS patients with large cerebral infarction. In addition, serum IL-33 was also significantly higher (P = 0.001) in the patients with mild stroke, compared to the patients with severe stroke. Furthermore, serum IL-33 level in AIS patients with a worse outcome was higher (P < 0.001) compared to AIS patients with a better outcome. IL-33 was also an independent predictor for the functional outcome with an adjusted OR of 0.932 (95% CI, 0.882-0.986). Our results suggest that the lower level of serum IL-33 is associated with large infarction volume and greater stroke severity in AIS patients. Thus, IL-33 can be used as a novel and independent diagnostic and predicting prognostic marker in AIS.
ABSTRACT
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.
