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Brain Donors (brain + donor)
Selected AbstractsHow are we doing with the treatment of essential tremor (ET)?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 6 2010Persistence of patients with ET on medication: data from 528 patients in three settings Background:, The pharmacological treatment of essential tremor (ET) is not optimal. There are only two first-line medications and troublesome side effects are common. It is not uncommon for patients to simply stop taking medication. Yet, no published data substantiate or quantify this anecdotal impression. Objectives:, To determine, amongst patients with ET who were prescribed medication for tremor, what proportion are still taking medication and what proportion have stopped? Methods:, Five hundred and twenty-eight patients with ET from three distinct study settings (clinical, brain donors, population) were interviewed. Results:, A clear pattern that emerged across settings was that the proportion of patients with ET who had stopped medication was sizable and consistently similar (nearly one-third): 31.4% (clinical), 24.3% (brain donors), 30.0% (population), 29.8% (overall). A similarly high proportion of cases with severe tremor had stopped their medication: 31.9% (clinical), 36.4% (brain donors). For the four most commonly used medications (propranolol, primidone, diazepam, topiramate), one-half or more of the treated patients had stopped the medication; amongst the less commonly used medications, the proportion who stopped was even higher. Conclusions:, Nearly one of every three patients with ET who had been prescribed medication for tremor had discontinued pharmacotherapy. Even more revealing was that a similar proportion of cases with severe tremor had stopped medication. These data make tangibly evident that there is a sizable population of patients with ET who are untreated and disabled, and underscore the inadequacy of current pharmacotherapeutic options for this common neurological disease. [source] Dementia in Parkinson's disease: a post-mortem study in a population of brain donorsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 5 2005S. Papapetropoulos Abstract Objective To identify factors associated with dementia in a cohort of Parkinson's disease (PD) brain donors and determine whether its presence may influence the clinical phenotype of the disease. Methods We included 67 consecutive patients with a clinical and pathological diagnosis of PD, who while alive, consented to donate their brains to the University of Miami Brain Endowment BankTM. Dementia and psychiatric complications of PD were diagnosed according to established criteria. Case histories were abstracted and reviewed and comparisons between PD patients with (PD-D, n,=,34) and without (PD, n,=,33) dementia were made. Results Age at death, age at disease onset and disease duration did not differ significantly between PD-D and PD patients. Other symptoms were similar in both groups. Visual hallucinations and bilateral symptoms at diagnosis were significantly higher in PD-D patients. No association between dementia and overall survival duration was found. Although the frequency of depression and psychosis was higher in the PD patients with dementia no statistical significance was reached. The overall lifetime prevalence of dementia in our group was 50.7%. Conclusions Visual hallucinations and bilateral symptoms were associated with dementia in our cohort of PD brain donors. No association between dementia and survival duration was found. Understanding the influence of dementia on the clinical phenotype of the disease and predicting its development is essential for the successful management of PD. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Longterm quiescent cells in the aged human subventricular neurogenic system specifically express GFAP-,AGING CELL, Issue 3 2010Simone A. Van Den Berge Summary A main neurogenic niche in the adult human brain is the subventricular zone (SVZ). Recent data suggest that the progenitors that are born in the human SVZ migrate via the rostral migratory stream (RMS) towards the olfactory bulb (OB), similar to what has been observed in other mammals. A subpopulation of astrocytes in the SVZ specifically expresses an assembly-compromised isoform of the intermediate filament protein glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP-,). To further define the phenotype of these GFAP-, expressing cells and to determine whether these cells are present throughout the human subventricular neurogenic system, we analysed SVZ, RMS and OB sections of 14 aged brain donors (ages 74-93). GFAP-, was expressed in the SVZ along the ventricle, in the RMS and in the OB. The GFAP-, cells in the SVZ co-expressed the neural stem cell (NSC) marker nestin and the cell proliferation markers proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and Mcm2. Furthermore, BrdU retention was found in GFAP-, positive cells in the SVZ. In the RMS, GFAP-, was expressed in the glial net surrounding the neuroblasts. In the OB, GFAP-, positive cells co-expressed PCNA. We also showed that GFAP-, cells are present in neurosphere cultures that were derived from SVZ precursors, isolated postmortem from four brain donors (ages 63-91). Taken together, our findings show that GFAP-, is expressed in an astrocytic subpopulation in the SVZ, the RMS and the OB. Importantly, we provide the first evidence that GFAP-, is specifically expressed in longterm quiescent cells in the human SVZ, which are reminiscent of NSCs. [source] | ||||||||||