Connective differences between patients with depression with and without ASD: A case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Researchers find it difficult to distinguish between depression with ASD (Depress-wASD) and without ASD (Depression) in adult patients. We aimed to clarify the differences in brain connectivity between patients with depression with ASD and without ASD. METHODS: From April 2017 to February 2019, 22 patients with suspected depression were admitted to the hospital for diagnosis or follow-up and met the inclusion criteria. The diagnosis was determined according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 by skilled psychiatrists. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), Young Mania Raging Scale (YMRS), Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Parent-interview ASD Rating Scale-Text Revision (PARS-TR), and Autism-Spectrum Quotient-Japanese version (AQ-J) were used to assess the patients' background and help with diagnosis. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was performed using the 3-T-MRI system. rs-fMRI was processed using the CONN functional connectivity toolbox. Voxel-based morphometry was performed using structural images. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed between the Depress-wASD and Depression groups using the HAM-D, YMRS, AQ-J, Intelligence Quotient (IQ), and verbal IQ results. rs-fMRI for the Depress-wASD group indicated a positive connection between the salience network (SN) and right supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and a negative connection between the SN and hippocampus and para-hippocampus than that for the Depression group. No significant structural differences were observed between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: We identified differences in the SN involving the SMG and hippocampal regions between the Depress-wASD and Depression groups.

Comparison of alterations in cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation in late life depression and Alzheimer's disease as assessed by near-infrared spectroscopy.

BACKGROUND: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often present with apathy symptoms resembling the decreased motivation observed in depressed patients. Therefore, differentiating the initial phase of AD from late life depression may be difficult in some cases. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a functional neuroimaging modality that uses near-infrared light to measure changes in hemoglobin concentration on the cortical surface during activation tasks. The objective of this study was to investigate differences in brain activation associated with late life depression and with AD by means of NIRS. METHODS: NIRS was performed in 30 patients with depression, 28 patients with AD, and 33 healthy controls, all aged 60 years or older. During two tasks, a verbal fluency task and a visuospatial task, changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in the frontal and parietal cortices were investigated. RESULTS: In the visuospatial task, cortical activation was lower in the depressed group than in the AD group, and significant differences were observed in the parietal cortex. CONCLUSIONS: NIRS can detect differences in brain activation between patients with late life depression and those with AD. NIRS is a promising tool for the differential diagnosis of late life depression and AD.

New visual rating system for medial temporal lobe atrophy: a simple diagnostic tool for routine examinations.

AIM: We estimated the usefulness of our new scale to rate medial temporal atrophy with short inversion time inversion recovery images. METHODS: Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects (n= 34) and non-demented subjects (n= 19) were recruited for this study. First, coronal short inversion time inversion recovery images were scanned vertical to the long axis of hippocampus. Next, the single image in which peduncles appeared widest was adopted for estimation. The parahippocampal cerebrospinal fluid space was divided into three parts: the outer, upper and inner parts. The hippocampus was defined as a structure being of equal intensity to grey matter. Two radiologists compared each part of the parahippocampal cerebrospinal fluid space with the hippocampus and rated them on a 0-3 scale. Interrater and intrarater kappa statistics and sensitivity/specificity for the diagnosis of AD were calculated using the scores of the right, left and both sides combined. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between AD and ND subjects with regards to sex. AD subjects had lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores and were older than non-demented subjects. Interrater and intrarater kappa statistics were 0.52-0.68 and 0.76-0.83, respectively. Sensitivity was 88.2% using the scores of both sides. CONCLUSIONS: Interrater and intrarater agreements were fair to good and good to excellent, respectively. Our new visual rating method detected medial temporal atrophy in AD patients at a highly sensitive rate. As such, we conclude that this visual rating scale is useful for judging medial temporal atrophy simply and objectively in clinical use, and it is helpful in establishing an AD diagnosis.