Impaired cognitive performance and hippocampal atrophy in Parkinson disease.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Dementia is common in Parkinson disease (PD). Since magnetic resonance imaging has been used, hippocampal atrophy has been shown in PD patients with or without dementia. In this study we sought the correlation of cognitive decline with bilateral hippocampal volume in PD patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-three patients with diagnosis of idiopathic PD and 16 healthy subjects were included in this study. PD patients were divided into two groups as normal cognitive function and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The Mini-Mental State Examination and detailed cognitive assessment tests were performed for all patients for cognitive analyses. Depression was excluded by the Geriatric Depression Scale. RESULTS: The mean onset age of disease was 55 years for PD patients without dementia and 59 for PD patients with MCI. According to the Hoehn-Yahr scales, 24% of patients had grade 1, 58% had grade 2, and 18% had grade 3 disease. Right and left hippocampal volumes decreased along with cognitive test scores in PD patients. Increased right hippocampal volume was correlated with forward number test in the MCI-PD group. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that memory deficit is associated with hippocampal atrophy in PD patients.

Radiological report: expectations of clinicians.

PURPOSE: Although there have been many publications on composing an accurate radiological report, they usually do not include an assessment of the clinicians' expectations from a radiological report. In this study, we aimed to assess the clinicians' expectations and preferences in terms of radiology report style and content. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A multiple-choice questionnaire, containing 19 questions, was formed. Two-hundreds clinicians, working either in a university hospital or a public hospital, were allocated into 4 groups which included equal number of clinicians from surgery and internal medicine departments. Questionnaire was applied to participants by face-to-face interview. Results were analyzed for each group using Pearson chi-square test. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found among four groups except for the 16th question which was about the image format pertaining to the report (CD/DVD or negative film). It has been determined that clinicians preferred detailed, standardized radiological reports with complete sections (i.e., clinical information, technique, findings, conclusion, recommendations). CONCLUSION: This study provided essential data for radiologists to write more effective reports.