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Objective:To explore the clinical characteristics of neurological syndrome associated with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibodies (Abs).Methods:Six patients with neurological syndrome associated with anti-GAD-Abs admitted to Department of Neurology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital from January 2019 to October 2022 were chosen. The clinical manifestations, imaging and laboratory results, therapeutic schedules, and follow-up prognoses of these patients were collected and summarized.Results:Three females and 3 males were included, with onset age of (54.3±17.7) years. Three patients had stiff-person syndrome (SPS), 1 had limbic encephalitis+generalized epilepsy, 1 had extralimbic encephalitis+occipital epilepsy, and 1 had cerebellar ataxia who was diagnosed with paraneoplastic syndrome associated with small cell lung cancer. Four patients had elevated level of thyroid peroxidase antibodies, and 1 patient was positive for overlapping anti-gamma aminobutyric acid B receptor antibodies and Amphiphysin antibodies. Two patients with SPS had failed lumbar puncture; 1 had slightly increased white blood cells and proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); the remaining 3 patients were basically normal. Specific oligoclonal bands in CSF were observed in 2 patients. Brain MRI showed abnormal signals in the bilateral occipital lobes in 1 patient, and no specific inflammatory lesions in other patients. All patients accepted corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulin/plasma exchange therapies; except for the one with paraneoplastic syndrome associated with small cell lung cancer, the remaining 5 patients had improved modified Rankin scale (mRs) scores at discharge and received long-term immunotherapy. Two patients with SPS had gradually aggravated symptoms, and mRs scores reached 5 at the last follow-up (one for 3 years and the other one for 2 years).Conclusions:The clinical manifestations of patients with neurological syndrome associated with anti-GAD-Abs include SPS, limbic encephalitis, extralimbic encephalitis, epilepsy and cerebellar ataxia; some of these patients have paraneoplastic syndromes. Immunotherapies are effective except for these patients with paraneoplastic syndromes. Some patients with SPS tend to have a chronic course and a poor prognosis.
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Objective:To investigate the prognoses of pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients with leptomeningeal metastases (LM) and explore their influencing factors.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed. The clinical data, imaging features and treatment plans of pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients with LM admitted to our hospital from January 2010 to June 2021 were collected. Overall survival (OS) was used as the prognostic evaluation criterion and patients were divided into good prognosis group (OS≥6 months) and poor prognosis group (OS<6 months) accordingly. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the influencing factors for prognoses of pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients with LM. These patients were grouped according to different Karnofsky performance status (KPS) scores and different treatment methods, and survival curves were drawn to compare their OS.Results:A total of 173 pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients with LM were enrolled in the study, including 75 with good prognosis and 87 with poor prognosis. There were significant differences in the KPS scores, pulmonary adenocarcinoma lesion controlled status, giving third generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy or not, giving systemic chemotherapy and/or whole brain radiotherapy or not between the two groups ( P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that KPS scores and pulmonary adenocarcinoma lesion controlled status were independent influencing factors for prognoses ( OR=4.186, 95%CI: 1.583-11.070, P=0.004; OR=4.198, 95%CI: 1.499-11.760, P=0.006). Survival curves showed median OS of 8.2 months for all patients ( 95%CI: 6.5-9.8). The OS in patients with low-risk(KPS scores≥60) was significantly higher than that in patients with high-risk(KPS scores<60), that in patients accepted TKI treatment was significantly higher than that in patients not accepted TKI treatment, and that in patients accepted TKI and systemic chemotherapy was significantly higher than that in patients accepted TKI alone ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Patients with high KPS scores and controlled pulmonary adenocarcinoma can have relatively good prognosis; TKI treatment and combination therapy may prolong OS of these patients.
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Objective:To explore the clinical and imaging features and prognoses of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody associated disorders (MOGAD).Methods:Thirty-nine MOGAD patients, admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to April 2021, were chosen in our study. The clinical and imaging data and follow-up results of these patients at acute attack period (first-onset or relapse) were collected and their features were analyzed.Results:In these 39 patients with MOGAD, 20 patients (51.3%) had non-reversing course, and 19 patients (48.7%) had relapsing course. The clinical and imaging data of 55 episodes of these 39 patients were collected. In these 55 episodes, optic neuritis was noted in 27 episodes (49.1%), encephalitis was noted in 10 episodes (18.2%), brainstem encephalitis was noted in 8 episodes (14.5%), meningoencephalitis in 2 episodes (14.5%), myelitis in 3 episodes (5.5%), encephalomyelitis in 1 episode (1.8%), optic neuromyelitis in 1 episode(1.8%), optic neuritis+meningoencephalitis in 2 episodes (3.6%), and optic neuritis+encephalitis in 1 episode (1.8%). The positive rate of antinuclear antibody (ANA) was 11.1% (4/36); the cerebrospinal fluid results of 28 samples were collected from 22 patients, and CSF pleocytosis occurred in 67.9% of the samples with value of 54.89±67.70×10 6/L. Twenty-seven brain MRIs of 19 patients at the acute episode were collected; one completely normal MRI was recorded; among the remaining 26 MRIs, 6 were with one single lesion, 5 were with 2 lesions, and 15 were with 3 or more lesions; in terms of distribution, lesions involving brainstem and its adjacent structures were found in 9 MRIs, lesions involving diencephalon and deep gray matter were found in 7 MRIs, supratentorial white matter lesions were found in 13 MRIs, and cortical lesions were found in 13 MRIs. Meningeal enhancement were found in 4 contrast-enhanced brain MRIs (4/20). Long or short segmental myelitis in the spinal MRIs was noted in spinal lesions, involving cervical spinal cord, thoracic spinal cord and conus, and the "H" sign could be seen in the cross section. All patients received steroids therapy at the acute phase and the doses of steroids were tapered down gradually. Thirty-eight patients (97.4%) had good prognosis after 3 months of treatment. Conclusions:MOGAD is a disease entity widely involving the white matter, gray matter and meninges of the central nervous system with various clinical manifestations such as optic neuritis, encephalitis, brainstem encephalitis, meningoencephalitis and myelitis or a combination of the above. Immunotherapy is effective in most patients, but the recurrence rate is high, and some patients require long-term immunotherapy.
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Objective To evaluate the correlation of hemodynamic parameters and blood pressure with cerebral infarction in elderly patients with stenosis.Methods 216 elderly patients with transient ischemic attack(TIA)caused by cerebral stenosis were collected and divided into the cerebral infarction group and the control group.Differences in hemodynamic parameters and blood pressure between the two groups and the correlation between the parameters and cerebral infarction were analyzed.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves were used to analyze the specificity,sensitivity and threshold of each parameter under different degrees of stenosis.Results After adjusting for the well-known associated factors,the occurrence of cerebral infarction was negatively correlated with systolic peak velocity(Vs),end diastolic velocity(Vd) and mean blood flow velocity(Vm),and positively correlated with diastolic blood pressure(r=-0.445 、-0.420 、-0.459、0.292,P＜ 0.01).In addition,the risk thresholds for cerebral infarction under mild,moderate and severe vascular stenosis were Vs≤97.1,Vd≤43.4,Vm≤59.9 cm/s,and diastolic blood pressure ＞92.3 mmHg(1 mmHg=0.133 kPa);Vs≤ 185.8,Vd≤ 83.6,Vm≤ 123.7 cm/s,and diastolic blood pressure ＞ 104.5 mmHg;Vs≤ 198.6,Vd≤ 121.1,Vm ≤ 137.5 cm/s,and diastolic blood pressure ＞ 109.6 mmHg,respectively.Conclusions There is a correlation between the blood flow parameters and elderly cerebral infarction.Based on the degree of cerebral arterial stenosis,the risk of cerebral infarction occurrence is greater with decreased blood flow velocity and increased diastolic blood pressure.
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Objective To observe the effects of levodopa on verbal and spatial working memory in elderly patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods The modified Smith working memory software were applied to study the verbal and spatial working memory in 32 PD patients before and 8 weeks after treatment with levodopa and benserazide hydrochloride tablets.The results of PD patients were compared with those in 32 normal controls matched for age,sex and education.Results The correct rates of phonological verbal and coordinate visuospatial working memory were significantly lower in the PD patients without treatment than in the normal controls (both P＜0.01).The correct rates of semantic verbal and categorical visuospatial working memory had no significant differences between the PD patients without treatment and the normal controls (both P＞0.05).The correct rates of phonological verbal working memory and coordinate visuospatial working memory were significantly higher in the PD patients after administration of levodopa and benserazide tablets than in PD patients without treatment [(88.6±6.5)％ vs.(82.1 ± 6.6)％,(84.2±8.8)％ vs.(75.2±8.9)％,respectively,both P＜0.01],but there were no significant differences in the correct rates of semantic verbal working memory and categorical visuospatial working memory between the above two groups (both P＞0.05).The correct rates of phonological verbal,semantic verbal,coordinate visuospatial and categorical visuospatial working memory were negatively correlated with the course of disease,and had no correlations with age and the degree of education.Conclusions Levodopa can improve the functions of phonological verbal working memory and the coordinate visuospatial working memory,but has no effect on the semantic verbal working memory and the categorical visuospatial working memory.It is postulated that dopamine replacement therapy may have double dissociable effects on the different working memories.
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Objective To characterize emotional memory impairment in untreated patients with Parkinson' s disease (PD) in the early stages of the disease. Methods Emotional memory tasks using standardized sets of emotional pictures including positive, neutral and negative valence were tested in 33 untreated patients with PD in the early stages and 31 healthy controls matched with age, sex, and education.Results Compared with the healthy adults (13.4 ± 1.4), PD patients had significant loss of negative valence picture memorizing ( 8. 9 ± 1.0; t = - 14. 87, P ＜ 0. 01 ).There was no significant difference between PD patients and normal controls in positive ( 11.8 ± 1.0 vs 12. 4 ± 2. 2 , t = - 0. 95 ) and neutral (7.9 ± 1.4 vs 8.2 ± 1.3, t = - 0. 89) valence picture memorizing ( both P ＞ 0. 05 ). ConclusionThe emotional memory for negative valence pictures is impaired but the emotional memory for positive and neutral is relatively spared in early PD patients without treatment.
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Objective To explore the characteristics of event-based prospective memory (EBPM) and time-based prospective memory (TBPM) impairments in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods EBPM and TBPM were examined in 87 PD patients and 85 healthy controls. And both of them were divided into two groups: aged group (≥60 years old) and non-aged group (＜60 years old). Results (1) The scores of EBPM were significantly lower in aged PD patients and non-aged PD patients than in age-matched control groups [(2. 5±0. 4) vs. (5.8± 1.3),(3.9±2.4) vs. (6.3±1.5), both P＜0. 01]. There were no significant differences in the scores of EBPM between aged PD patients or non-aged PD patients and their age-matched control groups [(3.6±0.5) vs. (3.8±0.8), (4.8±0.9) vs. (4.9±0.9), both P＞0.05]. (2)The Hoehn-Yahr grade in PD patients was significantly correlated with scores of EBPM, but not with scores of TBPM.Conclusions The patients with PD have an impairment in EBPM, but not in TBPM. The impairment of EBPM may be related to the disease severity of PD.