Neurology Commons^™

Iranian Stroke Model-How To Involve Health Policymakers, Mehdi Farhoudi, Ehsan Sharifipour

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

Stroke in Iran, with more than 83 million population, is a leading cause of disability and mortality in adults. Stroke has higher incidence in Iran comparing the global situation and unfortunately the onset age of first ever stroke is dropping about 10 years.1 Intravenous thrombolysis, as an approved treatment in ischemic stroke, has been used only in some university or private hospitals in Iran since 2008.2 The main limit for this therapy in Iran was the lack of coverage by health insurance companies for tPA. A project for situation analysis of stroke cases entering to Imam Reza Hospital, a tertiary …

Adopting Clinical Practice Guidelines For Pharmacologic Management Of Acute Spinal Cord Injury From A Developed World Context To A Developing Global Region, Seyed Behnam Jazayeri, Seyed Farzad Maroufi, Zahra Ghodsi, Heshmatollah Ghawami, Ahmad Pourrashidi, Abbas Amirjamshidi, Mojtaba Mojtahedzadeh, Jalil Arabkheradmand, Farzin Farahbakhsh, Maryam Shabany, Morteza Faghih-Jouibari, Michael G Fehlings, Brian K Kwon, James Harrop, Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

Background: Proper utilization of high-quality clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) eliminates the dependence of patients' outcomes on the ability and knowledge of "individual" health care providers and reduces unwarranted variation in care. The aim of this study was to adapt/adopt two CPGs for pharmacologic management of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) using guideline adaptation methods.

Methods: This study was conducted based on the ADAPTE process. Following establishment of an organizing committee and choosing the health topics, we appraised the quality of the CPGs using the Appraisal of Clinical Guidelines for Research & Evaluation II (AGREE II). Then, the authors extracted and …

Real-Time Fmri Neurofeedback And Ptsd: Efficacy In Symptom Relief And Neural Circuit Restoration, Sophia F. Ryker

University Honors Theses

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is recognized by the DSM-V as resulting from exposure to a traumatic event and the subsequent, prolonged experience of intrusive symptoms, avoidance behavior, altered cognitive functioning and hyperarousal. Current treatments often do not provide relief from symptoms and there is a need for neuro-scientifically informed interventions.

Methods: Through the review of all available studies using real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rt-fMRI-NF) as a treatment for PTSD, the efficacy of this therapeutic intervention was analyzed in order to make specific recommendations for the neurofeedback protocols of future studies.

Results: Evidence demonstrated successful reduction in symptom severity and normalizing …

Nexmif Pathogenic Variants In Individuals Of Korean, Vietnamese, And Mexican Descent, Elizabeth Langley, Laura S Farach, Mary K Koenig, Hope Northrup, David F Rodriguez-Buritica, Kate Mowrey

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

NEXMIF pathogenic variants have been known to produce a wide spectrum of X-linked intellectual disability (ID) in both males and females. Thus far, few individuals from diverse populations have been described with NEXMIF-related disorders. Herein, we report three individuals with NEXMIF pathogenic variants, the first two are the only males of Korean and Vietnamese descent described with this disorder to our knowledge. The last patient is a Hispanic female who harbors the same pathogenic variant as a previously described Caucasian individual, but with differing clinical presentation. These patients present with many classic symptoms of NEXMIF-related disorders including ID, epilepsy, developmental …

A Wireless Millimetric Magnetoelectric Implant For The Endovascular Stimulation Of Peripheral Nerves, Joshua C Chen, Peter Kan, Zhanghao Yu, Fatima Alrashdan, Roberto Garcia, Amanda Singer, C S Edwin Lai, Ben Avants, Scott Crosby, Zhongxi Li, Boshuo Wang, Michelle M Felicella, Ariadna Robledo, Angel V Peterchev, Stefan M Goetz, Jeffrey D Hartgerink, Sunil A Sheth, Kaiyuan Yang, Jacob T Robinson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Implantable bioelectronic devices for the simulation of peripheral nerves could be used to treat disorders that are resistant to traditional pharmacological therapies. However, for many nerve targets, this requires invasive surgeries and the implantation of bulky devices (about a few centimetres in at least one dimension). Here we report the design and in vivo proof-of-concept testing of an endovascular wireless and battery-free millimetric implant for the stimulation of specific peripheral nerves that are difficult to reach via traditional surgeries. The device can be delivered through a percutaneous catheter and leverages magnetoelectric materials to receive data and power through tissue via …

Prune1 C933g>A Synonymous Variant Induces Exon 7 Skipping, Disrupts The Dhha2 Domain, And Leads To An Atypical Nmihba Syndrome Presentation: Case Report And Review Of The Literature, Christina L Magyar, David R Murdock, Lindsay C Burrage, Hongzheng Dai, Seema R Lalani, Richard A Lewis, Yuezhen Lin, Marcela F Astudillo, Jill A Rosenfeld, Alyssa A Tran, James B Gibson, Undiagnosed Diseases Network, Carlos A Bacino, Brendan H Lee, Hsiao-Tuan Chao

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Prune exopolyphosphatase-1 (PRUNE1) encodes a member of the aspartic acid-histidine-histidine (DHH) phosphodiesterase superfamily that regulates cell migration and proliferation during brain development. In 2015, biallelic PRUNE1 loss-of-function variants were identified to cause the neurodevelopmental disorder with microcephaly, hypotonia, and variable brain abnormalities (NMIHBA, OMIM#617481). NMIHBA is characterized by the namesake features and structural brain anomalies including thinning of the corpus callosum, cerebral and cerebellar atrophy, and delayed myelination. To date, 47 individuals have been reported in the literature, but the phenotypic spectrum of PRUNE1-related disorders and their causative variants remains to be characterized fully. Here, we report a novel homozygous …

Parental Mosaicism For Apparent De Novo Genetic Variants: Scope, Detection, And Counseling Challenges, Roni Zemet, Ignatia B Van Den Veyver, Paweł Stankiewicz

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

The disease burden of de novo mutations (DNMs) has been evidenced only recently when the common application of next-generation sequencing technologies enabled their reliable and affordable detection through family-based clinical exome or genome sequencing. Implementation of exome sequencing into prenatal diagnostics revealed that up to 63% of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants associated with fetal structural anomalies are apparently de novo, primarily for autosomal dominant disorders. Apparent DNMs have been considered to primarily occur as germline or zygotic events, with consequently negligible recurrence risks. However, there is now evidence that a considerable proportion of them are in fact inherited from …

Modelmatcher: A Scientist-Centric Online Platform To Facilitate Collaborations Between Stakeholders Of Rare And Undiagnosed Disease Research, J Michael Harnish, Lucian Li, Sanja Rogic, Guillaume Poirier-Morency, Seon-Young Kim, Kym M Boycott, Michael F Wangler, Hugo J Bellen, Philip Hieter, Paul Pavlidis, Zhandong Liu, Shinya Yamamoto

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Next-generation sequencing is a prevalent diagnostic tool for undiagnosed diseases and has played a significant role in rare disease gene discovery. While this technology resolves some cases, others are given a list of possibly damaging genetic variants necessitating functional studies. Productive collaborations between scientists, clinicians, and patients (affected individuals) can help resolve such medical mysteries, and provide insights into in vivo function of human genes. Furthermore, facilitating interactions between scientists and research funders, including non-profit organizations or commercial entities, can dramatically reduce the time to translate discoveries from bench to bedside. Several systems designed to connect clinicians and researchers with …

Prognosticators Of Visual Acuity After Indirect Traumatic Optic Neuropathy, Alex J Wright, Joanna H Queen, Emilio P Supsupin, Alice Z Chuang, John J Chen, Rod Foroozan, Ore-Ofe O Adesina

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are radiographic and systemic clinical characteristics that can predict final visual outcomes in patients with indirect traumatic optic neuropathy (iTON).

METHODS: This study is a retrospective, multicenter case series of adult patients with iTON treated initially at large, urban, and/or academic trauma centers with follow-up at an affiliated ophthalmology clinic. In addition to detailed cranial computed tomography characteristics, demographics, systemic comorbidities, coinjuries, blood products administered, and intracranial pressure, along with other factors, were gathered. LogMAR visual acuity (VA) at the initial presentation to the hospital and up to 12 …

Co-Transmitting Neurons In The Lateral Septal Nucleus Exhibit Features Of Neurotransmitter Switching, Patrick J Hunt, Mikhail Kochukov, Brandon T Pekarek, Benjamin D W Belfort, Juan M Romero, Jessica L Swanson, Benjamin R Arenkiel

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The lateral septal nucleus (LSN) is a highly interconnected region of the central brain whose activity regulates widespread circuitry. As such, the mechanisms that govern neuronal activity within the LSN have far-reaching implications on numerous brain-wide nuclei, circuits, and behaviors. We found that GABAergic neurons within the LSN express markers that mediate the release of acetylcholine (ACh). Moreover, we show that these vGATLSN neurons release both GABA and ACh onto local glutamatergic LSN neurons. Using both short-term and long-term neuronal labeling techniques we observed expression of the cholinergic neuron marker Choline Acetyltransferase (ChAT) in vGATLSN neurons. These findings provide evidence …

Making The Case For The Accelerated Withdrawal Of Aducanumab, Peter J. Whitehouse

Faculty Scholarship

U.S. Food and Drug Administration-s (FDA) approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm® in the US) as a treatment for mild cognitive impairment of the Alzheimer type and Alzheimer-s disease has raised such major concerns about efficacy, safety, FDA processes, and regulatory capture that Biogen-s license to market this biologic should be immediately withdrawn. Aducanumab has not demonstrated benefit to patients, failed to meet regulatory guidelines, and is likely to cause both individual and societal harm.

Discovery Of Potent Bet Bromodomain 1 Stereoselective Inhibitors Using Dna-Encoded Chemical Library Selections, Ram K Modukuri, Zhifeng Yu, Zhi Tan, Hai Minh Ta, Melek Nihan Ucisik, Zhuang Jin, Justin L Anglin, Kiran L Sharma, Pranavanand Nyshadham, Feng Li, Kevin Riehle, John C Faver, Kevin Duong, Sureshbabu Nagarajan, Nicholas Simmons, Stephen S Palmer, Mingxing Teng, Damian W Young, Joanna S Yi, Choel Kim, Martin M Matzuk

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

BRDT, BRD2, BRD3, and BRD4 comprise the bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) subfamily which contain two similar tandem bromodomains (BD1 and BD2). Selective BD1 inhibition phenocopies effects of tandem BET BD inhibition both in cancer models and, as we and others have reported of BRDT, in the testes. To find novel BET BD1 binders, we screened >4.5 billion molecules from our DNA-encoded chemical libraries with BRDT-BD1 or BRDT-BD2 proteins in parallel. A compound series enriched only by BRDT-BD1 was resynthesized off-DNA, uncovering a potent chiral compound, CDD-724, with >2,000-fold selectivity for inhibiting BRDT-BD1 over BRDT-BD2. CDD-724 stereoisomers exhibited remarkable differences in …

Efficacy Of Cenobamate For Uncontrolled Focal Seizures In Patients With Previous Epilepsy-Related Surgery: Post Hoc Analysis Of A Phase 3, Multicenter, Open-Label Study, Bassel Abou-Khalil, Sami Aboumatar, Pavel Klein, Gregory L Krauss, Michael R Sperling, William E Rosenfeld

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Objective: This post hoc analysis of 10 US study sites from a long-term open-label phase 3 study of adjunctive cenobamate evaluated the efficacy of cenobamate in patients with prior epilepsy-related surgery.

Methods: Patients with uncontrolled focal seizures despite taking stable doses of 1-3 concomitant antiseizure medications (ASMs) received increasing doses of cenobamate (12.5, 25, 50, 100, 150, 200 mg/day) at 2-week intervals over 12 weeks (target dose, 200 mg/day). Further increases up to 400 mg/day using biweekly 50-mg/day increments were allowed during the maintenance phase. Dose adjustments of cenobamate and concomitant ASMs were allowed. Data were assessed until the last …

Crel And Wnt5a/Frizzled 5 Receptor-Mediated Inflammatory Regulation Reveal Novel Neuroprotectin D1 Targets For Neuroprotection, Jorgelina M. Calandria, Khanh V. Do, Sayantani Kala-Bhattacharjee, Andre Obenaus, Ludmila Belayev, Nicolas G. Bazan

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Abstract: Wnt5a triggers inflammatory responses and damage via NFkB/p65 in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells undergoing uncompensated oxidative stress (UOS) and in experimental ischemic stroke. We found that Wnt5a-Clathrin-mediated uptake leads to NFkB/p65 activation and that Wnt5a is secreted in an exosome-independent fashion. We uncovered that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and its derivative, Neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1), upregulate c-Rel expression that, as a result, blunts Wnt5a abundance by competing with NFkB/p65 on the Wnt5a promoter A. Wnt5a increases in ischemic stroke penumbra and blood, while DHA reduces Wnt5a abundance with concomitant neuroprotection. Peptide inhibitor of Wnt5a binding, Box5, is also neuroprotective. DHA-decreased …

Electrographic Seizures In Neonates With A High Risk Of Encephalopathy, Wan-Hsuan Chen, Oi-Wa Chan, Jainn-Jim Lin, Ming-Chou Chiang, Shao-Hsuan Hsia, Huei-Shyong Wang, En-Pei Lee, Yi-Shan Wang, Cheng-Yen Kuo, Kuang-Lin Lin, On The Behalf Of The Icns Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Neonatal encephalopathy is caused by a wide variety of acute brain insults in newborns and presents with a spectrum of neurologic dysfunction, such as consciousness disturbance, seizures, and coma. The increased excitability in the neonatal brain appears to be highly susceptible to seizures after a variety of insults, and seizures may be the first clinical sign of a serious neurologic disorder. Subtle seizures are common in the neonatal period, and abnormal clinical paroxysmal events may raise the suspicion of neonatal seizures. Continuous video electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring is the gold standard for the diagnosis of neonatal seizures. The aim of …

Berenice Final Analysis: Cardiac Safety Study Of Neoadjuvant Pertuzumab, Trastuzumab, And Chemotherapy Followed By Adjuvant Pertuzumab And Trastuzumab In Her2-Positive Early Breast Cancer, Chau Dang, Michael S Ewer, Suzette Delaloge, Jean-Marc Ferrero, Ramon Colomer, Luis De La Cruz-Merino, Theresa L Werner, Katherine Dadswell, Mark Verrill, Daniel Eiger, Sriparna Sarkar, Sanne Lysbet De Haas, Eleonora Restuccia, Sandra M Swain

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Simple Summary

A combination of pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and chemotherapy is a standard treatment for patients with a type of breast cancer called HER2-positive. Before the BERENICE study, little was known about the safety and effectiveness of pertuzumab with trastuzumab after surgery. Cardiac safety was a particular concern, especially when the chemotherapy given before surgery included drugs called anthracyclines. BERENICE was designed to assess the cardiac safety of pertuzumab with trastuzumab before surgery in combination with two different types of anthracycline-based chemotherapies. This paper describes additional safety and effectiveness data from BERENICE after patients had undergone surgery and when they had …

Expression Of 4e-Bp1 In Juvenile Mice Alleviates Mtor-Induced Neuronal Dysfunction And Epilepsy, Lena H Nguyen, Youfen Xu, Travorn Mahadeo, Longbo Zhang, Tiffany V Lin, Heather A Born, Anne E Anderson, Angélique Bordey

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Hyperactivation of the mTOR pathway during foetal neurodevelopment alters neuron structure and function, leading to focal malformation of cortical development and intractable epilepsy. Recent evidence suggests a role for dysregulated cap-dependent translation downstream of mTOR signalling in the formation of focal malformation of cortical development and seizures. However, it is unknown whether modifying translation once the developmental pathologies are established can reverse neuronal abnormalities and seizures. Addressing these issues is crucial with regards to therapeutics because these neurodevelopmental disorders are predominantly diagnosed during childhood, when patients present with symptoms. Here, we report increased phosphorylation of the mTOR effector and translational …

A Crosstalk Between Gut And Brain In Sepsis-Induced Cognitive Decline\, Vijayasree V Giridharan, Jaqueline S Generoso, Leonardo Lence, Gabriela Candiotto, Emílio Streck, Fabricia Petronilho, Anilkumar Pillai, Tarek Sharshar, Felipe Dal-Pizzol, Tatiana Barichello

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a potentially fatal disease characterized by acute organ failure that affects more than 30 million people worldwide. Inflammation is strongly associated with sepsis, and patients can experience impairments in memory, concentration, verbal fluency, and executive functioning after being discharged from the hospital. We hypothesize that sepsis disrupts the microbiota-gut-brain axis homeostasis triggering cognitive impairment. This immune activation persists during treatment, causing neurological dysfunction in sepsis survivors.

METHODS: To test our hypothesis, adult Wistar rats were subjected to cecal-ligation and perforation (CLP) or sham (non-CLP) surgeries. The animals were subjected to the [

RESULTS: Compared to the control …

Treatment Of Gravitational Pulling Sensation In Patients With Mal De Debarquement Syndrome (Mdds): A Model-Based Approach, Sergei B. Yakushin, Theodore Raphan, Catherine Cho

Publications and Research

Perception of the spatial vertical is important for maintaining and stabilizing vertical posture during body motion. The velocity storage pathway of vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), which integrates vestibular, optokinetic, and proprioception in the vestibular nuclei vestibular-only (VO) neurons, has spatio-temporal properties that are defined by eigenvalues and eigenvectors of its system matrix. The yaw, pitch and roll eigenvectors are normally aligned with the spatial vertical and corresponding head axes. Misalignment of the roll eigenvector with the head axes was hypothesized to be an important contributor to the oscillating vertigo during MdDS. Based on this, a treatment protocol was developed using simultaneous …

A Weakened Recurrent Circuit In The Hippocampus Of Rett Syndrome Mice Disrupts Long-Term Memory Representations, Lingjie He, Matthew S Caudill, Junzhan Jing, Wei Wang, Yaling Sun, Jianrong Tang, Xiaolong Jiang, Huda Y Zoghbi

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Successful recall of a contextual memory requires reactivating ensembles of hippocampal cells that were allocated during memory formation. Altering the ratio of excitation-to-inhibition (E/I) during memory retrieval can bias cell participation in an ensemble and hinder memory recall. In the case of Rett syndrome (RTT), a neurological disorder with severe learning and memory deficits, the E/I balance is altered, but the source of this imbalance is unknown. Using in vivo imaging during an associative memory task, we show that during long-term memory retrieval, RTT CA1 cells poorly distinguish mnemonic context and form larger ensembles than wild-type mouse cells. Simultaneous multiple …

A Rare Case Of Autoimmune Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Astrocytopathy, A Dearden, J Doty, A Krishnan, J Fellows

Conference Presentation Abstracts

Purpose This is a 69-year-old male who presented with cognitive decline, hypophonia, dyspraxia, course tremor, myoclonic jerks, and gait dysfunction, all developing over 3-4 weeks. Initial head CT and MRI brain without contrast were negative. EEG demonstrated diffuse slowing. CSF analysis revealed elevated protein and elevated white blood cells (lymphocyte predominant). Given neurological worsening, MRI brain and cervical spine with contrast were performed and unique findings were identified, detailed below. The CSF autoimmune panel returned positive for Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP). The patient was started on steroids with rapid clinical improvement. Materials and Methods MRI brain with contrast 2 …

Functional (Psychogenic) Seizures Are Associated With Thyroid Disorders, Ali A. Asadi-Pooya, Mohsen Farazdaghi

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Objective: We investigated medical comorbidities in patients with functional seizures (FS) and those with epilepsy (idiopathic generalized epilepsies [IGEs] or temporal lobe epilepsy [TLE]). We hypothesized that the nature of medical comorbidities differs between these three groups. This might be helpful to postulate on the pathophysiology of FS. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective study, all adult patients with a diagnosis of IGE, TLE, or FS were recruited at the outpatient epilepsy clinic at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran, from 2008 until 2020. The three groups of patients were matched with regard to their age. Age, sex, and medical …

9-Month Course Of Refractory Anti-Nmda Receptor Encephalitis With Initial Negative Markers: Diagnostic And Therapeutic Challenges, Camilla Cascardo, Alexander Ismail, Francisco Davila, Nicole Marijanovich

Conference Presentation Abstracts

Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is a progressively debilitating, clinically heterogeneous, frequently fatal disease caused by autoantibodies directed against the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor that affects 1 in 1.5 million people each year. Risk of misdiagnosis or delayed treatment is high due to variable presentations and potential false negative results.

Biliverdin Reductase Bridges Focal Adhesion Kinase To Src To Modulate Synaptic Signaling, Chirag Vasavda, Evan R Semenza, Jason Liew, Ruchita Kothari, Ryan S Dhindsa, Shruthi Shanmukha, Anthony Lin, Robert Tokhunts, Cristina Ricco, Adele M Snowman, Lauren Albacarys, Francesco Pastore, Cristian Ripoli, Claudio Grassi, Eugenio Barone, Michael D Kornberg, Xinzhong Dong, Bindu D Paul, Solomon H Snyder

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Synapses connect discrete neurons into vast networks that send, receive, and encode diverse forms of information. Synaptic function and plasticity—the neuronal process of adapting to diverse and variable inputs—depend on the dynamic nature of synaptic molecular components, which is mediated in part by cell adhesion signaling pathways. Here, we found that the enzyme biliverdin reductase (BVR) physically links together key focal adhesion signaling molecules at the synapse. BVR-null (BVR−/−) mice exhibited substantial deficits in learning and memory on neurocognitive tests, and hippocampal slices in which BVR was postsynaptically depleted showed deficits in electrophysiological responses to stimuli. …

Characterization Of Retinal Function And Structure In The Mptp Murine Model Of Parkinson's Diseasecharacterization Of Retinal Function And Structure In The Mptp Murine Model Of Parkinson’S Disease, Katie K N Tran, Vickie H Y Wong, Jeremiah K H Lim, Ali Shahandeh, Anh Hoang, David I Finkelstein, Bang V Bui, Christine T O Nguyen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In addition to well characterized motor symptoms, visual disturbances are increasingly recognized as an early manifestation in Parkinson's disease (PD). A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these changes would facilitate the development of vision tests which can be used as preclinical biomarkers to support the development of novel therapeutics for PD. This study aims to characterize the retinal phenotype of a mouse model of dopaminergic dysfunction and to examine whether these changes are reversible with levodopa treatment. We use a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) mouse model of PD to characterize the neurotoxic effects of MPTP on in vivo retinal function (electroretinography, …

Sex Differences In The Association Between Cardiovascular Diseases And Dementia Subtypes: A Prospective Analysis Of 464,616 Uk Biobank Participants, Caiyun Dong, Chunmiao Zhou, Chunying Fu, Wenting Hao, Akihiko Ozaki, Nipun Shrestha, Salim S. Virani, Shiva Raj Mishra, Dongshan Zhu

Office of the Provost

Background: Whether the association of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) with dementia differs by sex remains unclear, and the role of socioeconomic, lifestyle, genetic, and medical factors in their association is unknown.
Methods: We used data from the UK Biobank, a population-based cohort study of 502,649 individuals. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), and women-to-men ratio of HRs (RHR) for the association between CVD (coronary heart diseases (CHD), stroke, and heart failure) and incident dementia (all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VD)). The moderator roles of socioeconomic (education, income), …

Linking Spinal Cord Circuits With Upper Limb Sensorimotor Control In Adults With Cerebral Palsy, Saihari Dukkipati

Theses & Dissertations

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common neurological disorder originating in childhood, but most of the people living with CP are currently adults. While people with CP continue to get older, the amount of research focused on adults has been rather limited. The early childhood insults leading to CP are thought to originate in the brain, but the effects on the entire neuromuscular system across the lifespan have only recently started to be explored. Of note, recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that the cervical spinal cord structure is atypical in adults with CP. However, it is largely unclear how the neurophysiological …

A Puzzling Case Of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus In The Outpatient Setting, Shadi Shams, Asim Shafique, Marym Khan, James Bailey

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) is a disease of adulthood characterized by the triad of gait disturbance, dementia, and urinary incontinence. Since NPH shares a lot of characteristics with other disorders including neurodegenerative disorders and degenerative-dystrophic spine, it is usually underdiagnosed and undertreated. Combination of ventriculomegaly seen on a computerized tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with clinical findings could be used in diagnosis of NPH. However, improvement of symptoms post spinal tap procedure would be a better indication of diagnosis. Currently, shunt placement is the best available modality of treatment for NPH. Here we present a case of …

Case Report: A Patient With Gait Dysfunction With Acute Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy Masquerading As Diabetic Polyneuropathy, David Parkes, Russell Mordecai

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

New onset gait dysfunction often prompts admission to the hospital for further evaluation. The typical patient is an elderly person who normally is self-sufficient but had recently experienced a decline in their ability to care for themselves. Sometimes, however, those who present with gait dysfunction do not fit the expected demographic. These individuals raise concern for less common “zebra” presentations of neurological dysfunction. We describe one such rare case of a 39-year-old female with a new onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus and recent COVID-19 infection that presented to the emergency department with a sensation of bilateral lower extremity burning …

Impact Forces And Patterns Of Axonal Injury Differ Between Two Models Of Tbi, Edward Lai, David M Devilbiss

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects approximately 3.8 million Americans a year and results in complex neuropathological and neurocognitive sequelae. Animal models of TBI attempt to replicate the impact forces and pathology of injury in humans. However, in these models, the forces generated at the time of impact are poorly understood. Nonetheless, a variety of shear and strain forces generated at the time of impact can produce diffuse axonal injury. Injury to axons and neurons across a variety of brain regions resulting from axonal injury underlies the cognitive and behavioral impairments observed after TBI. Three critical brain regions, the corpus callosum …