Publications

2 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 2

Abstract (Expand)

Corticobasal degeneration is a scarce neurodegenerative disease, which can only be confirmed by histopathological examination. Reported to be associated with various clinical syndromes, its classical clinical phenotype is corticobasal syndrome. Due to the rareness of corticobasal syndrome/corticobasal degeneration and low numbers of patients included in single studies, meta-analyses are particularly suited to disentangle features of the clinical syndrome and histopathology. Using PubMed, we identified 11 magnetic resonance imaging studies measuring atrophy in 22 independent cohorts with 200 patients contrasted to 318 healthy controls. The anatomic likelihood estimation method was applied to reveal affected brain regions across studies. Corticobasal syndrome was related to gray matter loss in the basal ganglia/thalamus, frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. In corticobasal degeneration patients, atrophy in the thalamus, frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes were found. Finally, in a conjunction analysis, the bilateral thalamus, the bilateral posterior frontomedian cortex, posterior midcingulate cortex and premotor area/supplementary motor area, and the left posterior superior and middle frontal gyrus/precentral gyrus were identified as areas associated with both, corticobasal syndrome and corticobasal degeneration. Remarkably, atrophy in the premotor area/supplementary motor area and posterior midcingulate/frontomedian cortex seems to be specific for corticobasal syndrome/corticobasal degeneration, whereas atrophy in the thalamus and the left posterior superior and middle frontal gyrus/precentral gyrus are also associated with other neurodegenerative diseases according to anatomic likelihood estimation method meta-analyses. Our study creates a new conceptual framework to understand, and distinguish between clinical features (corticobasal syndrome) and histopathological findings (corticobasal degeneration) by powerful data-driven meta-analytic approaches. Furthermore, it proposes regional-specific atrophy as an imaging biomarker for diagnosis of corticobasal syndrome/corticobasal degeneration ante-mortem.

Authors: F. Albrecht, S. Bisenius, R. Morales Schaack, J. Neumann, M. L. Schroeter

Date Published: 27th Jun 2017

Publication Type: Journal article

Human Diseases: neurodegenerative disease

Abstract (Expand)

The spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases covers the dementias, parkinsonian syndromes, Huntington disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and prion diseases. In these entities, brain MRI is often used in clinical routine to exclude other pathologies and to demonstrate specific atrophy patterns. [18F]FDG PET delivers early and sensitive readouts of neural tissue loss, and more specific PET tracers currently in use clinically target beta-amyloid plaques or dopaminergic deficiency. The recent integration of PET into MR technology offers a new chance to improve early and differential diagnosis of many neurodegenerative diseases. Initial evidence in the literature is available to support this notion. New emerging PET tracers, such as tracers that bind to tau or alpha-synuclein aggregates, as well as MR techniques, like diffusion-tensor imaging, resting-state functional MRI, and arterial spin labeling, have the potential to broaden the diagnostic capabilities of combined PET/MRI to image dementias, Parkinson disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases. The ultimate goal is to establish combined PET/MRI as a first-line imaging technique to provide, in a one-stop-shop fashion with improved patient comfort, all biomarker information required to increase diagnostic confidence toward specific diagnoses. The technical challenge of accurate PET data attenuation correction within PET/MRI systems needs yet to be solved. Apart from the projected clinical routine applications, future research would need to answer the questions of whether combined brain PET/MRI is able to improve basic research of neurodegenerative diseases and antineurodegeneration drug testing.

Authors: H. Barthel, M. L. Schroeter, K. T. Hoffmann, O. Sabri

Date Published: 6th Apr 2015

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: dementia, neurodegenerative disease

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