1,720,979 research outputs found
Effect of Immunomodulatory Agents (IMAs) on Cortical Inflammatory Lesions (CLs) in Patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS): A 2-Year Longitudinal Comparison Study
No full textEffect of disease-modifying drugs on cortical lesions and atrophy in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
No full textA Widespread Cortical Thinning Characterizes MS Patients Having a Mild Cognitive Impairment.
No full textBackground: Although cognitive dysfunction affects a relevant portion of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), its pathologic substrate has not been clarified and it does not seem entirely explained by white matter changes.
Methods: A total of 100 consecutive patients with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) and 42 normal controls (NC) were enrolled in the study. Cognitive performance was assessed by Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB). Regional cortical thickness (CTh) was evaluated by Freesurfer.
Results: Thirty-one patients with RRMS failed 1 or 2 tests of BRB and were considered to have a mild cognitive impairment (mCI-RRMS), while 8 patients failed at least 3 tests and were classified as markedly impaired (sCI-RRMS). The mean CTh of mCI-RRMS and sCI-RRMS group was significantly lower than in NC (p < 0.001) and cognitively normal patients with RRMS (CN-RRMS) (p < 0.001). The regional analysis revealed significant cortical thinning in frontal and temporal regions (frontotemporal thinning) of CN-RRMS compared to NC, while a widespread pattern of cortical thinning was observed in mCI-RRMS and in sCI-RRMS compared to both CN-RRMS and NC. A correlation was observed between cognitive score (CS) and the mean CTh (r = −0.69, p < 0.001) and between CS and CTh of almost all the cortical areas analyzed (r value between −0.20 and −0.65, p < 0.01). A correlation was found between T2-WM-LV and mean CTh (r = −0.31, p = 0.004) or CS (r = 0.21, p = 0.031). The multivariate analysis confirmed a widespread cortical thinning as the best predictor of cognitive impairment.
Conclusions: A widespread pattern of cortical thinning characterizes patients with cognitive dysfunction, suggesting such dysfunction as expression of a more aggressive and widespread cortical pathology
Diffusion-tensor MR imaging of cortical lesions in multiple sclerosis: a 1-year longitudinal study
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Imaging distribution and frequency of cortical lesions in patients with multiple sclerosis
No full textBACKGROUND:
The presence of cortical lesions (CLs) and their topographic distribution in the brains of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been clearly shown by recent histopathologic studies. CLs can also be assessed in vivo, with less sensitivity, by using specific MRI sequences. MRI-based lesion probability maps (LPMs) may partially overcome this lack of sensitivity and provide unique information on the spatial distribution and frequency of CLs in MS.
METHODS:
A total of 149 patients with MS (103 relapsing-remitting [RR] and 46 primary progressive [PP]) underwent an MRI examination, which included the double inversion recovery (DIR) sequence for CL assessment. CL masks were then obtained for each patient and a cortical LPM (cLPM) was created for each MS subtype.
RESULTS:
CLs were mainly distributed in the frontal (RR = 51.8%; PP = 50.5%) and temporal (RR = 30.4%; PP = 35.5%) lobes, with a prominent involvement of the motor (RR = 37.8%; PP = 30.6%) and anterior cingulate (RR = 9.2%; PP = 10.6%) cortices. The extent of brain lobe affected by CLs was higher in RR than in PP patients. The frequency of CL occurrence was higher in PP than in RR patients. Both measurements, however, did not show differences between the 2 MS subtypes at voxel-wise analysis.
CONCLUSIONS:
Patients with RRMS and PPMS share more similarities than differences in terms of CL number, volume, topographic distribution, and frequency. The similarities between histopathologic data and the findings reported here suggest that DIR images can accurately illustrate the focal pathology occurring in the cortical regions of patients with MS, providing clinically relevant information
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