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No abstract

Recently, the α-Synuclein Origin and Connectome (SOC) model of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been proposed, which predicts a more malignant clinical subtype and symmetrical neurodegeneration in body-first compared to brain-first PD. Here, motor symptoms (MDS-UPDRS III), non-motor symptoms (NMSQ) and T1 MRI data of an incident de novo PD cohort, were compared between PD subjects with levels of putaminal dopaminergic asymmetry in the lowest tertile (PD-sym, n=41) and highest tertile (PD-asym, n=41), as measured by FDOPA-PET. PD-sym was associated with a higher burden of motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms with a probable neurological substrate caudally from the substantia nigra. Though overall brain volume was lower in PD-sym, no differences in the volumes and asymmetricity of specific brain regions could be found between PD-sym and PD-asym after adjusting for multiple testing. The more malignant clinical picture suggests an overrepresentation of body-first PD subjects in PD-sym according to the SOC-model. Also, lower overall brain volumes were found in PD-sym. However, structural MRI data might not be sufficient to assess regional differential degeneration between PD-sym and PD-asym in de novo PD. Additional imaging modalities and longitudinal follow-up could be required to support or reject the SOC-model.

No abstract

To investigate the clinical relevance of the radiotherapy (RT) dose bath in patients treated for lower grade glioma (LGG). Methods: Patients (n = 17) treated with RT for LGG were assessed with neurocognitive function (NCF) tests and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and categorized in subgroups based on tumour lateralisation. RT dose, volumetric results and cerebral microbleed (CMB) number were extracted for contralateral cerebrum, contralateral hippocampus, and cerebellum. The RT clinical target volume (CTV) was included in the analysis as a surrogate for focal tumour and other treatment effects. The relationships between RT dose, CTV, NCF and radiological outcome were analysed per subgroup. Results: The subgroup with left-sided tumours (n = 10) performed significantly lower on verbal tests. The RT dose to the right cerebrum, as well as CTV, were related to poorer performance on tests for processing speed, attention, and visuospatial abilities, and more CMB. In the subgroup with right-sided tumours (n = 7), RT dose in the left cerebrum was related to lower verbal memory performance, (immediate and delayed recall, r = − 0.821, p = 0.023 and r = − 0.937, p = 0.002, respectively), and RT dose to the left hippocampus was related to hippocampal volume (r = − 0.857, p = 0.014), without correlation between CTV and NCF. Conclusion: By using a novel approach, we were able to investigate the clinical relevance of the RT dose bath in patients with LGG more specifically. We used combined MRI-derived and NCF outcome measures to assess radiation-induced brain damage, and observed potential RT effects on the left-sided brain resulting in lower verbal memory performance and hippocampus volume.