Few studies to date have specifically examined gender differences in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). A new study has investigated this issue in 26 patients with behavioural-variant FTD (Koros et al. EAN 2015; abstract F2014). Cognitive and behavioural symptoms in 26 males and females were compared based on neuropsychological and behavioural testing and patient history. The scales used were the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI). Read More
Neurology
ECTRIMS 2015
March 9, 2016Dr. Marcelo Kremenchutzky, Director of the Multiple Sclerosis clinic at the London Health Sciences Centre, interviews researchers at the annual meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ECTRIMS).
Zika virus – New guidelines for managing pregnant women
February 3, 2016Clinical symptoms
Zika virus and pregnancy
Guidelines for clinicians
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued guidelines for healthcare providers managing pregnant women at risk of exposure to the Zika virus during the current pandemic (Petersen et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2016;65:30-33; free full text at http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6502e1). Read More
1 dead in phase I trial
January 27, 2016One person is dead and five others are hospitalized in a phase I trial that went badly wrong. Three of the survivors may have suffered irreversible brain damage, according to Dr. Gilles Edan, head of neurology at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rennes, France, as quoted in the New York Times (Chanjan S. NY Times, Jan. 15, 2016). Preliminary MRI results showed cerebral hemorrhage and brain necrosis in some study participants. Read More
Increased cardiovascular risk in Parkinson’s disease
December 16, 2015Patients with Parkinson’s disease have a significantly elevated risk of acute myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death, according to a population-based longitudinal study (Liang et al. Am Heart J 2015;169:508-514). The analysis included 3,211 PD patients and 3,211 propensity score-matched subjects without PD. During the three-year follow-up, there were 83 fatal or non-fatal AMIs in the PD group compared to 53 in the non-PD group (hazard ratio 1.67). There were also significant differences in the PD versus non-PD groups for the combined endpoint of AMI or cardiovascular death (HR 1.46), and for AMI or all-cause mortality (HR 1.42). Read More