Recent ucd_ome_posters_neuro items

Physician and Community Partnerships for ReducingHealth Disparities and Inequity for People with Disabilities:Development and Implementation of a Culturally HumbleCourse for Medical Students

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Physician and Community Partnerships for ReducingHealth Disparities and Inequity for People with Disabilities:Development and Implementation of a Culturally HumbleCourse for Medical Students

Advances in Deep Neuropathological Phenotyping of Alzheimer’s disease: Past, Present, and Future

Thu, 5 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized pathologically by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and amyloid beta aggregates in the brain. It was first described in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, and it is currently the most common cause of dementia worldwide. This paper delves into the past, present, and future outlook for AD, focusing on historical microscopy & staining advancements, disease heterogeneity, and improved neuropathological phenotyping through the use of machine learning.

Exosomal MicroRNAs from Mesenchymal Stem/stromal Cells: Biology and Applications in Neuroprotection

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Exosomal MicroRNAs from Mesenchymal Stem/stromal Cells: Biology and Applications in Neuroprotection

The Therapeutic Potential of Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cells and their Exosomes for the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Thu, 7 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Stem cell therapy has emerged as a valuable tool for the treatment of numerous diseases, including those driven by neurodegenerative processes. There are a wide variety of stem cells that have been identified for therapeutic use, including but not limited to embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs), and neural stem cells. In recent years, placental mesenchymal stem cells have been identified as a unique source of therapy that are relatively less difficult to acquire and don’t pose the same ethical concerns regarding harvest and use.

Predicting Risk of Neurologic Patient Readmission

Thu, 7 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

• Approximately two million hospital readmissions occur annually and cost Medicare nearly $26 billion dollars.

• The Neuro R 2 score was designed by the Mayo Clinic to predict the risk of readmission within 30 days of recent hospitalization in patients with neurological disorders and based on common clinical characteristics.

• It remains unknown whether the prediction model is broadly applicable, particularly when incorporating patient characteristics strongly associated with healthcare disparities.

Methamphetamine-associated psychosis in acute stroke

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Methamphetamine is an addictive psychoactive stimulant and a known risk factor for stroke1. This illicit substance commonly leads to psychosis while under its influence as well as during periods of abstinence2,3. Methamphetamine-associated psychosis is unique in that periods of psychosis are prolonged, clinically challenging to treat, and lead to extended hospital length of stay (LOS)2,4. Little is known about the impact of methamphetamine use and the development of psychosis in patients with acute stroke. Whether concurrent methamphetamine use leads to prolonged psychosis in these patients and extends hospital LOS is unknown.

Imaging Characteristics of Methamphetamine-Associated Ischemic Strokes

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Methamphetamine (meth) is a highly addictive stimulant with harmful effects that lead to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Rates of meth use have been growing with an estimated 24 million users worldwide as of 2015. Despite a strong association between meth use and increased cerebrovascular risk, detailed descriptions of clinical and neuroradiologic characteristics in larger cohorts are lacking.

Characterizing Alzheimer’s Disease Progression through Event Related Potential (ERP) Analysis

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Several studies have shown the promise of cognitive ERP (event-related potential) as a cost-effective and non-invasive modality for monitoring forms of pathological aging such as Alzheimer’s Disease. Specifically, ERP waveforms P600 and N400 have been shown to be sensitive to pathological aging and potentially predictive for development of Alzheimer’s Disease. In collaboration with UCSD, the Olichney Cognitive Electrophysiology and Neuroimaging (CEAN) lab has been conducting a multiyear longitudinal study to better understand and characterize Alzheimer’s Disease progression through ERP biomarker analysis. This study involves recruitment of four patient groups (control, “preclinical” Alzheimer’s Disease, mild cognitive impairment, and mild Alzheimer’s Dementia) that undergo initial ERP testing with repeat testing at 12 months and 24 months. Here, we assess the preliminary changes seen in ERP waveforms P600 and N400 for enrolled patients with AD progression at baseline when compared...

Post-traumatic Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis: Prevalence and Risk Factors

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The dural or cerebral venous sinuses are structures that drain blood from the brain and return it to the heart via the internal jugular veins. Thrombosis can occur in these structures from hemostasis or direct endothelial cell injury

Health Related Quality of Life in Cerebral Palsy Patients at Shriners Hospital for Children, Northern California

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Cerebral Palsy

• Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability of childhood.

• CP patients often experience motor disorders causing activity limitation along with disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition, communication, and behavior. Patients may also experience epilepsy and secondary musculoskeletal issues.

• The clinical manifestations of CP vary greatly from patient to patient and there is a wide array of development, level of functioning, and social comfort among the CP population.

The Association Between Traumatic Brain Injuries and Adverse Childhood Experiences

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Main Finding: There are significant differences between the types of ACEs experienced by the general California or Sacramento County population and the UCD TBI Registry.

Do Peripheral Nerve Sizes Correlate with Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter?

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In a sample of patients with subjectively normal intracranial pressure, median nerve size varied significantly with optic nerve sheath diameter.

Acute Predictors of Stroke Recovery: A Feasibility Study

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Acute Predictors of Stroke Recovery: A Feasibility Study

Correlation between age of onset and genotype with systemic symptomatology in Aicardi Goutières Syndrome

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Aicardi Goutières Syndrome (AGS) is a heritable interferonopathy that results invariable neurologic disability and systemic complications1. Key variables (e.g. genotypeand age at onset) only partially correlate with neurologic function, which can range from isolated spastic paraparesis to profound global developmental delay.

Accuracy and Reliability of Noxious Stimuli Delivery in Altered Patients

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is significant variability in methods used to perform neurological examination in poorlyresponsive patients. Inconsistent and poor inter-examiner reliability may lead to poor,consequential clinical decision-making and care. Noxious stimuli are routinely administered to elicit motoric responses to determine the depth of unresponsiveness in comatose patients. However, no study has tested the reliability of noxious stimuli delivery (NSD) method or quantified applied force that elicit motor responses in patients with coma.

The Diminishing Gap in USMLE Scores Amongst Neurosurgery Residency Applicants

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Neurological surgery is a historically challengingspecialty to match into, with match rates of 65%. With the USMLE Step 1 exam now graded on a pass/fail basis, there is piqued interest in whether Step 2 will become the “new” Step 1 as a factor to assess candidates for competitive specialties such asneurosurgery. To date, there is no literature that describes the differences in Step 2 scores between matched and unmatched allopathic seniors and how these differences have changed through time.

A Proposed Mechanism to Adolescent Cannabis Induced Psychosis

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As the rate of cannabis induced psychosis increases in many parts of the world, it is important to understand the pathophysiology of this disorder. In this review we will attempt to connect cannabis induced physiological changes with new PET data on CB1receptors in patients with schizophrenia to provide a theoretical mechanisms of cannabis-induced psychosis in adolescence. Wepropose that adolescent cannabis induced psychosis is possibly induced by chronic usage of cannabis during an important neurodevelopmental timeframe. This induces CB1 receptor down regulation due to tolerance, a similar pathophysiological state seenin patients with schizophrenia. The risk of developing cannabis induced psychosis is proposed to be a combination of whencannabis use is first initiated, potency of cannabis, frequency of usage and genetic predisposition. After reviewing these steadilyincreasing data, we propose future studies and policy changes to further understand this mechanism and decrease...

Quantifying How Early Environment Shapes Connectivity and Organization of Corticospinal Tract: Impact & Methodology

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our early sensory experiences and ability to explore our environment shapes our brain, perceptions and behavior. Active exploration provides kinematic and sensory feedbackwhich drives movement that are distributed in neural networks. Deprivation and unnatural environments effect fine motor precision, manual dexterity, bilateral coordination, balance and motor limb coordination.

On the contrary, naturalistic environments are key for cognitive function, stress regulation, and motor development. This study looks to quantify functional brain organization,motor cortex connectivity, corticospinal tract connectivity and use statistical analysis to correlate/predict neural or behavioralphenotypes that are demonstrated by the environment.

Genetic Correlates and Clinical Characteristics of Huntington’s disease Patients Followed Over the Lifespan at the HDSA Center of Excellence at UC Davis

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our objectives were to describe clinical and genetic characteristics of a cohort of patients prospectively followed until death at the HDSA Center of Excellence at UC Davis multidisciplinary clinic, and to determine the relationship between CAGn and age at death.

Does metformin slow cognitive decline in individuals with Fragile X Syndrome?

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is one of the most common causes of intellectual disability. It is the result of the expansion of the trinucleotide CGG repeat (>200) in the fragile x messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 (FMR1) gene, leading to a deficiency or absence of the fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein (FMRP). Many studies have found that there is a trend of IQdecline among FXS individuals around adolescent years. Recent studies also found that metformin rescues some of the cognitive deficits in FXS mouse models, and case reports show similar benefits in FXS individuals.

This suggests that metformin may have clinical value as a targeted treatment to slow IQ decline in FXS individuals. In this follow-up study, we are assessing pre- and post-metformin IQ scores among individuals with FXS after 1 year of treatment.

Regional variation in cardiovascular genes enables a tractable genome editing strategy

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Recent rise in the number and therapeutic potential of genome engineering technologies has generated excitement for their application in cardiovascular therapeutics. One significant barrier to their implementation is costly and time-consuming reagent development for novel variants. We have previously shown that disease-associated variants cluster in functional protein domains where variants are found in the general population at lower frequency.1,2 These findings may provide an opportunity to pre-emptively target multiple pathogenic variant clusters (“pathogenic hotspots”) that address a majority of pathogenic and likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants for a given disease with a small number of pre-designed reagents. Prime editing, a search-and-replace editing technology, can overwrite genomic sequences with a reverse transcriptase guided by a Cas9 nickase and prime editing guide (peg)RNA.3 We hypothesized that most cardiovascular disease-relevant genes in ClinVar would display regional...

Atrial fibrillation is a risk factor forcerebrovascular disease:A diffusion tensor imaging study

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is directly associated with cognitivedecline and dementia1,2. AF can alter cerebral blood flow3, which may disrupt white matter (WM) integrity, and lead to cerebral vascular disease (CVD). Cerebral free water (FW), derived from Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), can predict most subtle WM microstructuralchanges in young healthy adults4,5 and is strongly associated with WM injury in older adults6. Fractional anisotropy (FA), also derived from DTI, is a sensitive measure of brain connectivity. Decreased FA is associated with poorer cognitive and executive function 7. This study aimed to investigate whether AF is a risk factor for CVD in non-demented individuals using two biomarkers: cerebral FW and FA.