BackgroundMRgFUS Vim ablation is increasingly used for the treatment of tremor in ET e PD patients but there is little published research on the importance of operator experience in this procedure. This study aims to evaluate the learning curve and the influence of the operator experience on the procedural and clinical outcomes.MethodsWe retrospectively evaluated 90 patients (38 ET, 52 PD) submitted to MRgFUS unilateral thalamotomy in the period between February 2018 and July 2020. Clinical endpoints, procedural times, and technical parameters were recorded in all procedures. Based on the time of treatment, patients were divided into three groups of 30 units each, comparing all variables between each time period group.ResultsIn Group A, the average patient preparation time was 120.6 min, the treatment time was 105.2 min, the number of was sonications 14.1, and the mean target shifts 3.1. In Group B, the mean preparation time was 105.5 min, the treatment time was 89.5 min, the number of sonications was 13.2, and the target shifts 3.0. Group C showed inferior values of preparation time (101.9 min), treatment time (71.7 min), numbers of sonications (10.6), and shifts (1.7). Thalamotomy-related complications occurred in 9 patients of Group A, 2 of Group B, and 5 of Group C. Tremor relapse occurred in 7 patients of Group A, 3 of Group B, and 2 of Group C. The days of hospitalization were comparable in the three groups.ConclusionsThe operators experience is associated with the improvement of clinical and procedural outcome in MRgFUS thalatomy for the treatment of ET and PD tremor.

MRgFUS Vim thalamotomy is a novel, effective, minimally invasive therapeutic option for patients with essential tremor (ET). Among the selection criteria, some parameters related to the patient's anatomy, such as the skull density ratio (SDR), are well recognized. The role of brain tissue interposed between the target and the ultrasound transducers has never been explored. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to evaluate the correlation and the possible predictive value between brain tissue volumes (grey matter - GM, white matter - WM, and cerebrospinal fluid - CSF) and several treatment-related variables (periprocedural parameters, MRI imaging findings, and the clinical outcome). We analysed data from thirty ET patients previously submitted to MRgFUS thalamotomy. Pre-treatment images were automatically segmented in sopra-tentorial (ST) WM, GM, and CSF using SPM 12. The most significant findings were a positive correlation of the ST-GM with the Accumulated Thermal Dose (ATD) (p < 0,001) and a negative correlation of the ATD temperature with ST-CSF and ST-TIV (p < 0,001). Ultrasound propagation speed is lower in fluids than brain tissues. Also, WM has an attenuation rate of 1.5 higher than the GM. Therefore, the difference in the ATD may be explained by the different acoustic properties of normal brain tissues interposed between the transducers and the VIM. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We evaluated the predictive value of several clinical, radiological and laboratory parameters on the risk of predict intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We conducted a case-control study on a consecutive hospital based series of patients with AF and ICH. A random sample of subjects with AF without ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke was selected from the same hospital in the same period to perform as the control group, with a ratio of two controls per case. All patients underwent the same evaluation protocol. Patients without neuroimaging exams were excluded. During the study period we identified 37 subjects with AF and ICH. 74 subjects without stroke events were randomly chosen among subjects with AF. Among cases 56.8% were female; mean age was 83.1 years. Patients with ICH were more often on anticoagulant therapy (75.7%), compared with controls (45.9%; p = 0.0002). On CT scans, cases had a greater severity of leukoaraiosis at the Blennow scale (p < 0.0001) and a higher frequency of lacunar infarcts (p = 0.006). No significant association was found between MRI parameters or the HAS-BLED score and the occurrence of ICH. CT scan is more useful than MRI and HAS-BLED score to predict ICH in patients with AF on antithrombotic therapy.

Increasing evidence suggests that uric acid (UA) is a relevant risk factor for arteriolosclerosis and recent studies have demonstrated the positive relationship between UA concentrations and the severity of leukoaraiosis. However, the association between lacunar infarcts (LI) and UA levels has seldom been reported in the literature. The aim of our study was to assess whether serum UA levels may be related to the presence of LI. We recruited 242 patients (113 males and 129 females, aged 82.83 ± 6.49 years) from our Geriatric Department for whom CAT scans (CT) were available. Clinical and laboratory data was collected. Patients CT images were examined to identify the presence, the size, the number, and the location of LI. LI without neurological symptoms were considered silent LI. Serum UA levels were found to be positively associated with the presence (p = 0.0001), the number (p = 0.001), the size (p = 0.001), and the location of LI in the basal ganglia (p = 0.0038), the deep white matter (DWM) (p < 0.0001), and the pons (p = 0.0156). A significant association was also found between UA and silent LI (p = 0.0002). The prevalence of LI increased starting from UA levels of 5.7 mg/dl. Stepwise multiple regression analysis confirmed that UA was independently related with the presence, the number, the size, LI in the basal ganglia, the DWM, the pons, and with silent LI. Our study suggests a positive association between UA levels and LI, which is independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. This data suggests that UA plays an influential role on the physiopathology of LI and could represent a potential target to prevent cerebral microinfarcts.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive, well-tolerated, brain stimulation technique, using a weak current applied on the scalp. Rational of tDCS use has been based on the assumption of the post-stroke inter-hemispheric competition model, resulting in a hypo-excitability hemispheric lesion and a hyper-excitability healthy hemisphere, to improve the recovery of motor function. Several small studies have been published but the efficacy of tDCS is not established. We performed a systematic review of published studies to assess efficacy of tDCS on motor function of patients with stroke. A thorough search of main databases has been performed to identify randomized, controlled studies on efficacy of tDCS in patients with stroke. The values derived from the primary outcome measures of these studies have been standardized to make them comparable; eight comparisons were planned: degree of dependence, improvement of upper limb, improvement of global motor function, improvement of lower limb and visual perception; comparison between anode stimulation and sham, anode stimulation and follow-up. 8 studies have been included in the meta-analysis. 3 studies have been excluded because of lack of statistical data, non-randomized assignment and lack of a control group; 178 participants have been included altogether. Most of comparisons did not produce significant results; however a significant improvement of dependence scores (p=0.02), of lower limb index (p=0.02), and of visual perception (p=0.02) have been found. Despite the encouraging results by neurophysiological and instrumental investigations, in some heterogeneous cases, our study shows that there is a need to conduct studies with larger sample sizes.

Although tumefactive multiple sclerosis is a well recognized variant of multiple sclerosis, prognostic uncertainty still exists about long term prognosis. The aim of this study was to estimate the occurrence and long term outcome of tumefactive demyelinating lesions (TDLs) in a cohort of multiple sclerosis patients. We reviewed brain MRI of 443 patients referred to our MS clinic. All patients meeting the McDonald criteria for multiple sclerosis and showing at least one TDL were included. Kaplan–Meier estimates of disease-free survival in patient cohort were compared with control group without TDLs using a log-rank test. Seven cases with TDLs were identified (occurrence 1.58 %). Tumefactive demyelinating lesion recurrence was 16.6 %. Cumulative proportion of patients free from clinical relapse and from new T2 lesions was lower in the control group although not reaching statistical significance (30 vs 50 %; P = 0.666 and 21.7 vs 33.3 %; P = 0.761, respectively). Disability progression analysis showed a not significant trend towards lower probability of remaining progression free for TDL patients (50 vs 61 %; P = 0.295). Occurrence of tumefactive demyelinating lesions in our cohort was higher than those reported in other studies. Overall, TDLs were not predictive of poor outcome in terms of disability progression.

Objective: Growing evidence suggest that uric acid is a relevant risk factor for arteriolosclerosis and thus it might be associated with cerebral small vessel disease. The aim of our study was to investigate the association of serum uric acid levels to conditions related to cerebral small vessel disease. Design and method: One hundred elderly patients (48 males and 52 females, mean age ± SD of 82.9 ± 6.33 years) referring to our Geriatric Unit for whom CT scans were available were recruited. Clinical and laboratory data were collected, together with CT images. Results: Uric acid levels resulted positively related to severity of leukoaraiosis on CT images, evaluated with the Blennow scale (p = 0.017). Moreover, uric acid was found to be positively associated with the presence (p = 0.0001), number (p = 0.023), size (p = <0.001) and location of lacunar infarcts in basal ganglia (p = 0.003), deep white matter (p = 0.0175) and pons (p = 0.0228). A significant association was also found between uric acid and silent lacunar infarcts (p = 0.0002). Stepwise multiple regression analysis confirmed the association with the presence (p = 0.0001), number (p = 0.0461), size (p = <0.001) and location of lacunar infarcts in basal ganglia (p = 0.003) and pons (p = 0.02), while the association with severity of leukoaraiosis on CT images became marginally non significant (p = 0.09). In subjects with uric acid <356.88 umol/L) only a trend toward a negative association with number (p = 0.16) and size (p = 0.20) of lacunar infarcts became evident. Conclusions: Our study points to a positive association between increased circulating levels of uric acid and lacunar infarcts which is independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. These data suggest that serum uric acid could play an influential role on the pathophysiology of cerebral small vessel disease.