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Objective: Normal aging often leads to cognitive decline, and oldest old people, over 80 years old, have a 15% risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, it is important to have appropriate tools to assess cognitive function in old age. The study aimed to provide new norms for neuropsychological tests used to evaluate the cognitive abilities in people aged 80 years and older in France, focusing on the impact of education and gender differences., Method: 107 healthy participants with an average age of 85.2 years, with no neurological history or major cognitive deficits were included. A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment was performed, covering several cognitive functions such as memory, visuospatial abilities, executive functions, attention, processing speed, and praxis., Results: Individuals with lower levels of education performed poorly on some tests and took longer to complete. Gender differences were observed, with women outperforming men in verbal episodic memory, while men showed better performance in visuoconstructive tasks. The participants showed lower performance in verbal episodic memory compared to norms established in previous French studies. In relation to executive functions, participants were slower to perform complex tasks than participants in previous studies., Conclusion: This study provides cognitive norms specifically adapted to the oldest old population, which differ from established norms for younger aging adults. It highlights the importance of including these norms in future clinical and scientific investigations. The findings underscore the importance of education on cognitive abilities and emphasize the need to consider gender differences when assessing cognitive functions in aging populations.

Study Design: A retrospective single-center study between January 2019 and January 2023., Objective: The role and contribution of drainage in the anterior approach to the cervical spine (cervicotomy) is much debated, motivated primarily by the prevention of retropharyngeal hematoma, so are there still any benefits to drainage?, Background: The anterior approach to the cervical spine is a widespread and common procedure performed in almost all spine surgery departments for the replacement of cervical intervertebral discs and medullar or radicular decompression. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of symptomatic postoperative cervical hematoma., Patients and Methods: Four hundred thirty-one patients who had undergone cervical spine surgery by anterior cervicotomy for cervicarthrosis or cervical disc herniation (anterior cervical discectomy and fusion and anterior cervical disc replacement) were consecutively included. Patients were separated into 2 groups: (1) Group A, 140 patients (with postoperative drainage) and (2) Group B, 291 patients (without drainage)., Results: The mean follow-up was 2.8 months. The 2 groups were comparable on all criteria, but there was a predominance of arthroplasty ( P < 0.0001), use of anticoagulants/antiaggregants ( P < 0.0001) and a greater number of stages ( P < 0.0001) in group A. There were a total of 4/431 symptomatic postoperative hematomas (0.92%) in this study. Two hematomas occurred in group A (2/140, 1.4%) and 2 in group B (2/291, 0.68%; P < 0.0001). One patient in group A (0.71%) required surgical drainage for cavity hematoma revealed by marked dyspnea, swallowing, and neurological disorders. One case of hematoma diagnosed by dysphonia and neurological deficit was reported in group B (0.34%; P < 0.0001)., Conclusions: The placement of a drain during anterior cervicotomy (anterior cervical discectomy and fusion/anterior cervical disc replacement) did not limit the occurrence of symptomatic postoperative hematoma., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Advanced methods of imaging and mapping the healthy and lesioned brain have allowed for the identification of the cortical nodes and white matter tracts supporting the dual neurofunctional organization of language networks in a dorsal phonological and a ventral semantic stream. Much less understood are the anatomical correlates of the interaction between the two streams; one hypothesis being that of a subcortically mediated interaction, through crossed cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical and cortico-thalamo-cortical loops. In this regard, the pulvinar is the thalamic subdivision that has most regularly appeared as implicated in the processing of lexical retrieval. However, descriptions of its connections with temporal (language) areas remain scarce. Here we assess this pulvino-temporal connectivity using a combination of state-of-the-art techniques: white matter stimulation in awake surgery and postoperative diffusion MRI (n = 4), virtual dissection from the Human Connectome Project 3 and 7 T datasets (n = 172) and operative microscope-assisted post-mortem fibre dissection (n = 12). We demonstrate the presence of four fundamental fibre contingents: (i) the anterior component (Arnold's bundle proper) initially described by Arnold in the 19th century and destined to the anterior temporal lobe; (ii) the optic radiations-like component, which leaves the pulvinar accompanying the optical radiations and reaches the posterior basal temporal cortices; (iii) the lateral component, which crosses the temporal stem orthogonally and reaches the middle temporal gyrus; and (iv) the auditory radiations-like component, which leaves the pulvinar accompanying the auditory radiations to the superomedial aspect of the temporal operculum, just posteriorly to Heschl's gyrus. Each of those components might correspond to a different level of information processing involved in the lexical retrieval process of picture naming., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background and Objectives: Meningioma is one of the most common neoplasm of the central nervous system. To describe the epidemiology of meningioma operated in France and, to assess grading and histopathological variability among the different neurosurgical centres., Methods: We processed the French Brain Tumour Database (FBTDB) to conduct a nationwide population-based study of all histopathologically confirmed meningiomas between 2006 and 2015., Results: 30,223 meningiomas cases were operated on 28,424 patients, in 61 centres. The average number of meningioma operated per year in France was 3,022 (SD ± 122). Meningioma was 3 times more common in women (74.1% vs. 25.9%). The incidence of meningioma increased with age and, mean age at surgery was 58.5 ± 13.9 years. Grade 1, 2, and 3 meningiomas accounted for 83.9%, 13.91% and, 2.19% respectively. There was a significant variability of meningioma grading by institutions, especially for grade 2 which spanned from 5.1% up to 22.4% (p < 0.001). Moreover, the proportion of grade 2 significantly grew over the study period (p < 0.001). There was also a significant variation in grade 1 subtypes diagnosis among the institutions (p < 0.001). 89.05% of the patients had solely one meningioma surgery, 8.52% two and, 2.43% three or more. The number of surgeries was associated to the grade of malignancy (p < 0.001)., Conclusion: The incidence of meningioma surgery increased with age and, peaked at 58.5 years. They were predominantly benign with meningothelial subtype being the most common. However, there was a significant variation of grade 1 subtypes diagnosis among the centres involved. The proportion of grade 2 meningioma significantly grew over the study time, on contrary to malignant meningioma proportion, which remained rare and, stable over time around 2%. Likewise, there was a significant variability of grade 2 meningioma rate among the institutions., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

We present the case of a 67-year-old woman with metastatic invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast, in whom a follow-up magnetic resonance imaging, 3 months after encephalic radiotherapy, revealed a significant increase in the size of two brain metastases, potentially indicating progressive disease within the radiation field. Subsequent [ 18 F] fluorodeoxyglucose ([ 18 F]FDG) and [ 18 F] fluoroethyl-L-tyrosine positron emission tomography ([ 18 F]FET PET) scans were performed to distinguish radionecrosis from tumor progression. Despite a dynamic [ 18 F]FET time-activity curve (TAC) against progression, the exceeding of the 1.9 cutoff by mean tumor to brain ratio (TBR) and interdisciplinary considerations led to the resection of one lesion. Histopathology revealed necrosis due to radiotherapy, without viable tumor proliferation. To verify radionecrosis, a second [ 18 F]FET PET scan was conducted, showing consistent findings. In metastasis differentiation, the mean TBR cutoff of 1.9 and TAC analysis achieved a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 91%. The discrepancy between the TAC and TBR emphasizes the need for consideration, and a time delay between radiotherapy and PET may impact TBR cutoffs. In addition, differences in radiosensitivity suggest a lower metastasis pre-test probability of progression, and it might be why a TAC analysis could be more effective in distinguishing true progression from treatment related changes in metastasis. This case demonstrates the accuracy of dynamic [ 18 F]FET PET and suggests its utility for post-treatment metastasis evaluation, and further research on post-treatment delay could lead to improved performances of dynamic [ 18 F]FET PET., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2024 Callaud, Dupont, By, Zemmoura and Santiago-Ribeiro.)

Background: Middle meningeal artery (MMA) embolization has been proposed as a treatment of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH). The benefit of the procedure has yet to be demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial. We aim to assess the efficacy of MMA embolization in reducing the risk of CSDH recurrence 6 months after burr-hole surgery compared with standard medical treatment in patients at high risk of postoperative recurrence., Methods: The EMPROTECT trial is a multicenter open label randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 12 French centers. Adult patients (≥18 years) operated for CSDH recurrence or for a first episode with a predefined recurrence risk factor are randomized 1:1 to receive either MMA embolization within 7 days of the burr-hole surgery (experimental group) or standard medical care (control group). The number of patients to be included is 342., Results: The primary outcome is the rate of CSDH recurrence at 6 months. Secondary outcomes include the rate of repeated surgery for a homolateral CSDH recurrence during the 6-month follow-up period, the rate of disability and dependency at 1 and 6 months, defined by a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score ≥4, mortality at 1 and 6 months, total cumulative duration of hospital stay during the 6-month follow-up period, directly or indirectly related to the CSDH and embolization procedure-related complication rates., Conclusions: The EMPROTECT trial is the first RCT evaluating the benefit of MMA embolization as a surgical adjunct for the prevention of CSDH recurrence. If positive, this trial will have a significant impact on patient care., Trial Registration Number: NCT04372147., Competing Interests: Competing interests: Dr Sourour reports a conflict of interest with Medtronic, Balt Extrusion, Microvention (consultant). Prof Clarençon reports a conflict of interest with Medtronic, Balt Extrusion (consultant), ClinSearch (core lab), Penumbra, Stryker (payment for reading) and Artedrone (Board). The other authors report no conflicts of interest., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Introduction: Surgery for gliomas can be guided by neuronavigation using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intraoperative B-mode ultrasound. An ultrasensitive Doppler (USD) using plane waves is a new method of microvascularization imaging which can be used intraoperatively and could identify tumoral and peritumoral areas with neoangiogenesis but its value requires evaluation. The aim of this pilot study then was to evaluate the correlations between ultrasound measurements of glioma vascularization (tumoral and peritumoral region) obtained by a USD intraoperatively and first-pass perfusion measurements obtained on preoperative MRI., Methods: 18 patients with proven glial tumors were selected for the analysis. They underwent preoperative MRI and intraoperative USD acquisition. The MRI scans were re-aligned to the reference ultrasound slice plane, and for each patient a segmentation of the tumoral and peritumoral zone was performed. Two perfusion parameters were studied: relative cerebral tumor blood volume (rCCBV) in MRI and fractional moving blood volume (FMBV) in a USD. We studied the correlations between mean rCCBV and mean FMBV measured in the tumoral and peritumoral zones in the reference ultrasound slice plane., Results: The mean rCCBV and mean FMBV measured in the tumoral zone were significantly and strongly correlated (r = 0.80; p < 0.001). The mean rCCBV and mean FMBV measured in the peritumoral zone were not statistically correlated, although a tendency towards a correlation was noted (r = 0.45; p = 0.067)., Conclusion: There was a good correlation between a tumor FMBV obtained by a USD intraoperatively and rCCBV on a preoperative MRI validating the reliability of USD for intraoperative analyses of tumor microvascularization in gliomas., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Background: Hypnosis-aided craniotomy is a safe alternative to standard asleep-awake-asleep (AAA) surgery in glioma surgery. The impact of these two anesthetic methods on tumor prognosis has never been assessed., Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the possible impact of the type of sedation (i.e., hypnosedation vs. standard sedation) on postoperative outcomes in awake surgery for gliomas., Methods: Adult patients who underwent awake surgery for a diffuse glioma, excluding glioblastomas, between May 2011 and December 2019 at the authors' institution were included in the analysis. Pearson Chi-square, Fisher exact, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for inferential analyses., Results: Sixty-one (61) patients were included, thirty-one were female (50.8 %), and the mean age was 41.8 years (SD = 11.88). Most patients had IDH mutated tumors (n = 51; 83.6%). Twenty-six patients (42.6%) were hypnosedated while 35 (57.4%) received standard AAA procedure. The overall median follow-up time was 48 months (range: 10 months-120 months). Our results did not identify any significant difference between both techniques in terms of extent of resection (sub-total resection >95% rates were 11.48% vs. 8.20%, OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 0.62-8.44; P = 0.34) and of overall survival (87.5% of patients in the AAA surgery group reach 9 years OS vs. 79% in the hypnosis cohort, cHR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.12-6.04; P = 0.87)., Conclusion: Hypnosis for awake craniotomy is rarely proposed although it is a suitable alternative to standard sedation in awake craniotomy for LGGs, with similar results in terms of extent of resection or survival., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Quantification of vascularization volume can provide valuable information for diagnosis and prognosis in vascular pathologies. It can be adapted to inform the surgical management of gliomas, aggressive brain tumors characterized by exuberant sprouting of new blood vessels (neoangiogenesis). Filtered ultrafast Doppler data can provide two main parameters: vascularization index (VI) and fractional moving blood volume (FMBV) that clinically reflect tumor micro vascularization. Current protocols lack robust, automatic, and repeatable filtering methods. We present a filtrating method called Multi-layered Adaptive Neoangiogenesis Intra-Operative Quantification (MANIOQ). First, an adaptive clutter filtering is implemented, based on singular value decomposition (SVD) and hierarchical clustering. Second a method for noise equalization is applied, based on the subtraction of a weighted noise profile. Finally, an in vivo analysis of the periphery of the B-mode hyper signal area allows to measure the vascular infiltration extent of the brain tumors. Ninety ultrasound acquisitions were processed from 23 patients. Compared to reference methods in the literature, MANIOQ provides a more robust tissue filtering, and noise equalization allows for the first time to keep axial and lateral gain compensation (TGC and LGC). MANIOQ opens the way to an intra-operative clinical analysis of gliomas micro vascularization.

Purpose: Although prognostic factors of spinal multiple myeloma (MM) seem to differ from those of other spine metastases (SpM), the data in the literature remains scarce., Methods: A prospective population of 361 patients treated for spine MM lesions between January 2014 and 2017., Results: OS for our series was 59.6 months (SD 6.0 months; CI 95%: 47.7-71.3). Cox multivariate proportional-hazards analysis showed that bone marrow transplant [HR: 0.390, 95% CI 0.264-0.577; p < 0.0001] and light-chain isotype [HR: 0.748, 95% CI 0.318-1.759; p = 0.005] were independent predictors of longer survival. In contrast, age >80 years [HR: 2.7, 95% CI 1.6-4.3; p < 0.0001], ISS III [HR: 2.510, 95% CI 2.01-3.124; p = 0.001], IgA isotype [HR: 1.475, 95% CI 1.031-2.11; p = 0.034] and IgD/M isotype [HR: 2.753, 95% CI 1.230-6.130; p = 0.013] were independent poor prognostic factors. However, ECOG (p = 0.486), spine surgery (p = 0.391), spine radiotherapy (p = 0.260), epidural involvement (p = 0.259), the number of vertebra lesions (p = 0.222), and synchronous/metachronous timeline (p = 0.412) were not significantly associated with improved OS., Conclusions: Spinal involvement in the context of MM does not influence OS. The main prognostic factors to consider before spinal surgery are the characteristics of the primary MM disease (ISS score, IgG isotype and systemic treatment)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no personal conflicts of interest and no institutional or financial interest in any drugs, materials, or devices described in this manuscript. The authors have no financial disclosures to report. In addition, all patients gave their informed consent for any medical and scientific investigations. This paper has not been published previously, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and we acknowledge that, if accepted, this paper will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the publisher., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Unsuccessful retrieval of proper names (PNs) is commonly observed in patients suffering from neurological conditions such as stroke or epilepsy. While a large body of works has suggested that PN retrieval relies on a cortical network centered on the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), much less is known about the white matter connections underpinning this process. Sparse studies provided evidence for a possible role of the uncinate fasciculus, but the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) might also contribute, since it mainly projects into the ATL, interconnects it with the posterior lexical interface and is engaged in common name (CN) retrieval. To ascertain this hypothesis, we assessed 58 patients having undergone a neurosurgery for a left low-grade glioma by means of a famous face naming (FFN) task. The behavioural data were processed following a multilevel lesion approach, including location-based analyses, voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) and disconnection-symptom mapping. Different statistical models were generated to control for sociodemographic data, familiarity, biographical knowledge and control cognitive performances (i.e., semantic and episodic memory and CN retrieval). Overall, VLSM analyses indicated that damage to the mid-to-anterior part of the ventro-basal temporal cortex was especially associated with PN retrieval deficits. As expected, tract-oriented analyses showed that the left ILF was the most strongly associated pathway. Our results provide evidence for the pivotal role of the ILF in the PN retrieval network. This novel finding paves the way for a better understanding of the pathophysiological bases underlying PN retrieval difficulties in the various neurological conditions marked by white matter abnormalities., (© 2023 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background and Objectives: Primary spinal glioblastoma (PsGBM) is extremely rare. The dramatic neurologic deterioration and unresectability of PsGBM makes it a particularly disabling malignant neoplasm. Because it is a rare and heterogeneous disease, the assessment of prognostic factors remains limited., Methods: PsGBMs were identified from the French Brain Tumor Database and the Club de Neuro-Oncologie of the Société Française de Neurochirurgie retrospectively. Inclusion criteria were age 18 years or older at diagnosis, spinal location, histopathologic diagnosis of newly glioblastoma according to the 2016 World Health Organization classification, and surgical management between 2004 and 2016. Diagnosis was confirmed by a centralized neuropathologic review. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS). Therapeutic interventions and neurologic outcomes were also collected., Results: Thirty-three patients with a histopathologically confirmed PsGBM (median age 50.9 years) were included (27 centers). The median OS was 13.1 months (range 2.5-23.7), and the median progression-free survival was 5.9 months (range 1.6-10.2). In multivariable analyses using Cox model, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status at 0-1 was the only independent predictor of longer OS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.13, 95% CI 0.02-0.801; p = 0.02), whereas a Karnofsky performance status (KPS) score <60 (HR 2.89, 95% CI 1.05-7.92; p = 0.03) and a cervical anatomical location (HR 4.14, 95% CI 1.32-12.98; p = 0.01) were independent predictors of shorter OS. The ambulatory status (Frankel D-E) (HR 0.38, 95% CI 0.07-1.985; p = 0.250) was not an independent prognostic factor, while the concomitant standard radiochemotherapy with temozolomide (Stupp protocol) (HR 0.35, 95% CI 0.118-1.05; p = 0.06) was at the limit of significance., Discussion: Preoperative ECOG performance status, KPS score, and the location are independent predictors of OS of PsGBMs in adults. Further analyses are required to capture the survival benefit of concomitant standard radiochemotherapy with temozolomide., (© 2023 American Academy of Neurology.)

Background and Objectives: Spinal cord metastasis arising from an intracranial glioblastoma is a rare and late event during the natural course of the disease. These pathological entities remain poorly characterized. This study aimed to identify and investigate the timeline, clinical and imaging findings, and prognostic factors of spinal cord metastasis from a glioblastoma., Methods: Consecutive histopathological cases of spinal cord metastasis from glioblastomas in adults entered in the French nationwide database between January 2004 and 2016 were screened., Results: Overall, 14 adult patients with a brain glioblastoma (median age 55.2 years) and harboring a spinal cord metastasis were included. The median overall survival as 16.0 months (range, 9.8-22.2). The median spinal cord Metastasis Free Survival (time interval between the glioblastoma diagnosis and the spinal cord metastasis diagnosis) was 13.6 months (range, 0.0-27.9). The occurrence of a spinal cord metastasis diagnosis greatly impacted neurological status: 57.2% of patients were not ambulatory, which contributed to dramatically decreased Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scores (12/14, 85.7% with a KPS score ≤ 70). The median overall survival following spinal cord metastasis was 3.3 months (range, 1.3-5.3). Patients with a cerebral ventricle effraction during the initial brain surgery had a shorter spinal cord Metastasis Free Survival (6.6 vs 18.3 months, p = 0.023). Out of the 14 patients, eleven (78.6%) had a brain IDH-wildtype glioblastoma., Conclusions: Spinal cord metastasis from a brain IDH-wildtype glioblastoma has a poor prognosis. Spinal MRI can be proposed during the follow-up of glioblastoma patients especially those who have benefited from cerebral surgical resection with opening of the cerebral ventricles., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Deep learning (DL) models have provided state-of-the-art performance in various medical imaging benchmarking challenges, including the Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) challenges. However, the task of focal pathology multi-compartment segmentation (e.g., tumor and lesion sub-regions) is particularly challenging, and potential errors hinder translating DL models into clinical workflows. Quantifying the reliability of DL model predictions in the form of uncertainties could enable clinical review of the most uncertain regions, thereby building trust and paving the way toward clinical translation. Several uncertainty estimation methods have recently been introduced for DL medical image segmentation tasks. Developing scores to evaluate and compare the performance of uncertainty measures will assist the end-user in making more informed decisions. In this study, we explore and evaluate a score developed during the BraTS 2019 and BraTS 2020 task on uncertainty quantification (QU-BraTS) and designed to assess and rank uncertainty estimates for brain tumor multi-compartment segmentation. This score (1) rewards uncertainty estimates that produce high confidence in correct assertions and those that assign low confidence levels at incorrect assertions, and (2) penalizes uncertainty measures that lead to a higher percentage of under-confident correct assertions. We further benchmark the segmentation uncertainties generated by 14 independent participating teams of QU-BraTS 2020, all of which also participated in the main BraTS segmentation task. Overall, our findings confirm the importance and complementary value that uncertainty estimates provide to segmentation algorithms, highlighting the need for uncertainty quantification in medical image analyses. Finally, in favor of transparency and reproducibility, our evaluation code is made publicly available at https://github.com/RagMeh11/QU-BraTS., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest The conflicts of interest have not been entered yet.

Diverse biomarkers and pathological alterations have been found in muscle of patients with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but the relation between such alterations and dysfunction in energetic metabolism remains to be investigated. We established the metabolome of muscle and serum of ALS patients and correlated these findings with the clinical status and pathological alterations observed in the muscle. We obtained data from 20 controls and 17 ALS patients (disease duration: 9.4 ± 6.8 months). Multivariate metabolomics analysis identified a distinct serum metabolome for ALS compared to controls (p-CV-ANOVA < 0.035) and revealed an excellent discriminant profile for muscle metabolome (p-CV-ANOVA < 0.0012). Citramalate was discriminant for both muscle and serum. High lauroylcarnitine levels in muscle were associated with low Forced Vital Capacity. Transcriptomics analysis of key antioxidant enzymes showed an upregulation of SOD3 (p = 0.0017) and GLRX2(1) (p = 0.0022) in ALS muscle. Analysis of mitochondrial enzymatic activity in muscle revealed higher complex II/CS (p = 0.04) and lower LDH (p = 0.03) activity in ALS than in controls. Our study showed, for the first time, a global dysfunction in the muscle of early-stage ALS patients. Furthermore, we identified novel metabolites to be employed as biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of ALS patients.

Study Design: A prospective patient's database operated on a cauda equina syndrome (CES)., Objective: The aim of our study was to identify prognosis factors for favorable functional recovery after CES., Summary of Background Data: CES is a neurologic impairment of variable symptoms associating urinary, bowel, and sexual dysfunctions with or without motor or sensitive deficits caused by nerve root compression of the cauda equina. The definition of CES remains debated, as well as the prognosis factors for favorable functional recovery and the benefit of early surgery., Methods: One hundred forty patients were included between January 2010 and 2019. Univariate and multivariate cox proportional hazard regression models were conducted., Results: The patients were young with a median age of 46.8 years (range 18-86 yrs). At presentation, 60% were affected by a motor deficit, 42.8% a sensitive deficit, 70% urinary dysfunctions, and 44% bowel dysfunctions. The mean follow-up was 15.5 months. Bilateral motor deficit (P = 0.017) and an initial deficit severity of 0 to 2 (P = 0.001) represented prognosis factors of poor motor recovery. Initial anal incontinence (P = 0.007) was associated with poor bowel recovery. Only 32.8% of the patients went back to work. Initial motor deficit (P = 0.015), motor sequelae (P = 0.001), sphincter dysfunctions sequelae (P = 0.02), and long LOS (P = 0.02) were poor return-to-work prognosis factors. Time to surgery within an early timing < 24 or 48 hours or later did not represent a prognosis factor of recovery in CES. Incomplete versus complete CES did not show better recovery., Conclusion: CES remains a profound disabling syndrome with poor functional prognosis: in the long run, few patients go back to work. The main prognosis factors established in our series regarded the initial severity of deficits whether motor or sphincteral. Early or later surgical cauda equina decompression did not show to represent a prognosis factor for functional recovery.Level of Evidence: 4., (Copyright © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Recent evidence suggests that the chimeric protein SETMAR is a factor of interest in cancer, especially in glioblastoma. However, little is known about the expression of this protein in glioblastoma tissues, and no study has been done to assess if SETMAR could be a prognostic and/or diagnostic marker of glioblastoma. We analyzed protein extracts of 47 glioblastoma samples coming from a local and a national cohort of patients. From the local cohort, we obtained localized biopsies from the central necrosis area, the tumor, and the perilesional brain. From the French Glioblastoma Biobank (FGB), we obtained three types of samples: from the same tumors before and after treatment, from long survivors, and from very short survivors. We studied the correlations between SETMAR amounts, clinical profiles of patients and other associated proteins (PTN, snRNP70 and OLIG2). In glioblastoma tissues, the shorter isoform of SETMAR (S-SETMAR) was predominant over the full-length isoform (FL-SETMAR), and the expression of both SETMAR variants was higher in the tumor compared to the perilesional tissues. Data from the FGB showed that SETMAR amounts were not different between the initial tumors and tumor relapses after treatment. These data also showed a trend toward higher amounts of S-SETMAR in long survivors. In localized biopsies, we found a positive correlation between good prognosis and large amounts of S-SETMAR in the perilesional area. This is the main result presented here: survival in Glioblastoma is correlated with amounts of S-SETMAR in perilesional brain, which should be considered as a new relevant prognosis marker., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lié, Virolle, Gabut, Pasquier, Zemmoura and Augé-Gouillou.)

Purpose: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a compulsory lockdown of 3 months with strict restrictions. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown broad repercussions on patients with chronic pain; especially for conditions that present a significant emotional participation such as chronic low back pain (cLBP)., Methods: We performed a prospective study on 50 patients. Pre- and 1-month post-lockdown questionnaires such as: the Impact of Event Scale (IES), the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), the Roland-Morris questionnaire (RMQ) and the visual analogue scale (VAS) for back and leg pain intensity were collected., Results: The mean time of the evolution of cLBP was 33.04 months (range 5-120 months). Eighteen (36%) patients improved their cLBP (i-cLBP), whereas for 14 (28%) it was worse (w-cLBP). Cox multivariate proportional hazard model identified that MODIC 1 disc disease [OR 19.93, IC95% (2.81-102.13), p = 0.015] and at-home workouts [OR 18.854, IC95% (1.151-204.9), p = 0.040] were good prognosis factors of the improvement of cLBP while subclinical/mild Covid-19 anxiety (IES score < 26) was a poor prognosis factor in improving cLBP [OR 0.21, IC95% (0.001-0.384), p = 0.009]. Furthermore, pre-lockdown benzodiazepine medication [OR 2.554, IC95% (1.20-9.9), p = 0.002] was a prognosis factor of worse cLBP. In contrast, patients with severe Covid-19 anxiety (IES score > 26) significantly improved their cLBP [OR 0.58, IC95% (0.025-0.834), p = 0.01]., Conclusion: Lockdown affected the somatic component of cLBP by decreasing activities and physical measures, whereas the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spectrum paradoxically improved the psychic and emotional component of cLBP., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) is a large association white matter tract that interconnects, in a bidirectional manner, the occipital cortex to anterior temporal structures. In view of both its pattern of cortical projections and its recently evidenced multilayered anatomical organization, the ILF has been supposed to be vital for maintaining a wide range of cognitive and affective processes operating on the visual modality. As tumors commonly damage the temporal cortex, an updated knowledge of the functional anatomy of this ventral tract is needed to better map and monitor on-line its potential functions and thus to improve surgical outcomes. In this review, we first describe the gross anatomy of the ILF, its array of cortical terminations and its different layers. We then provide a comprehensive review of the functions that have been assigned to the tract. We successively address its role in object and face recognition, visual emotion recognition, language and semantic, including reading, and memory. It is especially shown that the ILF is critically involved in visually-guided behaviors, as its breakdown, both in sudden neurosurgical and progressive neurodegenerative diseases, is commonly associated with visual-specific neuropsychological syndromes (e.g. prosopagnosia and pure alexia, and so on). In the last section, we discuss the extent to which the ILF can reorganize in response to glioma infiltration and to surgery, and provide some reflections on how its intraoperative mapping may be refined.