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Abstract Background There is initial evidence suggesting that biomarker neurogranin (Ng) may distinguish Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from other neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, we assessed (a) the discriminant ability of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Ng levels to distinguish between AD and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) pathology and between different stages within the same disease, (b) the relationship between Ng levels and cognitive performance in both AD and FTLD pathology, and (c) whether CSF Ng levels vary by apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism in the AD continuum. Methods Participants with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) (n = 33), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) due to AD (n = 109), AD dementia (n = 67), MCI due to FTLD (n = 25), and FTLD dementia (n = 29) were recruited from the Czech Brain Aging Study. One-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) assessed Ng levels in diagnostic subgroups. Linear regressions evaluated the relationship between CSF Ng levels, memory scores, and APOE polymorphism. Results Ng levels were higher in aMCI-AD patients compared to MCI-FTLD (F[1, 134] = 15.16, p

Abstract Rationale Persistent respiratory symptoms following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are associated with residual radiological changes in lung parenchyma, with a risk of development into lung fibrosis, and with impaired pulmonary function. Previous studies hinted at the possible efficacy of corticosteroids (CS) in facilitating the resolution of post-COVID residual changes in the lungs, but the available data is limited. Aim To evaluate the effects of CS treatment in post-COVID respiratory syndrome patients. Patients and methods Post-COVID patients were recruited into a prospective single-center observational study and scheduled for an initial (V1) and follow-up visit (V2) at the Department of Respiratory Medicine and Tuberculosis, University Hospital Olomouc, comprising of pulmonary function testing, chest x-ray, and complex clinical examination. The decision to administer CS or maintain watchful waiting (WW) was in line with Czech national guidelines. Results The study involved 2729 COVID-19 survivors (45.7% male; mean age: 54.6). From 2026 patients with complete V1 data, 131 patients were indicated for CS therapy. These patients showed significantly worse radiological and functional impairment at V1. Mean initial dose was 27.6 mg (SD ± 10,64), and the mean duration of CS therapy was 13.3 weeks (SD ± 10,06). Following therapy, significantly better improvement of static lung volumes and transfer factor for carbon monoxide (DLCO), and significantly better rates of good or complete radiological and subjective improvement were observed in the CS group compared to controls with available follow-up data (n = 894). Conclusion Better improvement of pulmonary function, radiological findings and subjective symptoms were observed in patients CS compared to watchful waiting. Our findings suggest that glucocorticoid therapy could benefit selected patients with persistent dyspnea, significant radiological changes, and decreased DLCO.

Abstract Background Mild behavioral impairment (MBI) has been commonly reported in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but rarely using biomarker-defined samples. It is also unclear whether genetic polymorphisms influence MBI in such individuals. We thus aimed to examine the association between the cognitive status of participants (amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI-AD) vs cognitively normal (CN) older adults) and MBI severity. Within aMCI-AD, we further examined the association between APOE and BDNF risk genetic polymorphisms and MBI severity. Methods We included 62 aMCI-AD participants and 50 CN older adults from the Czech Brain Aging Study. The participants underwent neurological, comprehensive neuropsychological examination, APOE and BDNF genotyping, and magnetic resonance imaging. MBI was diagnosed with the Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist (MBI-C), and the diagnosis was based on the MBI-C total score ≥ 7. Additionally, self-report instruments for anxiety (the Beck Anxiety Inventory) and depressive symptoms (the Geriatric Depression Scale-15) were administered. The participants were stratified based on the presence of at least one risk allele in genes for APOE (i.e., e4 carriers and non-carriers) and BDNF (i.e., Met carriers and non-carriers). We used linear regressions to examine the associations. Results MBI was present in 48.4% of the aMCI-AD individuals. Compared to the CN, aMCI-AD was associated with more affective, apathy, and impulse dyscontrol but not social inappropriateness or psychotic symptoms. Furthermore, aMCI-AD was related to more depressive but not anxiety symptoms on self-report measures. Within the aMCI-AD, there were no associations between APOE e4 and BDNF Met and MBI-C severity. However, a positive association between Met carriership and self-reported anxiety appeared. Conclusions MBI is frequent in aMCI-AD and related to more severe affective, apathy, and impulse dyscontrol symptoms. APOE and BDNF polymorphisms were not associated with MBI severity separately; however, their combined effect warrants further investigation.

Abstract Homozygous CDKN2A/B deletion has been associated with an increased risk of recurrence in meningiomas. However, the evidence is confined to a limited number of studies, and the importance of heterozygous CDKN2A/B deletions remains insufficiently investigated. Hence, the present meta-analysis reconstructs individual patient data (IPD) and reconstructs the probabilities of progression-free survival (PFS) stratified by CDKN2A/B status. IPD of PFS rates were extracted from published Kaplan–Meier plots using the R package IPDfromKM in R studio (RStudio, Boston, MA, USA). Reconstructed Kaplan–Meier Plots of the pooled IPD data were created. One-stage and two-stage meta-analyses were performed. Hazard ratios (HR) were used as effective measures. Of 181 records screened, four articles with 2521 participants were included. The prevalence of homozygous CDKN2A/B deletions in the included studies was 0.049 (95% CI 0.040–0.057), with higher tumor grades associated with a significantly greater proportion of CDKN2A/B deletions. The reconstructed PFS curves for the pooled cohort showed that the median PFS time of patients with a CDKN2A/B wild-type status, heterozygous or homozygous CDKN2A/B deletion was 180.0 (95% CI 145.7–214.3), 26.1 (95% CI 23.3–29.0), and 11.00 (95% CI 8.6–13.3) months, respectively (p

Abstract Background The ability to understand emotions is often disturbed in patients with cognitive impairments. Right temporal lobe structures play a crucial role in emotional processing, especially the amygdala, temporal pole (TP), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and anterior cingulate (AC). Those regions are affected in early stages of Alzheimer´s disease (AD). The aim of our study was to evaluate emotional prosody recognition (EPR) in participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) due to AD, AD dementia patients, and cognitively healthy controls and to measure volumes or thickness of the brain structures involved in this process. In addition, we correlated EPR score to cognitive impairment as measured by MMSE. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess the ability of EPR tests to differentiate the control group from the aMCI and dementia groups. Methods Eighty-nine participants from the Czech Brain Aging Study: 43 aMCI due to AD, 36 AD dementia, and 23 controls, underwent Prosody Emotional Recognition Test. This experimental test included the playback of 25 sentences with neutral meaning each recorded with different emotional prosody (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger). Volume of the amygdala and thickness of the TP, STS, and rostral and caudal parts of AC (RAC and CAC) were measured using FreeSurfer algorithm software. ANCOVA was used to evaluate EPR score differences. ROC analysis was used to assess the ability of EPR test to differentiate the control group from the aMCI and dementia groups. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to explore relationships between EPR scores, structural brain measures, and MMSE. Results EPR was lower in the dementia and aMCI groups compared with controls. EPR total score had high sensitivity in distinguishing between not only controls and patients, but also controls and aMCI, controls and dementia, and aMCI and dementia. EPR decreased with disease severity as it correlated with MMSE. There was a significant positive correlation of EPR and thickness of the right TP, STS, and bilateral RAC. Conclusions EPR is impaired in AD dementia and aMCI due to AD. These data suggest that the broad range of AD symptoms may include specific deficits in the emotional sphere which further complicate the patient’s quality of life.