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L Hertz-Pannier

Publications and source records attributed to L Hertz-Pannier.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Functional MR evaluation of temporal and frontal language dominance compared with the Wada test.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the reliability of temporal and frontal functional MRI (fMRI) activation for the assessment of language dominance, as compared with the Wada test. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ten patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were studied using blood oxygen level dependent fMRI and echoplanar imaging (1.5-T). Three tasks were used: semantic verbal fluency, covert sentence repetition, and story listening. Data were analyzed using pixel by pixel autocorrelation and cross-correlation. fMRI laterality indices were defined for several regions of interest as the ratio (L - R)/(L + R), L being the number of activated voxels in the left hemisphere and R in the right hemisphere. Wada laterality indices were defined as the difference in the percentages of errors in language tests between left and right carotid injections. RESULTS: Semantic verbal fluency: The asymmetry of frontal activation was correlated with Wada laterality indices. The strongest correlation was observed in the precentral/middle frontal gyrus/inferior frontal sulcus area. Story listening: The asymmetry of frontal, but not temporal, activation was correlated with Wada laterality indices. Covert sentence repetition: No correlation was observed. CONCLUSIONS: There was a good congruence between hemispheric dominance for language as assessed with the Wada test and fMRI laterality indices in the frontal but not in the temporal lobes. The story listening and the covert sentence repetition tasks increased the sensitivity of detection of posterior language sites that may be useful for brain lesion surgery.

Adolescent

Functional anatomy of cognitive development: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults.

OBJECTIVE: To identify age-dependent activation patterns of verbal fluency with functional MRI (fMRI). BACKGROUND: Few fMRI language studies have been performed in children, and none provide comparison data to adult studies. Normative data are important for interpretation of similar studies in patients with epilepsy. METHODS: A total of 10 normal children (5 boys, 5 girls; mean age, 10.7 years; range, 8.1 to 13.1 years) and 10 normal adults (5 men, 5 women; mean age, 28.7 years; range, 19.3 to 48 years) were studied on a 1.5-T Signa MRI scanner using BOLD echo planar imaging of the frontal lobes with a verbal fluency paradigm, covert word generation to letters. Studies were analyzed with a cross-correlation algorithm (r = 0.7). A region-of-interest analysis was used to determine the extent, magnitude, and laterality of brain activation. RESULTS: Children and adults activated similar regions, predominantly in left inferior frontal cortex (Broca's area) and left middle frontal gyrus (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Children had, on average, 60% greater extent of activation than adults, with a trend for greater magnitude of activation. Children also had significantly more right hemisphere and inferior frontal gyrus activation than adults. CONCLUSIONS: In a test of verbal fluency, children tended to activate cortex more widely than adults, but activation patterns for fluency appear to be established by middle childhood. Thus, functional MRI using verbal fluency paradigms may be applied to pediatric patient populations for determining language dominance in anterior brain regions. The greater activation found in children, including the right inferior frontal gyrus, may reflect developmental plasticity for the ongoing organization of neural networks, which underlie language capacity.

Adolescent

Cerebral white matter disease in children may be caused by mitochondrial respiratory chain deficiency.

Several mitochondrial diseases are known to occasionally involve the cerebral white matter, namely Leigh syndrome, Kearns-Sayre syndrome, and MELAS syndrome, but in these cases the major finding is alteration in the basal ganglia and brainstem. Here we report on severe diffuse white matter involvement and respiratory chain enzyme deficiency or mitochondrial DNA rearrangement in 5 unrelated families. It is interesting that white matter lesions were the only abnormal neuroradiologic feature in 3 of the 5 families, and multiple small cyst-like white matter lesions were found in 2 of 5 probands. Respiratory chain deficiency should be considered in the diagnosis of severe white matter involvement in childhood.

Adolescent

[Brain plasticity during development: physiological bases and functional MRI approach].

Brain functional MRI (fMRI) is a new tool for the study of the development of cognitive functions in healthy children ("natural plasticity"), as well as for the assessment of functional reorganization following brain lesions. However, methodological difficulties related to the pediatric population (movements, cooperation), along with unsolved issues about the influence of physiological parameters of the immature brain on fMRI results, explain the limited number of published studies. Normal brain maturation is characterized by a transient phase of synaptic redundancy followed by selective synaptic regression until adulthood, that forms the neurobiological correlates of both learning and individual variability of cortical anatomy and functional organization, and of the large potential for post-lesional plasticity in children. fMRI in school-age children demonstrated activation patterns comparable to adults during motor, language, and working memory tasks. In neonates and infants, fMRI showed significant differences of visual cortex activation. Post-lesional plasticity is more pronounced in younger children. In motor cortex, activation of ipsilateral hemisphere may be seen in cases of rolandic lesions. Interhemispheric shift of language networks occurs mostly in cases of destructive or large brain lesions, or in cases of early refractory epilepsy.

Adult

Noninvasive assessment of language dominance in children and adolescents with functional MRI: a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Assessment of language organization is crucial in patients considered for epilepsy surgery. In children, the current techniques, intra-carotid amobarbital test (IAT) for language dominance, and cortical electrostimulation mapping (ESM), are invasive and risky. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an alternative method for noninvasive functional mapping, through the detection of the hemodynamic changes associated with neuronal activation. We used fMRI, to assess language dominance in children with partial epilepsy. METHODS: Eleven right handed children and adolescents performed a word generation task during fMRI acquisition focused on the frontal lobes. Areas where the signal time course correlated with the test paradigm (r = 0.7) were considered activated. Extent and magnitude of signal changes were used to calculate asymmetry indices. Seven patients had IAT, ESM, or surgery outcome available for comparison. RESULTS: fMRI language dominance always agreed with IAT (6 cases) and ESM (1 case), showing left dominance in six and bilateral language in one. fMRI demonstrated left dominance in three additional children, and right dominance in one with early onset of left temporal epilepsy. Four children whose initial studies were equivocal due to noncompliance or motion artifacts were restudied successfully. CONCLUSIONS: fMRI can be used to assess language lateralization noninvasively in children. It has the potential to replace current functional mapping techniques in patients, and to provide important data on brain development.

Adolescent

The noninvasive identification of language function. Neuroimaging and rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Neuroimaging techniques that rely on detecting alterations in blood flow may be used to map the cortical localization of cognitive function during task performance. O-15 water positron emission tomography studies have mapped neural networks that subserve language function. These techniques have been adapted to lateralize and localize language function in patients with intractable epilepsy prior to epilepsy surgery. Functional magnetic resonance (fMR) imaging, relying upon fast MR imaging techniques performed during cognitive tasks, allows localization of language areas in individual adults and children and, because there is no radiation exposure, allows for additional or repeat studies in patients. These noninvasive means of language localization may supplant the invasive means of language lateralization (intracarotid amytal procedure) and localization (corticography), and will allow for the continued study of language organization in health and disease.

Brain

Activation of prefrontal cortex in children during a nonspatial working memory task with functional MRI.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine the pattern of activity of prefrontal cortex in prepubertal children during performance of a nonspatial working memory task. The children observed sequences of letters and responded whenever a letter repeated with exactly one nonidentical letter intervening. In a comparison task, subjects monitored similar sequences of letters for any occurrence of a single, prespecified target letter. Location of activation closely approximated that observed in a recent fMRI study with adults using exactly the same task. Activation of the inferior and middle frontal gyri was reliably observed within individual subjects during performance of the working memory task relative to the comparison task. Activation increased and decreased with a time course that was highly consistent with the task manipulations and correlated with behavioral performance. To our knowledge, this study is one of the first to demonstrate the applicability of fMRI to a normative developmental population. Issues of age dependence of the hemodynamic responses of fMRI are discussed.

Adult

Functional MRI during word generation, using conventional equipment: a potential tool for language localization in the clinical environment.

OBJECTIVE: To test the accuracy of bilateral language mapping using a standard clinical magnetic resonance (MR) imaging device during word generation. DESIGN: A study of normal volunteers. SETTING: Volunteers from the Washington, DC, area. PARTICIPANTS: Nine normal, right-handed, native English speakers (four women, five men, mean age 31 years). INTERVENTIONS: During four MR acquisition periods, subjects would alternately rest and silently generate words. Sagittal MR images covered the middle and inferior frontal gyri, insulae, and part of the temporal and parietal lobes bilaterally. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Anatomic maps of task-related signal changes obtained by comparing, in each voxel, the signal during word generation and rest periods, and (2) analysis of the time course of the signal. RESULTS: Maximum responses were in the left hemisphere, mainly in the frontal lobe (Broca's area, premotor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) but also in posterior regions such as Wernicke's area. In agreement with previous studies, some degree of task-related changes was present in a subset of the corresponding regions in the right hemisphere. CONCLUSION: Despite certain limitations, it is possible, using widely available MR equipment, to obtain results consistent with previous studies. The technique may have important implications for assessment of cognitive functions in patients with neurologic disorders in a clinical environment.

Adult

Lead encephalopathy mimicking a cerebellar tumor.

Encephalopathy is a rare but severe complication of lead poisoning, mainly due to cerebral edema. Usually diffuse, symptoms and signs are sometimes focal, suggesting a false diagnosis of tumor, particularly cerebellar tumor. We report such a case diagnosed by MR imaging in which early treatment for edema avoided neurosurgical exploration. Only six cases have been published since Biemond and Van Creveld's first report in 1939. Several data--clinical and experimental--providing specific involvement of cerebellum in lead poisoning are emphasized.

Cerebellar Diseases

Contribution of MR in the diagnosis of 'occult' posterior laryngeal cleft.

This paper reports three cases of 'occult' submucous posterior laryngeal cleft in which MR examination has visualized the deficiency of the posterior cricoid lamina. Laryngeal cleft is an uncommon anomaly, and its clinical and endoscopic diagnosis is always difficult. To our knowledge, the role of MR in this diagnosis has not yet been emphasized.

Cricoid Cartilage

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with cardiac presentation: evaluation and follow-up with echocardiography and MR imaging.

Cardiac presentation of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is rare and usually associated with a short survival. Two cases were documented and followed-up with echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The tumoral masses were accurately delineated by MRI. A non-delayed diagnosis ensued and, in association with a multiple drug antimitotic therapy, an improved prognosis obtained.

Adult