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Biomedical subjects

Philippe Maeder

Publications and source records attributed to Philippe Maeder.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Chronic cognitive impairment following laterothalamic infarcts: a study of 9 cases.

BACKGROUND: The occlusion of the lateral thalamic arteries leads to infarcts of ventrolateral thalamic nuclei, the ventroposterior nucleus, and the rostrolateral part of pulvinar, and produces hemisensory loss with or without hemiataxia. Cognitive impairment after such strokes has not been systematically studied. OBJECTIVE: To determine the nature and the extent of long-lasting cognitive deficits following lateral thalamic strokes. DESIGN: Case series. SETTING: Neurology department, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland. PATIENTS: Nine patients with hemisensory loss due to an isolated laterothalamic infarct. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Three to 6 months after stroke onset, standard neuropsychologic evaluation, including testing of language, ideomotor and constructive praxis, visual gnosis, spatial attention, learning abilities, and executive functions. RESULTS: Six of 9 patients showed some degree of cognitive impairment. Executive functions tasks, particularly verbal fluency, were impaired in 5 patients (4 with right and 1 with left lesion). Learning and delayed recall in visuospatial and verbal tasks, but not in recognition, were impaired in 3 patients (2 with right and 1 with left lesion). Difficulties in visual gnosia were observed in 1 patient with right lesion while word-finding difficulties were observed in 1 patient with left lesion. CONCLUSIONS: Our observations show that while learning, naming, and gnosic difficulties fit with the classical verbal/nonverbal dichotomy (left and right hemisphere, respectively), executive dysfunctions, including verbal fluency tasks, were more dominant after right thalamic infarcts. Although the observed deficits appeared to be less severe than those generally found with dorsomedial and polar thalamic strokes, the dominance of executive dysfunction suggests that ventrolateral thalamic lesions may disrupt frontothalamic subcortical loops.

Aged↗

Acute infarction limited to the lenticular nucleus: clinical, etiologic, and topographic features.

BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases involving the putamen and globus pallidus induce parkinsonism and other movement disorders. Sensory and motor dysfunction from deep middle cerebral artery infarction is usually due to an involvement of the internal capsule. The clinical picture associated with isolated infarction of the lenticular nucleus is less well established. OBJECTIVE: To analyze clinical features, topographic correlations, and cause of purely lenticular ischemic infarction. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed 820 consecutive patients with deep hemispheral infarct included in the Lausanne Stroke Registry between 1986 and 1998 and selected those with isolated lenticular involvement on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: Thirteen patients had pure lenticular infarction. All had faciobrachiocrural hemisyndrome, while none showed acute or delayed parkinsonism or abnormal movement. Nine patients had a lesion restricted to the putamen. Two of them had ataxic motor hemisyndrome and 7 had sensorimotor hemisyndrome (with ataxia in 4, left hemineglect in 1, and deep pain in the arm and leg in 1). Four patients had a lesion of putamen and globus pallidus externus. Three of them had motor hemisyndrome (with nonfluent aphasia in 2 and ataxia in 1) and 1 had ataxic sensorimotor hemisyndrome. All infarcts were in the territory of the medial perforating branches of the medial cerebral artery. Presumed cause of stroke was small-artery disease in 5, artery-to-artery embolism in 4, cardioembolism in 3 and undetermined in 1. CONCLUSIONS: Acute lenticular infarction induces mainly hemiparesis but no movement disorder. Associated sensory deficits, aphasia, and hemineglect underline clinically the function of the lenticular nucleus in connection with the prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortices.

Acute Disease↗

Unilateral hemispheric lesions disrupt parallel processing within the contralateral intact hemisphere: an auditory fMRI study.

Evidence from activation studies suggests that sound recognition and localization are processed in two distinct cortical networks that are each present in both hemispheres. Sound recognition and/or localization may, however, be disrupted by purely unilateral damage, suggesting that processing within one hemisphere may not be sufficient or may be disturbed by the contralateral lesion. Sound recognition and localization were investigated psychophysically and using fMRI in patients with unilateral right hemisphere lesions. Two patients had a combined deficit in sound recognition and sound localization, two a selective deficit in sound localization, one a selective deficit in sound recognition, and two normal performance in both tasks. The overall level of activation in the intact left hemisphere of the patients was smaller than in normal control subjects, irrespective of whether the patient's performance in the psychophysical tasks was impaired. Despite this overall decrease in activation strength, patients with normal performance still exhibited activation patterns similar to those of the control subjects in the recognition and localization tasks, indicating that the specialized brain networks subserving sound recognition and sound localization in normal subjects were also activated in the patients with normal performance, albeit to an altogether lesser degree. In patients with deficient performance, on the other hand, the activation patterns during the sound recognition and localization tasks were severely reduced, comprising fewer and partly atypical activation foci compared to the normal subjects. This indicates that impaired psychophysical performance correlates with a breakdown of parallel processing within specialized networks in the contralesional hemisphere.

Adult↗

Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease: magnetic resonance imaging targeting using visible anatomical landmarks.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to validate a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) visual procedure to target the subthalamic nucleus (STN) based on surrounding anatomical landmarks. METHODS: 31 consecutive bilaterally implanted parkinsonian patients were included in this study. After identification of the anterior commissure (AC), posterior commissure (PC) and midcommissural point on a three-dimensional T1-weighted sequence, inversion recovery (IR) T2-weighted coronal slices were performed orthogonal to the AC-PC line. On the slice showing the anterior pole of the red nucleus (RN), the target was placed in the inferolateral portion of the subthalamic zone, limited superiorly by the thalamus, laterally by the internal capsule, inferiorly by the substantia nigra and medially by the midline. The distribution of the targets was analyzed in the AC-PC referential. RESULTS: The mean target coordinates were as follows: anteroposterior (AP) = -2.54 mm (+/-1.37 mm), lateral (LAT) = 12.03 mm (+/-0.91 mm) and vertical (VERT) = -6.10 mm (+/-1.52 mm) for the right side, and AP = -2.65 mm (+/-1.36 mm), LAT = -11.97 mm (+/-1.30 mm) and VERT = -5.89 mm (+/-1.52 mm) for the left side. They projected in the inferior portion of the STN on the Schaltenbrand and Wahren atlas [Stuttgart, Thieme, 1977]. CONCLUSION: Identification of the anterior pole of the RN and the subthalamic zone on coronal IR T2-weighted MRI performed orthogonal to the AC-PC line provides a precise visual procedure to target the STN.

Electric Stimulation Therapy↗

Multislice computerized tomography angiography in the evaluation of intracranial aneurysms: a comparison with intraarterial digital subtraction angiography.

OBJECT: The goal of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of computerized tomography (CT) angiography performed with the aid of multislice technology (MSCT angiography) in the investigation of intracranial aneurysms, by comparing this method with intraarterial digital subtraction (IADS) angiography. METHODS: Fifty consecutive adult patients, who successively underwent MSCT angiography (four rows) and IADS angiography of intracranial vessels, were prospectively identified. The MSCT angiography studies consisted of 1.25-mm slices, with 0.8-mm reconstruction intervals, a pitch of 0.75, and timing determined by a test bolus. Two neuroradiologists, who were blinded to the initial interpretation of the MSCT angiograms as well as to those of the IADS angiograms, independently reviewed the MSCT angiograms for the detection and characterization of intracranial aneurysms. Forty-nine intracranial aneurysms were identified in 40 patients; 33 of these lesions were responsible for subarachnoid hemorrhage. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of MSCT angiography in the detection of intracranial aneurysms were 94.8, 95.2, and 94.9%, respectively, on a per-aneurysm basis and 99, 95.2, and 98.3%, respectively, on a per-patient basis. Interobserver agreement was 98%. There was an excellent correlation between aneurysm size assessed using MSCT angiography and that determined by IADS angiography (slope = 0.916, r = 0.877, p < 0.001); however, 2 mm stood as the cutoff size below which the sensitivity of MSCT angiography was statistically lower. That method displayed great accuracy in characterizing the morphological characteristics of the aneurysm. CONCLUSIONS: Multislice CT angiography is an accurate and robust noninvasive screening test for intracranial aneurysms. It performs better than that reported for single-slice CT angiography. Introduction of eight- and especially 16-row MSCT angiography will provide further progression through thinner slices, a lower pitch, and a purely arterial phase.

Angiography, Digital Subtraction↗

What and where in human audition: selective deficits following focal hemispheric lesions.

A sound that we hear in a natural setting allows us to identify the sound source and localize it in space. The two aspects can be disrupted independently as shown in a study of 15 patients with focal right-hemispheric lesions. Four patients were normal in sound recognition but severely impaired in sound localization, whereas three other patients had difficulties in recognizing sounds but localized them well. The lesions involved the inferior parietal and frontal cortices, and the superior temporal gyrus in patients with selective sound localization deficit; and the temporal pole and anterior part of the fusiform, inferior and middle temporal gyri in patients with selective recognition deficit. These results suggest separate cortical processing pathways for auditory recognition and localization.

Adult↗

Prognostic accuracy of cerebral blood flow measurement by perfusion computed tomography, at the time of emergency room admission, in acute stroke patients.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic accuracy of perfusion computed tomography (CT), performed at the time of emergency room admission, in acute stroke patients. Accuracy was determined by comparison of perfusion CT with delayed magnetic resonance (MR) and by monitoring the evolution of each patient's clinical condition. Twenty-two acute stroke patients underwent perfusion CT covering four contiguous 10mm slices on admission, as well as delayed MR, performed after a median interval of 3 days after emergency room admission. Eight were treated with thrombolytic agents. Infarct size on the admission perfusion CT was compared with that on the delayed diffusion-weighted (DWI)-MR, chosen as the gold standard. Delayed magnetic resonance angiography and perfusion-weighted MR were used to detect recanalization. A potential recuperation ratio, defined as PRR = penumbra size/(penumbra size + infarct size) on the admission perfusion CT, was compared with the evolution in each patient's clinical condition, defined by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). In the 8 cases with arterial recanalization, the size of the cerebral infarct on the delayed DWI-MR was larger than or equal to that of the infarct on the admission perfusion CT, but smaller than or equal to that of the ischemic lesion on the admission perfusion CT; and the observed improvement in the NIHSS correlated with the PRR (correlation coefficient = 0.833). In the 14 cases with persistent arterial occlusion, infarct size on the delayed DWI-MR correlated with ischemic lesion size on the admission perfusion CT (r = 0.958). In all 22 patients, the admission NIHSS correlated with the size of the ischemic area on the admission perfusion CT (r = 0.627). Based on these findings, we conclude that perfusion CT allows the accurate prediction of the final infarct size and the evaluation of clinical prognosis for acute stroke patients at the time of emergency evaluation. It may also provide information about the extent of the penumbra. Perfusion CT could therefore be a valuable tool in the early management of acute stroke patients.

Acute Disease↗

Preserved visual function in a case of occipitoparietal microgyria.

A 20-year-old man with bilateral parasagittal occipitoparietal polymicrogyria and epilepsy, from whom normal functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram responses to visual stimuli were obtained, was found to have no visual perceptual deficits. This suggests that microgyric cortex can perform normal visual functions, despite its gross structural abnormalities.

Adolescent↗

MR pattern of hyperacute cerebral hemorrhage.

Magnetic resonance (MR) pattern of cerebral hemorrhage relates mainly to the relaxation and susceptibility effects of iron-containing hemoglobin degradation products, as well as to their intra- or extracellular location. The purpose of this article is to report two acute stroke patients who underwent thrombolytic therapy and developed hyperacute cerebral hemorrhage during their admission cerebral MR survey. They constitute the earliest MR appearance of hyperacute intracerebral bleeding reported in the literature, featuring increased diffusion properties and persistent susceptibility effect on perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI)-series.

Aged↗