Notable in Neurology This Week
This issue features an article that investigates the clinical effect of renal impairment on intracerebral hemorrhage; another examines neuroanatomical signatures of MAPT mutation carriers to determine whether there are distinct groups. A featured Review compares 2 long-read sequencing technologies and discusses how they can be applied to neurodegenerative diseases.
Research Articles
Effects of High- and Low-Efficacy Therapy in Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis
This study compares the clinical effectiveness of high- and low-efficacy treatments for patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). Accounting for therapeutic lag, researchers found that high-efficacy therapy led to less frequent relapses in patients with active SPMS than low-efficacy therapy, but there was no difference for patients with inactive SPMS.
Page 411
From editorialists Dobson and Salter: “By using propensity score matching across large cohorts, they were able to match on the basis of a number of characteristics . . . overcoming at least some of the ascertainment bias and reverse causation that have previously limited attempts to study this.”
Page 407
Association of Disease Severity and Socioeconomic Status in Black and White Americans With Multiple Sclerosis
To evaluate the interactions between race and socioeconomic status among Black and White Americans with multiple sclerosis (MS), this study compared clinical and imaging features of MS severity. Black Americans with MS had a greater burden of disease than White Americans with MS, including worse self-reported disability and cognitive processing speed.
Page 412
Cognitive Activity and Onset Age of Incident Alzheimer Disease Dementia
Cognitively stimulating activities are hypothesized to reduce risk of developing Alzheimer dementia. In a cohort of older adults, low cognitive activity was associated with a mean onset age of 88.6, whereas high cognitive activity had a mean onset age of 93.6, suggesting cognitively active lifestyles in old age may delay dementia onset by 5 years.
Page 416
Feasibility and Biological Activity of a Ketogenic/Intermittent-Fasting Diet in Patients With Glioma
Researchers developed a variant of a ketogenic diet, a modified Atkins diet combined with intermittent fasting, to evaluate the feasibility of dietary intervention in patients with astrocytoma. They demonstrated that patients can safely adhere to the diet and found that it produced quantifiable systemic and cerebral metabolic changes in the participants.
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NB: “Gerstmann Syndrome Deconstructed by Cortical Stimulation,” p. 420. To check out other Clinical/Scientific Notes, point your browser to Neurology.org/N. At the end of the issue, check out the Resident & Fellow Section Pearls & Oy-sters article discussing the use of angioplasty and stenting as a new treatment method for cough headache in a 39-year-old patient. This week also includes a Resident & Fellow Section Teaching Video NeuroImage titled “‘Weighing’ in on an Unusual Tremor.”
- © 2021 American Academy of Neurology
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