BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a highly prevalent cause of neurological disability and has different clinical subtypes with potentially different underlying pathologies. Differentiation of primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) from relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) could be difficult especially in its early phases. OBJECTIVES We compared brain metabolite concentrati...

For the past 40 y the scientific community has decried the inadequacy of the training of physicians and other health professionals in the subject of human nutrition. In 1997 the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute developed the Nutrition Academic Award (NAA) Program, an initiative to improve nutrition training across a network of US medical schools. The purpose of this funding, which bega...

BACKGROUND The term kernicterus, or bilirubin encephalopathy, is used to describe pathological bilirubin staining of the basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebellum, and is associated with hyperbilirubinemia. Kernicterus generally occurs in untreated hyperbilirubinemia or cases where treatment is delayed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based studies have shown characteristic findings in kernict...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have produced controversial results concerning the correlation of hippocampal volume loss with increasing age. The goals in this study were: 1) to test whether levels of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA, a neuron marker) change in the hippocampus during normal aging and 2) to determine the relationship between hippocampal NAA and volume changes. Proton magnetic r...

Received: November 22, 2013 Accepted: December 26, 2013 Published: January 03, 2014 neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes is vital for normal brain function [1]. As such it has been described as the brain’s “operating system” [2]. NAA is synthesized by neurons from acetyl co-enzyme A (AcCoA) with the acetyl group derived from on-going oxidation of glucose (Glc), and from L-aspartate (Asp). N...

Accurate and early diagnosis of tuberculosis is a critical part of the management and control of the disease. Diagnostic work up for tuberculosis involves the detection of acid-fast bacilli in clinical samples by microscopy (smear) and culture. These conventional tests are not always helpful in making the diagnosis. Microscopy, although rapid and inexpensive, has only modest sensitivity and spe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE (1)H MR spectroscopy can be used to study biochemical changes occurring in the brain in stroke. We used it to examine the relationship between metabolite concentration (N-acetyl aspartate [NAA], lactate, cholines and creatines), size of infarct, clinical deficit, and 3-month clinical outcome in patients with middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory infarction. METHODS Thi...

BACKGROUND In head and neck neoplasm survivors treated with brain irradiation, metabolic alterations would occur in the radiation-induced injury area. The mechanism of these metabolic alterations has not been fully understood, while the alternations could be sensitively detected by proton (1H) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). In this study, we investigated the metabolic characteri...

PURPOSE To investigate neuronal dysfunction in the thalami of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) by using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). METHODS We performed single-voxel proton MRS over the right and the left thalami of 15 consecutive patients (10 women, 5 men) with JME (mean age 20.3 years) and 16 healthy volunteers (10 women, 6 men) (mean age 24.5 years). All patients had sei...

OBJECTIVES To determine the motor cortex degeneration in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and to prove that proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy is suited to monitor the course of disease with follow-up examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS We studied 33 patients with ALS whose conditions were diagnosed according to the El Escoria...