Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Adnan Khan, Jennifer Pasquier, Vimal Ramachandran, Georgios Ponirakis, Ioannis N. Petropoulos, Omar Chidiac, Binitha Thomas, Amal Robay, Amin Jayyousi, Jassim Al Suwaidi, Arash Rafii, Robert A. Menzies, Talal K. Talal, Seyed Hani Najafi-Shoushtari, Charbel Abi Khalil, Rayaz A. Malik
Summary: Alterations in circulating miRNAs may play an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic neuropathy. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with corneal nerve loss showed significant differences in neuropathic symptoms, nerve function, and nerve morphology compared to those without nerve loss. Specifically, miR-92b-3p was downregulated while miR-22-3p was upregulated in T2DM patients with corneal nerve loss. Further studies are needed to better understand the role of dysregulated miRNAs in diabetic neuropathy.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Ezgi Keskiner-Ozturk, Semra Akkaya-Turhan, Ebru Toker, Kayihan Uluc, Hande Alibas, Tulin Tanridag, Pinar Kahraman-Koytak
Summary: Despite primary myelin-related pathophysiology, small fiber neuropathy (SFN) and axonal degeneration are also considered to be involved and associated with disabling symptoms and impaired quality of life in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). In vivo corneal confocal microscopy (IVCCM) has evolved as a non-invasive, easily applied method for quantification of small fiber involvement in peripheral nerve disorders. This study aimed to investigate the potential role of IVCCM in CIDP.
NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Ioannis N. Petropoulos, Fatima Al-Shibani, Gulfidan Bitirgen, Georgios Ponirakis, Adnan Khan, Hoda Gad, Ziyad R. Mahfoud, Heba Altarawneh, Muhammad Hassan Rehman, Karen John, Dhabia Al-Merekhi, Pooja George, Ali Ulvi Uca, Ahmet Ozkagnici, Faiza Ibrahim, Reny Francis, Beatriz Canibano, Dirk Deleu, Ahmed El-Sotouhy, Surjith Vattoth, Ahmed Own, Ashfaq Shuaib, Naveed Akhtar, Saadat Kamran, Rayaz A. Malik
Summary: Corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) can be used to detect axonal loss in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. This study found progressive corneal and retinal axonal loss over a 2-year follow-up period, especially in patients with more active disease. CCM may serve as an imaging biomarker of axonal loss in MS.
THERAPEUTIC ADVANCES IN NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stephan Allgeier, Andreas Bartschat, Sebastian Bohn, Rudolf F. Guthoff, Veit Hagenmeyer, Lukas Kornelius, Ralf Mikut, Klaus-Martin Reichert, Karsten Sperlich, Nadine Stache, Oliver Stachs, Bernd Koehler
Summary: This article describes a novel approach for real-time creation and visualization of a mosaic image of the SNP, allowing for evaluation of the acquired image data quality during the examination. Online mosaicking also offers the chance to identify overlap with previous images, which is particularly advantageous for follow-up examinations.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Maria Katz, Hannah Mork, Nazik Baghdasaryan, Lukas Hesse, Kai Wille, Jasmin Treichel, Jeremias Motte, Rafael Klimas, Dietrich Sturm, Peter Dieter Schellinger, Hans-Joachim Hettlich, Joerg Philipps
Summary: The role of high-resolution nerve ultrasound (HRUS) and corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) in the early detection of taxane-induced polyneuropathy (TIPN) was investigated in this study. The results showed that HRUS and CCM were unable to detect early signs of TIPN during treatment, while clinical examination remained the most sensitive tool.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ran Hao, Yi Ding, Xuemin Li
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the density and morphology of corneal dendritic cells (DCs) in dry eye (DE) patients with or without Sjogren's syndrome (SS). The results showed that SSDE patients had significantly higher DC density, larger DC size, more DC dendrites with larger DC field compared to NSSDE patients and healthy individuals. DC density and morphological parameters were significantly associated with systemic severity and ocular surface damage. The findings suggest that dynamic assessment of corneal DC may help clarify pathogenesis, stratify patients, and tailor treatment in SS patients.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Ophthalmology
Ipek cigdem Ucar, Fehim Esen, Semra Akkaya Turhan, Halit Oguz, Hak Celal Ulasoglu, Veysel Aykut
Summary: Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) exhibit increased dry eye-associated ocular symptoms and nerve fiber loss in the corneal subbasal nerve plexus. IBS should be considered in the differential diagnosis when there is discrepancy between ocular discomfort levels and dry eye-associated corneal findings.
GRAEFES ARCHIVE FOR CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OPHTHALMOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Anna M. Roszkowska, Dario Rusciano, Leandro Inferrera, Alice Antonella Severo, Pasquale Aragona
Summary: Oral supplementation with amino acids significantly improved corneal nerve regeneration and density after PRK, leading to a more regular pattern compared to untreated controls.
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ophthalmology
Yuichi Uchino, Miki Uchino, Miki Mizuno, Yuta Shigeno, Kenichi Furihata, Jun Shimazaki
Summary: The present study aimed to examine the relationship between dry eye symptoms and morphological changes in corneal subbasal nerves/ocular surfaces, as well as identify tear film biomarkers indicating these changes. A total of 43 adults with dry eye disease (DED) and 16 individuals with healthy eyes were evaluated based on their subjective symptoms and ophthalmological findings. Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used to observe corneal subbasal nerves. The results showed that individuals with DED had lower tear breakup times (TBUT) and pain tolerance capacity, as well as higher corneal nerve branch density (CNBD) and corneal nerve total branch density (CTBD) compared to the control group. CNBD and CTBD were negatively correlated with TBUT. Six biomarkers, including cystatin-S, immunoglobulin kappa constant, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, profilin1, protein S100-A8, and protein S100-A9, exhibited positive correlations with CNBD and CTBD. These findings suggest that DED is associated with morphological alterations in corneal nerves, which can be diagnosed and treated using confocal microscopy.
EXPERIMENTAL EYE RESEARCH
(2023)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Ting Zhou, Allie Lee, Amy Cheuk Yin Lo, Jeremy Sze Wai John Kwok
Summary: This article provides an overview of the relationship between corneal nerves and diabetic neuropathy, explores the underlying mechanisms of corneal nerve changes caused by diabetes, and introduces therapeutic methods for delayed corneal wound healing and nerve protection and regeneration.
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Itziar Fernandez, Amanda Vazquez, Margarita Calonge, Miguel J. Maldonado, Ana de la Mata, Alberto Lopez-Miguel
Summary: An automated tool for quantifying corneal nerve fiber tortuosity from in vivo confocal microscopy images was developed and evaluated. The results demonstrate good performance of the proposed automated methodology for evaluating corneal nerve tortuosity.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Edoardo Midena, Eleonora Cosmo, Anna Maria Cattelan, Chiara Briani, Davide Leoni, Alfio Capizzi, Vanessa Tabacchi, Raffaele Parrozzani, Giulia Midena, Luisa Frizziero
Summary: This study investigates the involvement of small peripheral nervous fibers in recovered COVID-19 patients using corneal confocal microscopy. The results show that COVID-19 may induce peripheral neuropathy in small fibers even after recovery, and the measurement of corneal nerve parameters could be a useful tool for identifying and monitoring these changes.
JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
(2022)
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Eleonora Cosmo, Giulia Midena, Luisa Frizziero, Marisa Bruno, Michela Cecere, Edoardo Midena
Summary: Distal symmetric polyneuropathy (DPN) is a common complication of diabetes, and the use of corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) as a diagnostic tool can effectively detect sub-basal nerve plexus damage in diabetic patients, correlating with the severity of DPN.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Pilar Canadas, Marta Alberquilla Garcia-Velasco, Jose Luis Hernandez Verdejo, Miguel A. Teus
Summary: In vivo corneal confocal microscopy (IVCM) is a non-invasive ophthalmic imaging technique that provides images of the cornea at the cellular level. It has been used to gain more knowledge in areas such as refractive surgery wound healing and neuropathies diagnosis. The ability to observe corneal cells and quantify corneal nerve density makes IVCM a valuable tool for improving diagnosis and prognosis in various systemic and corneal conditions.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Wei Tang, Xinjian Chen, Jin Yuan, Qingquan Meng, Fei Shi, Dehui Xiang, Zhongyue Chen, Weifang Zhu
Summary: In this paper, a U-shape encoder-decoder structure based multi-scale and local feature guidance neural network (MLFGNet) is proposed for the automatic corneal nerve fiber segmentation in CCM images. Three novel modules including multi-scale progressive guidance (MFPG) module, local feature guided attention (LFGA) module, and multi-scale deep supervision (MDS) module are proposed and applied to enhance the network's ability to discriminate the global and local structure of nerve fibers. The proposed method has excellent segmentation performance for corneal nerve fibers and outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.
PHYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Lukas Hensel, Fabian Lange, Caroline Tscherpel, Shivakumar Viswanathan, Jana Freytag, Lukas J. Volz, Simon B. Eickhoff, Gereon R. Fink, Christian Grefkes
Summary: This study assessed the contributions of the ipsilesional and contralesional anterior intraparietal cortex (aIPS) for hand motor function in stroke patients and found increased resting-state connectivity in patients with good motor outcome. Interhemispheric connectivity was also found to be correlated with better motor performance.
Article
Ophthalmology
Verena Schoeneberger, Somaie Eberhardt, Leonie Menghesha, Philip Enders, Claus Cursiefen, Friederike Schaub
Summary: This study investigated the association between anatomical features of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) and the extent of blood-aqueous barrier disorder. The results showed that lens status and the extent of retinal detachment can influence the level of objective tyndallometry in RRD.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Hannah Jergas, Jan Niklas Petry-Schmelzer, Till A. Dembek, Haidar S. Dafsari, Veerle Visser-Vandewalle, Gereon R. Fink, Juan Carlos Baldermann, Michael T. Barbe
Summary: This study aims to investigate whether treatment response in Parkinson's disease patients depends on brain atrophy. The association between gray matter brain atrophy patterns and response to levodopa and deep brain stimulation were analyzed. The results showed that frontoparietal brain gray matter loss was associated with subpar response to deep brain stimulation, but there was no significant link between brain atrophy and response to levodopa.
Article
Ophthalmology
Verena Schoeneberger, Leonie Menghesha, Stefanie Gerlach, Caroline Gietzelt, Somaie Eberhardt, Claus Cursiefen, Friederike Schaub
Summary: This study investigated the association between lens opacity and flare value in a large cohort of phakic eyes, and found that lens status, degree of lens opacity, and age are correlated with objective tyndallometry measurements.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biology
Simone Vossel, Paola Mengotti, Gereon R. Fink
PHYSICS OF LIFE REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Sinje Votteler, Lennart Knaack, Jaroslaw Janicki, Gereon R. Fink, Lothar Burghaus
Summary: Sex differences in the clinical findings and polysomnographic presentation of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) were investigated in a German cohort. Results showed that female patients were older, while male patients had a more severe form of OSA. Women had higher apnea-hypopnea index during REM sleep and a lower index during NREM sleep. Men were more affected by supine-dependent OSA. These sex differences are crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of OSA.
Article
Neuroimaging
Nina N. Kleineberg, Claudia C. Schmidt, Monika K. Richter, Katharina Bolte, Natalie Schloss, Gereon R. Fink, Peter H. Weiss
Summary: Previous studies on left hemisphere stroke patients found effector-specific differences in imitation performance and differences between meaningless and meaningful gestures. The current study investigated the impact of gesture meaning on lesion correlates of effector-specific imitation deficits in a large sample of sub-acute left hemisphere stroke patients. The results revealed significant interactions between the effector used for imitation and the meaning of the imitated gesture. Lesion-symptom mapping analyses identified brain regions associated with impaired imitation, regardless of the effector or gesture meaning. The findings highlight the importance of considering gesture meaning in assessments of apraxia.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Stefanie T. Jost, Agni Konitsioti, Philipp A. Loehrer, Keyoumars Ashkan, Alexandra Rizos, Anna Sauerbier, Maria Gabriela dos Santos Ghilardi, Franz Rosenkranz, Lena Strobel, Alexandra Gronostay, Michael T. Barbe, Julian Evans, Veerle Visser-Vandewalle, Christopher Nimsky, Gereon R. Fink, Monty Silverdale, Rubens G. Cury, Erich T. Fonoff, Angelo Antonini, K. Ray Chaudhuri, Lars Timmermann, Pablo Martinez-Martin, Haidar S. Dafsari
Summary: This study suggests that patients with 'postural instability and gait difficulty' (PIGD) may experience more beneficial non-motor effects compared to patients with 'tremor-dominant' symptoms undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD). These differences in clinical efficacy on non-motor aspects should be taken into consideration when advising and monitoring PD patients undergoing DBS.
PARKINSONISM & RELATED DISORDERS
(2023)
Correction
Health Policy & Services
Kim Dillen, Yasemin Goereci, Veronika Dunkl, Anne Muller, Gereon R. Fink, Raymond Voltz, Mevhibe Hocaoglu, Clemens Warnke, Heidrun Golla
PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Norbert Galldiks, Nathalie L. Albert, Michael Wollring, Jan-Michael Werner, Philipp Lohmann, Javier E. Villanueva-Meyer, Gereon R. Fink, Karl-Josef Langen, Joerg-Christian Tonn
Summary: In patients with meningioma, anatomical imaging using MRI or CT is the main method for diagnosis and treatment planning. However, these imaging modalities have limitations in accurately delineating meningioma, especially in cases of trans-osseus growth and tumors with complex geometry, as well as differentiating post-therapeutic changes from relapse. PET imaging, which provides metabolic and cellular information, is being increasingly used to complement anatomical imaging and improve the clinical management of meningioma patients.
NEURO-ONCOLOGY ADVANCES
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Theresa Paul, Valerie M. Wiemer, Lukas Hensel, Matthew Cieslak, Caroline Tscherpel, Christian Grefkes, Scott T. Grafton, Gereon R. Fink, Lukas J. Volz
Summary: This study used diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) and a novel compartment-wise analysis approach to investigate the structural connectivity between bilateral cortical core motor regions in chronic stroke patients. The results showed that the structural connectivity between these regions is associated with both basal and complex motor control. Specifically, the recovery of basal motor control may be supported by an alternative pathway through the contralesional primary motor cortex (M1) and non-crossing fibers of the contralesional corticospinal tract (CST). These findings help explain conflicting interpretations of the functional role of the contralesional M1 and suggest the potential of cortico-cortical structural connectivity as a biomarker for motor recovery post-stroke.
ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Tabea Thies, Doris Muecke, Nuria Geerts, Aline Seger, Gereon R. Fink, Michael T. Barbe, Michael Sommerauer
Summary: This study investigates articulatory movements in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) and compares them to Parkinson's disease (PD) and control speakers. The results show that patients with iRBD have larger and longer tongue movements but remain intelligible, while patients with PD have smaller, slower movements and lower intelligibility. These findings suggest that the lingual system is affected in prodromal PD.
PARKINSONISM & RELATED DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Joshua N. Strelow, Till A. Dembek, Juan C. Baldermann, Pablo Andrade, Gereon R. Fink, Veerle Visser-Vandewalle, Michael T. Barbe
Summary: This study aimed to assess the utility of low beta-band suppression as a tool for contact selection in STN-DBS for PD. The results showed that the degree of low beta-band suppression correlated with the clinical efficacy of the respective stimulation contact, indicating its potential as a reliable tool for contact selection in STN-DBS.
PARKINSONISM & RELATED DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Lukas Hensel, Aline Seger, Ezequiel Farrher, Anna K. Bonkhoff, N. Jon Shah, Gereon R. Fink, Christian Grefkes, Michael Sommerauer, Christopher E. J. Doppler
Summary: This study found that the motor response in Parkinson's disease patients is related to the temporal dynamics of corticostriatal functional connectivity. Patients with high response spent more time in a regionally integrated state, while low responders showed lower functional connectivity between the anterior midcingulate cortex/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and putamen during a more segregated state, which was correlated with the motor response.
PARKINSONISM & RELATED DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Berbang Meshko, Thomas L. A. Volatier, Karina Hadrian, Shuya Deng, Yanhong Hou, Mark Andreas Kluth, Christoph Ganss, Markus H. Frank, Natasha Y. Frank, Bruce Ksander, Claus Cursiefen, Maria Notara
Summary: The limbal epithelial stem cell (LESC) marker ABCB5 was used to investigate its role in corneal neovascularization. It was found that ABCB5 caused an increase in limbal lymphatic and blood vessel complexity in developing mice, but not in adult mice. Furthermore, in an inflammatory challenge, ABCB5 had a pro-lymphangiogenic effect. In addition, ABCB5-positive cells stimulated blood and lymphatic endothelial cell proliferation and migration, and had both pro-(lymph) angiogenic and anti-inflammatory properties.
