Biomedical subjects

Anna Sans

Publications and source records attributed to Anna Sans.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Cognitive functions in classic phenylketonuria and mild hyperphenylalaninaemia: experience in a paediatric population.

A study of 37 individuals with phenylketonuria (PKU; 17 females and 20 males, mean age 9y 9mo (standard deviation [SD] 5y 3mo), range 2y 8mo to 19y 4mo; and 35 individuals with hyperphenylalaninaemia (HPA; 20 females, 15 males, mean age 7y 10mo [SD 3y 2mo], range 2y 8mo to 17y 3mo) compared with 29 healthy controls (14 females and 15 males, mean age 9y 8mo [SD 4y 9mo], range 2y 6mo to 18y 10mo) was performed. The aim was to assess cognitive function in persons with HPA and to investigate the relation between cognitive function in PKU and the metabolic control of patients. A wide variety of neuropsychological tests was employed. Those with PKU showed lower values in intelligence and in visuo-spatial, fine motor, executive, and attention functions when compared with a control population. Plasma phenylalanine values from the first 6 years of life were negatively associated with intelligence and other cognitive functions. Executive function scores were significantly lower when comparing HPA patients with the control group. It was concluded that individuals with PKU under dietary treatment may present slightly decreased cognitive function scores when compared with control individuals, while those with HPA have scores mostly similar to those of controls, except for executive function tests. Good metabolic control of PKU seems necessary to prevent cognitive function impairments, especially during the first 6 years of life.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Delayed myelination in children with developmental delay detected by volumetric MRI.

Delayed acquisition of developmental motor and cognitive milestones is a common clinical expression of many etiological processes. Imaging exams of developmentally delayed children often show no structural brain alterations despite suspicion of brain maturation delay. MRI studies increasingly suggest that white matter myelination finely reflects the progression in functional brain maturation. In this volumetric MRI study, we sought to evaluate whether developmental delay in children with normal conventional MRI exams is associated with reduced myelinated white matter. A total of 100 children (mean age, 4.4 years) with developmental delay and 50 normally developing age-matched control children underwent 3-D MRI to measure the volume of myelinated white matter. Patients showed a significant reduction in the relative content of myelinated white matter (accounting for 19.8% of brain volume in patients and 21.4% in control subjects, P = 0.005). The observed difference was equivalent to a 3.2-year myelination delay. Although the whole hemispheres were invariably symmetrical, the volume of myelinated white matter was asymmetrical in 30% of patients and 10% of control subjects (P = 0.006). We conclude that volumetric assessment of white matter may reveal a reduction in brain myelination beyond early childhood in developmentally delayed children showing normal brain appearance. This finding further emphasizes the view of white matter myelination as an indicator of functional brain maturation.

Age Distribution↗

PubMed2004

White matter alterations associated with chromosomal disorders.

White matter alterations in chromosomal disorders have been reported mainly in 18q-syndrome. Our aim was to evaluate white matter alterations in patients with chromosomal abnormalities detected through conventional cytogenetic techniques. Forty-four patients with chromosomal abnormalities, excluding trisomy 21, were diagnosed in our hospital between May 1999 and December 2002 (24 males, 20 females; mean age 6 years 4 months [SD 3 years 2 months], range 0 to 18 years). Of the 44 patients, 14 had brain magnetic resonance imaging (12 males, 2 females; mean age 4 years 2 months [SD 4 years 4 months]; five with sex chromosomal disorders [SCD] and nine with autosomal chromosomal disorders [ACD]). Of these 14 patients, eight (four with SCD and four with ACD) had abnormal white matter findings of similar patterns. These patients had pseudonodular, subcortical, and periventricular white matter high signal intensity images in T2, and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences that were isolated or confluent. The images did not correlate with the neurological clinical state. Given that eight of the 14 patients showed these lesions, their prevalence in different chromosomal abnormalities appears to be high, even though they have not been well reported in the literature. To our knowledge, these alterations have never been described in SCD. We concluded that unknown factors related to the myelination processes may be localized in different chromosomes.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗

PubMed2004

Infectious acute hemicerebellitis.

We report the case of a 5-year-old girl with initial symptoms of encephalitis who presented 24 hours later with hemiataxia, unilateral dysmetria, and hemiparesis. Brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) revealed a high T2-weighted signal in the ipsilateral hemicerebellar cortex. Forty-five days later, a second MRI disclosed signs of hemiatrophy and cortical gliosis. The clinical outcome was favorable, with only a slight lack of motor coordination in the involved hand remaining. Three other cases of hemicerebellitis have been reported in the literature, two of them presenting with hemicerebellar symptoms and one mimicking a tumor. Follow-up imaging studies some months later have shown hemiatrophy of the cerebellar cortex, except in one case with a normal control MRI. The pathophysiology of this unilateral involvement is difficult to explain. We underline the need to consider this rare entity in asymmetric cerebellar clinical presentations and to perform MRI rather than computed tomography to reach the correct diagnosis.

Acute Disease↗