Quantitative susceptibility mapping at 7 T in COVID-19: brainstem effects and outcome associations 

Publication: Brain

Catarina Rua, Betty Raman, Christopher T Rodgers, Virginia F J Newcombe, Anne Manktelow, Doris A Chatfield, Stephen J Sawcer, Joanne G Outtrim, Victoria C Lupson, Emmanuel A Stamatakis, Guy B Williams, William T Clarke, Lin Qiu, Martyn Ezra, Rory McDonald, Stuart Clare, Mark Cassar, Stefan Neubauer, Karen D Ersche, Edward T Bullmore, David K Menon, Kyle Pattinson, James B Rowe 

08 October 2024

Summary

Damage to the brainstem – the brain’s ‘control centre’ – is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests.

Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and supported by NIHR Cambridge and Oxford BRCs, were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have on the brain. Read the full news story.

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Decompressive Craniectomy versus Craniotomy for Acute Subdural Hematoma

Publication: New England Journal of Medicine

Peter J. Hutchinson, Hadie Adams, Midhun Mohan, Bhagavatula I. Devi,  Christopher Uff, Shumaila Hasan, Harry Mee, Mark H. Wilson, Deepak K. Gupta, M.Ch, Diederik Bulters, Ardalan Zolnourian, Catherine J. McMahon, Matthew G. Stovell, Yahia Z. Al-Tamimi, Manoj K. Tewari, Manjul Tripathi, Simon Thomson, Edoardo Viaroli, Antonio Belli, Andrew T. King, Adel E. Helmy, Ivan S. Timofeev, Sarah Pyne,Dhaval P. Shukla, Dhananjaya I. Bhat, Andrew R. Maas, Franco Servadei, Geoffrey T. Manley,Garry Barton, Carole Turner, David K. Menon, Barbara Gregson, and Angelos G. Kolias,

23 April 2023

Summary

A new trial has found – where possible – surgeons should replace the removed section of the skull following surgery to treat a form of brain bleed. Researchers say the approach will save patients undergoing skull reconstruction further down the line. Read the full story.

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NOTCH3 variants are more common than expected in the general population and associated with stroke and vascular dementia: an analysis of 200,000 participants

Publication: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

Bernard P H Cho, Stefania Nannoni, Eric L Harshfield, Daniel Tozer, Stefan Gräf, Steven Bell, Hugh S Markus

12 March 2021


Researchers in Cambridge have discovered that people with a small change in a gene known as NOTCH3 could be at greater risk of having a stroke and developing vascular dementia.

Their research looked at the clinical records (medical notes) and genetic data of more than 200,000 healthy volunteers from the UK BioBank between 2006-10.

They found that around 1 in 450 carried a variant (a small difference) in the NOTCH3 gene, which provides instructions for making a protein essential for the maintenance of blood vessels, including those that supply blood to the brain.

The researchers then looked at how many people with and without changes in NOTCH3 had had a stroke, vascular dementia or other related conditions and discovered that variant carriers had more than a two-fold increase in the odds of stroke.

Vascular dementia was also more frequent in people who have the NOTCH3 variant. There was also an increased association with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), which is a major cause of stroke and dementia.

This study shows that NOTCH3 variants are common in the general population and these variants are associated with increased risk of both stroke and vascular dementia, and with MRI markers of SVD. This demonstrates that genetic variation in the NOTCH3 gene accounts for a much greater proportion of stroke in the general population than previously thought.

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