Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative illness with early onset, before the age of 65. This dementia syndrome has a more rapid decline than Alzheimer's disease (AD) [1][2][3] . Symptoms of FTD include marked behavioral, frontal executive, language, and motor changes. Caregivers at home with the patient often include school age children. There are currently no resources for older children, or for parents to know how to discuss the illness and its implications with their younger children.Previous studies have demonstrated that caregiving for a host of physical and mental illnesses as a child can have negative effects, including restrictions on peer relationships, health problems, educational achievement and emotional stability 4,5 . Luscombe et al. showed increased adverse psychological and physical effects, inversely related to age, in young carers of young-onset dementia patients 6 . Gelman and Greer suggested that children providing care for a younger dementia patient, as is often the case in FTD, are vulnerable because the experience occurs during key developmental years and can lead to feelings of loss and anxiety over the cognitive decline of the parent, shame from the parent's behavior, confusion caused by parent-ABSTRACT: Objective: To learn more about the needs and experiences of young carers for patients of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in order to create a relevant support website for young caregivers to dementia patients. Methods: Two focus groups were held with a total of fourteen young carers aged 11-18. The data corpus was collected through a semi-structured interview facilitated by a medical journalist who had prior experience as a caregiver to a patient with FTD. The transcripts were narrowed to a dataset for descriptive analysis using a coding scheme to reveal the main themes of their responses. Results: Seven overlapping theme areas were: emotional impact of living with a parent with FTD, caregiving, coping, symptoms, diagnosis, relationships, and support. Based on the participantsr esponses, a website was launched providing supportive information and counsel for young carers. Conclusion: Young carers saw the experience of caring for a parent with early-onset dementia as positive overall, but identified opportunities for professionals to assist them in overcoming stigma and the challenge of balancing childhood and adolescent development within this context. RÉSUMÉ: Présence de démence au domicile : enquête sur l'évaluation des besoins des soignants qui sont jeunes. Objectif : Le but de l'étude était d'en apprendre davantage sur les besoins et les expériences des soignants qui sont jeunes et qui aident aux soins de patients atteints de démence frontotemporale (DFT) afin de créer un site Internet de soutien qui soit pertinent pour les soignants qui sont jeunes et qui prennent soin de patients qui sont déments. Méthode : Deux groupes de discussion composés en tout de 14 jeunes se sont réunis pour en discuter. Les données a été recueillies au moyen d'une entrevue semi-structurée dont l...

Despite a generally favorable prognosis, one in four patients with CVT develop neurological deterioration in the acute phase. Predisposing factors include a neurological deficit or seizures at onset, deep venous thrombosis, venous infarctions, or intracranial hemorrhage with mass effect and an underlying thrombophilia. More randomized trials are needed to compare the benefits of anticoagulation and endovascular therapy.

Objectives To follow up on the increases we reported in normalized metabolic activity in salience network hubs from a 2-month open label study of memantine in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods We repeated fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) after 6 months of drug use and subjected the data to an SPM analysis to reveal clusters of significant change from baseline. We also sought correlations between changes in behavioral disturbances on the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI). Results Recruitment of one progressive nonfluent aphasia and one behavioral variant FTD precluded statistical analysis for any FTD subtype other than semantic dementia. The baseline-to-6-month interval showed increased normalized metabolic activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (p<0.002) for 5 participants with semantic dementia. The 2–6 month interval revealed a late increase in normalized metabolic activity in the left insula (p<0.013), right insula (p<0.009), and left anterior cingulate (p<0.005). The right anterior cingulate showed both an initial increase and a delayed, further increase (2–6 month, p<0.016). FBI scores worsened by 43.3%. One participant with semantic dementia opted not to continue memantine beyond 2 months yet showed similar FDG-PET increases. Conclusions Increases in normalized cortical metabolic activity in salience network hubs were sustained in SD over a 6-month period. Since one participant without medication also showed these changes, further investigation is recommended through a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with FDG-PET as an outcome measure.

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Motor unit number index (MUNIX) of the upper trapezius is a candidate biomarker for lower motor neuron function of the bulbar region; however, only a few studies have explored this measure in neuromuscular diseases and reliability data is incomplete. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of this measure in control participants and assessed its reliability in twenty healthy volunteers. Four studies were included with heterogeneous mean-MUNIX estimates, moderated by variability in the population's age and MUNIX sampling technique. We demonstrated an inter- and intra-rater intraclass correlation of 0.86 and 0.94, respectively. Upper trapezius MUNIX is a reliable measure with in-between study variability moderated by age and MUNIX technique