White matter changes measured by multi-component MR Fingerprinting in multiple sclerosis

T₂-hyperintense lesions are the key imaging marker of multiple sclerosis (MS). Previous studies have shown that the white matter surrounding such lesions is often also affected by MS. Our aim was to develop a new method to visualize and quantify the extent of white matter tissue changes in MS based on relaxometry properties. We...

Experiences Using Patient and Public Involvement in Digital Health Research for Multiple Sclerosis

Patient and public involvement (PPI) is increasingly used for improving quality of the research. There are many barriers in translating PPI into practice, including lacking examples of good practices. Frameworks that have been developed in one setting do not readily transfer to other settings. In this paper, we examine the implementation of...

Evaluating the Robustness of the Recurrent Inference Machine Based on MRI Lesion Data from Multiple Sclerosis Patients

The Recurrent Inference Machine (RIM) has been developed as an alternative to the clinically used Compressed Sensing (CS) algorithm, using Deep Learning (DL). A common issue with DL networks is the generalization of the network to features that have not been trained for. In this study we evaluate the robustness of the RIM to white matter lesions...

Impact of COVID-19 on multiple sclerosis topic discussion on Twitter

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the world's most common neurologic disorders. Social media have been proposed as a way to maintain and even increase social interaction for people with MS. The objective of this work is to identify and compare the topics on Twitter during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Data was...

A nonsynonymous mutation in PLCG2 reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia, and increases the likelihood of longevity

The genetic variant rs72824905-G (minor allele) in the PLCG2 gene was previously associated with a reduced Alzheimer’s disease risk (AD). The role of PLCG2 in immune system signaling suggests it may also protect against other neurodegenerative diseases and possibly associates with longevity. We studied the effect of the rs72824905-G on seven...

The Union of Shortest Path Trees of Functional Brain Networks

Communication between brain regions is still insufficiently understood. Applying concepts from network science has shown to be successful in gaining insight in the functioning of the brain. Recent work has implicated that especially shortest paths in the structural brain network seem to play a major role in the communication within the brain. So...

The effect of ankle foot orthosis stiffness on the energy cost of walking: A simulation study

Background In stroke and multiple sclerosis patients, gait is frequently hampered by a reduced ability to push-off with the ankle caused by weakness of the plantar-flexor muscles. To enhance ankle push-off and to decrease the high energy cost of walking, spring-like carbon-composite Ankle Foot Orthoses are frequently prescribed. However, it is...