Anja Weyer

Publications (3)15.56 Total impact

• Article: Reliability and validity of the scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia: a study in 64 ataxia patients.

  Anja Weyer, Michael Abele, Tanja Schmitz-Hübsch, Beate Schoch, Markus Frings, Dagmar Timmann, Thomas Klockgether
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  ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA) in ataxia patients not suffering from autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). To this end, 64 patients with various ataxia disorders or stable cerebellar lesions were rated independently by two investigators. In addition to SARA, the following assessment instruments were applied: ataxia disease stage, Barthel index and part IV (functional assessment) of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating scale (UHDRS-IV). Eighteen patients were rated twice. Inter-rater and intrarater reliability were very high with ICCs of 0.98 and 0.99. Internal consistency was high indicated by Cronbach's alpha of 0.97. Factorial analysis revealed that the rating results were mainly determined by one major factor with an eigenvalue of 6.34 which explained 52.8% of the variance. SARA score increased with disease stage (P<0.0001) and was closely correlated with Barthel index (r=-0.63, P<0.0001) and UHDRS-IV (r=-0.62, P<0.0001), but only weakly correlated with disease duration (r=0.44, P<0.001). The results suggest that SARA is a reliable and valid measure of ataxia in non-SCA ataxia patients.
  Movement Disorders 08/2007; 22(11):1633-7. · 4.51 Impact Factor
• Article: REM sleep behavioral disorder in pure autonomic failure (PAF).

  Anja Weyer, Martina Minnerop, Michael Abele, Thomas Klockgether
  Neurology 03/2006; 66(4):608-9. · 8.31 Impact Factor
• Article: Developmental and cell type-specific expression of the neuronal marker NeuN in the murine cerebellum.

  Anja Weyer, Karl Schilling
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  ABSTRACT: NeuN is a 46/48-kD nuclear protein antigen used widely to identify postmitotic neurons in both research and diagnostics. It is expressed by neurons throughout the nervous system of a variety of species, including birds, rodents, and man (Mullen et al. [1992] Development 116:201-211). When we sought to use NeuN to follow the developmental progression of murine cerebellar interneurons, we observed that expression of this antigen in the cerebellum was restricted to granule neurons and a small population of cells present in the lower molecular layer of the adult cerebellum. In an attempt to identify these cells, we combined immunostaining for NeuN with a panel of cell type-specific markers to unambiguously identify neurons that express NeuN in the adult and developing cerebellum. In contrast to postmitotic granule neurons, NeuN was not expressed by any other immunocytochemically identified cerebellar interneurons, which comprised basket and stellate cells, Golgi neurons, unipolar brush cells, and Lugaro cells. NeuN-positive cells in the molecular layer failed to express any cell type-specific markers tested. They may represent ectopic granule cells; alternatively, they may represent a hitherto unknown population of cerebellar cells. In vitro experiments suggest that NeuN expression is related closely to granule cell axogenesis. This approach also revealed that the level of NeuN expression could be modulated by chronically depolarizing these cells. Thus, whereas NeuN expression per se is a reliable marker of proliferative capacity, levels of NeuN expression may also be indicative of the physiological status of a postmitotic neuron.
  Journal of Neuroscience Research 09/2003; 73(3):400-9. · 2.74 Impact Factor