Gilles Naeije

• MD
• Université Libre de Bruxelles

Background: Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) remains under-recognized in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in part due to the lack of validated cognitive screening tools adapted to low-literacy populations. We aimed to validate the Identification of Dementia in Elderly Africans (IDEA) cognitive screen in SSA and assess its utility for detecting PSCI...

The excitability of the sensorimotor (SM1) cortices is reflected in the bilateral ~20 Hz beta oscillations. The extent to which these oscillations subtend the interhemispheric inhibition (IHI) captured by the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) ipsilateral Silent Period (iSP) protocol remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the relationship...

Acquiring efficient postural control strategies is key to children’s proper motor development. For that, the brain needs to continuously integrate sensory information and convert it into corrective motor commands. Although this entire process naturally hinges on the reliability of early senses, very few studies have investigated early sensory acuit...

According to the predictive coding theory, the brain predicts future sensory inputs based on previous experiences. When there is a mismatch between the expected and the actual stimulus, a mismatch response is transmitted from low to high cortical levels to adapt the predictive model. An important cortical area for somatosensory mismatch responses i...

Background: Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) remains under-recognized in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in part due to the lack of validated cognitive screening tools adapted to low-literacy populations. We aimed to validate the Identification of Dementia in Elderly Africans (IDEA) cognitive screen in SSA and assess its utility for detecting PSCI...

Introduction Large vessel occlusions (LVO) account for over 60% of stroke-related mortality and disability. Lean body mass (LBM) represents metabolically active body tissue and has been associated with reduced mortality. This study aimed to investigate whether body composition influences LVO stroke perfusion volumes and whether this effect is sex-s...

Importance: Seizures significantly impact outcomes after stroke, underscoring the need for accurate predictors of post-stroke epilepsy. Objective: To evaluate whether electrographic biomarkers detected early after acute ischemic stroke enhance the prediction of post-stroke epilepsy. Design: Multicenter cohort study with data collected from 2002 to...

Background The excitability of the sensorimotor (SM1) cortices is reflected in the bilateral ~20 Hz beta oscillations. The extent to which these oscillations subtend the interhemispheric inhibition captured by the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) ipsilateral Silent Period (iSP) protocol is unknown. Objectives We investigated the relationship...

While the simultaneous degradation of muscle composition and postural stability in aging are independently highly investigated due to their association with fall risk, the interplay between the two has received little attention. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore how age-related changes in muscle composition relate to postural stability....

Maintaining an upright stance requires the integration of sensory inputs from the visual, vestibular and somatosensory-proprioceptive systems by the cortex to develop a corrective postural strategy. However, it is unclear whether and how the cerebral cortex monitors and controls postural sways. Here, we asked whether postural sways are encoded in o...

Objectives We sought to assess whether there were any parameter(s) on baseline computed-tomography-perfusion (CTP) strongly correlating with final-infarct-volume, and infarct volume progression after endovascular recanalization of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with primary distal, medium vessel occlusion (DMVO). Materials and Methods We performed a...

Background and purpose Post‐stroke epilepsy (PSE) is frequent. Better prediction of PSE would enable individualized management and improve trial design for epilepsy prevention. The aim was to assess the complementary value of continuous electroencephalography (EEG) data during the acute phase compared with clinical risk factors currently used to pr...

Objective Friedreich ataxia (FA) neuropathology affects dorsal root ganglia, posterior columns in the spinal cord, the spinocerebellar tracts, and cerebellar dentate nuclei. The impact of the somatosensory system on ataxic symptoms remains debated. This study aims to better evaluate the contribution of somatosensory processing to ataxia clinical se...

Background Essential tremor (ET) is a movement disorder characterized by cerebellar neurodegenerative changes. ET is also associated with non-motor symptoms including cognitive impairment. The neuropsychologic profile of a patient with ET could relate to cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS). Objective This study aimed to assess the preva...

Background: Friedreich Ataxia is the most common recessive ataxia with only one therapeutic drug approved solely in the United States. Objective: The aim of this work was to investigate whether anodal cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) reduces ataxic and cognitive symptoms in individuals with Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) an...

Background Individuals with Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) display significantly lower performances in many cognitive domains with a pattern of impairment that falls within the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS). Objective To assess in a large cohort of individuals with FRDA, the main determinant of the CCAS using multiple variable regress...

Introduction: Initial NIHSS in anterior large vessel occlusion (LVO) correlates partially with the hypoperfusion volume. We aimed at assessing the contribution of crossed cerebellar diaschisis (CCD) from the hypoperfused territory on LVO initial clinical deficit. Methods: CCD was retrospectively identified by brain CT perfusion imaging (CTP) in...

Background Individuals with Friedreich Ataxia (FRDA) display significantly lower performances in many cognitive domains with a pattern of impairment that falls within the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS). Objective Assess in a large cohort of individuals with FRDA the main determinant of the CCAS using multiple variable regression mod...

Background Individuals with Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) can find it difficult to access specialized clinical care. To facilitate best practice in delivering healthcare for FRDA, clinical management guidelines (CMGs) were developed in 2014. However, the lack of high-certainty evidence and the inadequacy of accepted metrics to measure health status cont...

Background: The first-pass effect in endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) has been associated with better clinical outcomes and decreased stroke progression in large vessel occlusion but has not been evaluated in distal, medium vessel occlusions (DMVOs). Objective: To assess the impact on clinical outcome and stroke progression of the modified first-...

Introduction The cerebellum modulates both motor and cognitive behaviors, and a cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS) was described after a cerebellar stroke in 1998. Yet, a CCAS is seldom sought for, due to a lack of practical screening scales. Therefore, we aimed at assessing both the prevalence of CCAS after cerebellar acute vascular le...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with intracranial vessel wall (IVW) sequences is able to directly characterize disease processes affecting the VW increasing the accuracy of intracranial vasculopathies differential diagnosis. Nevertheless, data concerning the specificity and sensitivity of this technic for diagnosis of angiitis of the central nervo...

Clinical trials in rare diseases as Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) offer special challenges, particularly when multiple treatments become ready for clinical testing. Regulatory health authorities have developed specific pathways for “orphan” drugs allowing the use of a validated biomarker for initial approval. This study aimed to identify changes in cere...

Background and Purpose Initial NIHSS in anterior large vessel occlusion (LVO) correlates partially with the hypoperfusion volume. We aimed at assessing the contribution of crossed cerebellar diaschisis (CCD) from the hypo-perfused territory on LVO initial clinical deficit. Method CCD was retrospectively identified by brain CT perfusion imaging (CTP...

As humans, we seamlessly hold objects in our hands, and may even lose consciousness of these objects. This phenomenon raises the unsettled question of the involvement of the cerebral cortex, the core area for voluntary motor control, in dynamically maintaining steady muscle force. To address this issue, we measured magnetoencephalographic brain act...

Background Study the cognitive profile of individuals with Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) and seek evidence for correlations between clinical, genetic and imaging characteristics and neuropsychological impairments. Methods Based on PRISMA guidelines, a meta-analysis was realized using the Pubmed and Scopus databases to identify studies (1950–2021) repor...

Background and Purpose Good clinical outcome predictors have been established in mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) caused by large vessel occlusion (LVO). An early neurological improvement (ENI), defined as a reduction of ≥8 on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), compared with the baseline score or an...

Introduction Current guidelines suggest that perfusion imaging should only be performed > 6 h after symptom onset. Pathophysiologically, brain perfusion should matter whatever the elapsed time. We aimed to compare relative contribution of recanalization time and stroke core volume in predicting functional outcome in patients treated by endovascular...

Background and Purpose This study evaluated whether quantitative measurement of collaterals by the hypoperfusion intensity ratio (HIR) on baseline computed tomography perfusion (CTP) correlated with infarct growth and clinical outcome after successful endovascular recanalization of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) caused by primary distal medium vessel...

Objective: Good clinical outcome predictors have been emphasized in mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with large vessel occlusion (LVO). MT for distal, medium vessel occlusions (DMVO) is still debated. We sought to assess the factors associated with clinical outcome after MT for DMVO. Methods: We retrospectively analyz...

Low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) now bear most of the stroke burden. In LMICs, stroke epidemiology and health care systems are different from HICs. Therefore, a high-income country (HIC)-based predictive model may not correspond to the LMIC stroke context. Identify the impact of modifiable variables in acute stroke management in Conakry, Gui...

As humans, we seamlessly hold objects in our hands, and may even lose consciousness of these objects. This phenomenon raises the unsettled question of the involvement of the cerebral cortex, the core area for voluntary motor control, in dynamically maintaining steady muscle force. To address this issue, we measured magnetoencephalographic brain act...

Background Study the cognitive profile of individuals with Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) and seek evidence for correlations between clinical, genetic and imaging characteristics and neuropsychological impairments. Methods Based on PRISMA guidelines, a meta-analysis was realized using the Pubmed and Scopus databases to identify studies (1950–2021) report...

This magnetoencephalography (MEG) study addresses (i) how Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) affects the sub-second dynamics of resting-state brain networks, (ii) the main determinants of their dynamic alterations, and (iii) how these alterations are linked with FRDA-related changes in resting-state functional brain connectivity (rsFC) over long timescales....

Purpose Wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms remain challenging for the neurointerventionist and/or neurosurgeon despite many recent advances. The pCONus (Phenox, Bochum, Germany) is an emerging device for endovascular neck protection, we report the first long-term results of this device. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of all consecutive...

Purpose To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Tigertriever 13 (Rapid Medical, Yoqneam, Israel) stent retriever in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients with primary or secondary distal, medium vessel occlusions (DMVO). Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of all consecutive AIS patients who underwent thrombectomy with the Tigertriever...

Impaired speech perception in noise despite normal peripheral auditory function is a common problem in young adults. Despite a growing body of research, the pathophysiology of this impairment remains unknown. This magnetoencephalography study characterizes the cortical tracking of speech in a multi-talker background in a group of highly selected ad...

Introduction L’analyse des mouvements fins lors du finger-tapping (FT) est très sensible pour détecter des atteintes cérébelleuse, pyramidale ou extrapyramidale mais ses modifications lors du vieillissement physiologique sont méconnues. Objectifs Déterminer si le vieillissement est associé à une altération des mouvements fins lors d’une tâche de F...

Background and Purpose: Previous studies have noted the angiographic appearance of early venous filling (EVF) following recanalisation in acute ischemic stroke. However, the prognostic implications of EVF as a novel imaging biomarker remain unclear. We aimed to evaluate the correlation between EVF with (i) the risk of subsequent reperfusion hemorrh...

Background: Several studies have demonstrated the deleterious effects of anticholinergic drugs on the cognitive functions of the elderly. However, their effects on the onset of delirium have produced conflicting results. We assessed the association of the anticholinergic burden of treatment at admission according to 3 anticholinergic scales, the AD...

Background Loss of hand dexterity has a profound impact on disability in patients with cerebellar, pyramidal, or extrapyramidal diseases. Analysis of multiple finger tapping (FT) parameters can contribute to identify the underlying physiopathology, while providing a quantitative clinical assessment tool, particularly in patients not reliably evalua...

Objective Intra‐cerebral Haemorrhage (ICH) seems more prevalent in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) than in High‐Income Countries (HIC) with poorer clinical outcome. Higher impact of hypertension and/or amyloid angiopathy could account for this disproportion. Here, we sought to (i) retrospectively compare ICH clinical and imaging patterns in Belgium and Gu...

COL4A1 is an essential component for basal membrane stability. Exon mutations of the COL4A1 genes are responsible for a broad spectrum of cerebral, ocular, and systemic manifestations. We describe here the phenotype of a likely pathogenic gene variant, p.Gly743Val, which is responsible for a missense mutation in the COL4A1 gene exon 30 in a three g...

Siblings with hereditary spastic paraplegia and corpus callosum thinning associated with a novel TUBβ4A mutation. image

Objectives The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is considered to have potential neuro-invasiveness that might lead to acute brain disorders or contribute to respiratory distress in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study investigates the occurrence of structural brain abnormalities in non-survivors...

Dentate nuclei (DN) are involved in cerebellar modulation of motor and cognitive functions, whose impairment causes ataxia and cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS). Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) disease progression relates to degeneration of the dentate nucleus and dentato‐thalamic pathways, causing cerebellar ataxia. Volumetric MRI also shows...

Objective Reports of neurological involvement during Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection course are increasingly described. The aim of this review is to provide a clinical approach of SARS-CoV-2 neurological complications based on the direct or indirect (systemic/immune-mediated) role of the SARS-CoV-2 in their ge...

Importance The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is considered to have potential neuro-invasiveness that might lead to acute brain disorders or contribute to respiratory distress in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data in COVID-19 patients are scarce due to difficu...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allowed the spatial characterization of the resting-state verbal language network (vLN). While other resting-state networks (RSNs) were matched with their electrophysiological equivalents at rest and could be spectrally defined, such correspondence is lacking for the vLN. This magnetoencephalography (MEG...

Background: Large vessel occlusion (LVO) leads to debilitating stroke and responds modestly to recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-TPA). Early thrombectomy improves functional outcomes in selected patients with proximal occlusion but it is not available in all medical facilities. The best imaging modality for triage in an acute stroke set...

Introduction: Intracranial vasculopathies easily elude classic stroke work-up. We aim in this work to show that vessel wall-MRI could prove an efficient alternative to digital subtraction angiography for the diagnosis of intracranial vasculopathies by identifying intracranial arterial vessel walls anomalies and contrast enhancement, suggestive of...

Objective: Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is the commonest hereditary ataxia in Caucasians. Most patients are homozygous for expanded GAA triplet repeats in the first intron of the frataxin (FXN) gene, involved in mitochondrial iron metabolism. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to characterize the main determinants of FRDA-related changes in in...

Sub-Saharan Africa has extremely high stroke prevalence and case fatality. Most Sub-Saharan African regions are uncharted in terms of stroke characteristics, epidemiology, and burden. We report here the results from the first stroke registry in Guinea.

Objective: Despite improvement in acute stroke care, almost 40% of patients with ischemic stroke present neurological deterioration. Neurological deterioration is associated with higher death and dependency rates. Neurological deterioration mechanisms are unknown, and half of neurological deterioration remains unexplained. We postulate that a subs...

Introduction: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest stroke prevalence along with a case fatality that amounts to 40%. We aimed to assess the effect of a minimal setting stroke unit in SSA Public hospital on stroke mortality and main medical complications. Materials and Methods: The study was set in Conakry, Guinea, Ignace Deen public referral ho...

Objective: To assess with magnetoencephalography the developmental vs progressive character of the impairment of spinocortical proprioceptive pathways in Friedreich ataxia (FRDA). Methods: Neuromagnetic signals were recorded from 16 right-handed patients with FRDA (9 female patients, mean age 27 years, mean Scale for the Assessment and Rating Of...

The human brain is functionally organized into large-scale neural networks that are dynamically interconnected. Multiple short-lived states of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) identified transiently synchronized networks and cross-network integration. However, little is known about the way brain couplings covary as rsFC states wax and w...

Objective: To study using magnetoencephalography (MEG) the spatio-temporal dynamics of neocortical responses involved in sensory processing and early change detection in Friedreich ataxia (FRDA). Methods: Tactile (TERs) and auditory (AERs) evoked responses, and early neocortical change detection responses indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN)...

Background/Objectives: Delirium occurs in up to 50 % of hospitalized old patients and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Acute medical conditions favor delirium, but the pathophysiology is unclear. Preliminary evidence from retrospective and prospective studies suggests that a substantial minority of old patients with unexplained...

This magnetoencephalography (MEG) study aims at characterizing the coupling between cerebellar activity and the kinematics of repetitive self-paced finger movements. Neuromagnetic signals were recorded in 11 right-handed healthy adults while they performed repetitive flexion–extensions of right-hand fingers at three different movement rates: slow (...

The mismatch negativity (MMN) reflects the early detection of changes in sensory stimuli at the cortical level. The mechanisms underlying its genesis remain debated. This magnetoencephalography study investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics and the neural mechanisms of the magnetic somatosensory MMN. Somatosensory evoked magnetic fields elicited b...

Introduction: Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of disability and death due to brain arterial occlusion and subsequent ischemia. Acute treatment aims to recanalize the occluded artery as soon as possible. Treatment to achieve recanalization of the occluded artery has evolved during the last couple of years. First therapeutic improvement : intra-v...

Objectives: The diagnosis of transient neurological attacks (TNA) relies on medical history. Transient ischemic attack is often considered until proven otherwise, because of lack of objective paraclinical tools that can help discriminate TIA from differential diagnoses such as migraine aura. This may lead to needless and potentially harmful stroke...

When secondary causes are excluded, mechanisms underlying central nervous system angiitis (ACNS) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients are still not understood and optimal treatment remains undefined. We report here a patient with an untreated HIV infection who presented multiple ischemic strokes probably due to HIV-ACNS. ACNS sig...

Introduction: The p64 flow diverter (FD) device is a fully resheathable and detachable stent dedicated for endovascular treatment (EVT) of intracranial aneurysms (IAs). We report our mid-term experience with this device. Methods: Between January 2015 and February 2016, we retrospectively identified, in our prospectively maintained database, all...

Introduction L’angiopathie amyloïde de forme inflammatoire (CAAi) est de plus en plus diagnostiquée grâce à l’usage de la résonance magnétique. Les indications et durée du traitement ne sont pas établis. Observation Nous rapportons 3 cas de CAAI dont la présentation et l’évolution clinique furent contrastés. Cas 1 : Patiente de 70 ans ayant présen...

Introduction La granulomatose avec polyangeite (GPA/Wegener) est une vascularite necrosante systemique des petits vaisseaux. L’atteinte neurologique centrale combine classiquement une meningite lymphocytaire et une atteinte multiple de nerfs crâniens. Observation Une patiente de 54 ans, sans antecedents medicaux notables, se presente avec des cepha...

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), this study investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics of the multilevel cortical processing of somatosensory change detection. Neuromagnetic signals of 16 healthy adult subjects (7 females and 9 males, mean age 29 ± 3 years) were recorded using whole-scalp-covering MEG while they underwent an oddball paradigm base...

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of continuous electroencephalogram (cEEG) during the first 48 h following cardiac arrest (CA) in patients treated with targeted temperature management (TTM). Methods: We reviewed data from 92 comatose post-CA patients over a 6 year-period; cEEG recordings were performed durin...

Transient neurologic deficits (TNDs) are often considered first to be transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) but TND with normal brain imaging is also characteristic of other prevalent conditions like migraine aura leading to potential confusion. We aimed to determine if migraine aura with headache (MA) and migraine aura without headache (MAWH) can be d...

Introduction: Delirium is a leading cause of hospitalization and morbidity in elderly persons. Nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) and delirium share many risk factors. We tested the hypothesis that NCSE plays an important role in delirium by performing continuous EEG (cEEG) monitoring in elderly patients with delirium of any cause. Material...

To demonstrate that benign transient focal neurological symptoms represent equivalents of migraine auras without headache. Benign focal neurological symptoms suggesting cerebral dysfunction are common and usually prompt an extensive diagnostic workup, but their etiology is often not elucidated. We hypothesized that benign transient focal neurologic...

The invention relates to in vitro methods for differentiating mammalian pluripotent stem cells into cells displaying a neuronal phenotype, more particularly into cortical-type neurons including inter alia pyramidal neurons and cortical inhibitory interneurons. The invention further encompasses so-obtained neuronal cells and cell population, composi...

Delirium is responsible for up to 56% of hospital admissions in the elderly. Epilepsy and delirium share most risk factors and are both associated with confusion. The aim of this work was to study whether a link between epileptic activity (EA) and delirium existed, and if this link was relevant. Charts of patients aged over 65 years admitted for de...