Sungkyunkwan University · Medicine
Professor Jin Whan Cho's research lab specializes in the clinical and neuroimaging characterization of neurodegenerative ataxias and parkinsonian syndromes, with a focus on differentiating challenging movement disorders such as spinocerebellar ataxias, multiple system atrophy, and Parkinson’s disease. The lab employs advanced ophthalmologic assessments, brain MRI, and comprehensive clinical phenotyping to identify early diagnostic biomarkers, particularly non-motor symptoms and imaging signs like the hot cross bun sign. Research also emphasizes caregiver burden in dementia subtypes and the neural correlates of gait disturbances, such as freezing of gait, using neuroanatomical mapping. The lab's work bridges clinical neurology and neuroimaging to improve early diagnosis and patient management in atypical parkinsonism and cerebellar ataxias.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Because of frequent involvement of the cerebellum and brainstem, ocular motor abnormalities are key features of spinocerebellar ataxias and may aid in differential diagnosis. Our objective for this study was to distinguish the subtypes by ophthalmologic features after head-shaking and positional maneuvers, which are not yet recognized as differential diagnostic tools in most common forms of spinocerebellar ataxias. Of the 302 patients with a diagnosis of cerebellar ataxia in 3 Korean University
We compared caregiver burden in Parkinson disease with dementia (PDD) to that in Alzheimer disease (AD) and examined the factors contributing to the burden in PDD. Totally, 42 patients with PDD and 109 patients with AD and their caregivers participated in this study. The caregiver burden was measured using the Burden Interview (BI). Scores of Barthel activities of daily living (BADLs), Mini-Mental State Examination, Clinical Dementia Rating of patients, and score of Center for Epidemiologic Stud
Our data suggest that non-motor symptoms, particularly urinary symptoms, excessive daytime sleepiness, restless leg syndrome, attention deficit and hyposmia may be helpful to differentiate between DIP and PD in the early stages.
Clinically differentiating multiple system atrophy cerebellar (MSA-C) phenotype and spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) is challenging especially in the early stage. We assessed diagnostic value of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in differentiating MSA-C and SCAs based at different disease stages (<3, 3-7, and >7 years of disease duration). Overall, 186 patients with probable MSA-C and 117 with genetically confirmed SCAs were included. Hot cross bun (HCB) signs and middle cerebellar peduncle (
Our findings suggest that cognitive dysfunctions are associated with the oral phase of swallowing in patients with early stage PD while the severity of motor symptoms may be associated with overall swallowing function.
Our findings suggest that the bilateral pedunculopontine nucleus, bilateral superior premotor cortex, right orbitofrontal area, and left supplement motor area are closely related to freezing of gait.
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