Professional background
Dr Stefania Bruno is a consultant neuropsychiatrist at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. She is based in the hospital's level 1 neuro-rehabilitation unit, which means it can support patients with acquired brain injury and those with high intensity and complex needs. She also works with the UCLH Huntington’s disease service.
Dr Bruno obtained her first degree (cum laude) at the University of Bari (Italy) with a thesis on cognitive functions of the cerebellum and completed her psychiatric training in London at UCL and at the Maudsley Hospital. She has a PhD in advanced neuroimaging from the Institute of Neurology, UCL. She has worked in neuropsychiatry since 1999, as a consultant since 2005.
Her areas of expertise include the neuropsychiatric aspects of acquired brain injuries, (traumatic brain injury, stroke, encephalitis, brain tumours, etc.), neurodegenerative disorders, Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s dementias, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.
Her research interests include the application of advanced neuroimaging to the study of neuropsychiatric disorders, the use of machine learning for the early detection of dementia, and the neurorehabilitation of auto-immune encephalitides.
She regularly supervises students for the research module of the KCL MSc in Clinical Neuropsychiatry.
Languages spoken
Italian
Publications
Book chapters
Bruno SD and Lahiri IN (2020) Genetics of Neuropsychiatric Disease, Oxford Textbook of Neuropsychiatry, Oxford University Press, 127-139.
Amoruso N, Bellotti R, Bruno SD, Chincarini A, Logroscino G, Tangaro S (2012) Automated shape analysis landmarks detection in medical image processing, Computational modelling of objects represented in Images: fundamentals, methods and applications III, Di Gianberardino et al (eds), 139-142.
Bruno SD (2003) Using MTI for the study of the neuropathology of bipolar disorder, Psychiatric Neuroimaging, NATO Science Series, Ng et al (eds), 235-37.
Peer-reviewed articles
Mole J A, Wilson B A, Liddiard H and Bruno SD (2022) Diagnosing Gerstmann’s syndrome in a case of hypoxic brain injury, The Neuropsychologist, Issue 13, April 2022.
Chia K X, Polakhare S, Bruno SD (2020) Possible affective cognitive cerebellar syndrome in a young patient with COVID19 CNS vasculopathy and stroke, BMJ Case Reports, October 2020.
Varatharaj A, Thomas N, Ellul MA et al (2020) Neurological and Neuropsychiatric complications of COVID19 in 153 patients: a UK-wide surveillance study, The Lancet Psychiatry, 7 (10) 875-882.
Ho AK, Horton MC, Landwehrmeyer B et al, REGISTRY Investigators of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (2019) Meaningful and measurable health domains in Huntington’s Disease: Large-Scale Validation of the Huntington’s Disease Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire across severity stages, Value in Health, 22 (6) 712-720.
Oosterloo M, Bijlsma EK, van Kujik SMJ et al, REGISTRY Investigators of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (2018) Clinical and genetic characteristics of late-onset Huntington’s Disease, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 61,
Amoroso N, La Rocca M, Bruno SD, Maggipinto T, Monaco A, Bellotti R, Tangaro S (2018) Multiplex Networks for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, November 2018, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00365.
Castellazzi G, Bruno SD, Toosy AT, Casiraghi L, Palesi F, Savini G, D’Angelo E and Wheeler- Kingshott CAM (2018) Prominent changes in cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity during continuous cognitive processing, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, October 2018, https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2018.00331.
Amoroso N, La Rocca M, Bruno SD, Maggipinto T, Monaco A, Bellotti R, Tangaro S, for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (2017) Brain structural connectivity atrophy in Alzheimer’s Disease, ArXiv:1709.02369v2, 9 Sep.
Baake V, Reijntjes RHAM, Dumas EM et al, REGISTRY Investigators of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (2017) Cognitive decline in Huntington’s Disease expansion gene carriers, Cortex, DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.017
Hensman Moss DJ, Pardiñas AF et al, REGISTRY Investigators of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (2017) Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington’s Disease progression: A genome-wide association study, The Lancet Neurology, 16 (9), June 2017.
Amoroso N, Errico R, Bruno SD, Chincarini, A, Garuccio E, Sensi F, Tangaro S, Tateo A, Bellotti R, for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (2015) Hippocampal Unified Multi-Atlas Network (HUMAN): protocol and scale validation of a novel segmentation tool, Physics in Medicine and Biology 60, 22.
Inglese P, Amoroso N, Boccardi M, Bruno SD, Chincarini A, Errico R, Frisoni GB, Maglietta R, Redolfi A, Tateo A, Tangaro S, Bellotti R, for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (2015) Multiple RF Classifier for the EADC-ADNI Harmonized Hippocampal Protocol, Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics 31, 8, 1085-91.
Barulli MR, Fontana A, Panza F, Copetti M, Bruno SD, Tursi M, Iurillo A, Tortelli R, CapozzoR, De Caro MF, Pellegrini F, Simone IL, Logroscino G (2015) The Frontal Assessment Battery for detecting executive dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis without dementia: a retrospective observational study, BMJ Open 5, 9 (e007069 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007069).
Maglietta L, Amoroso N, Boccardi M, Bruno SD, Chincarini A, Frisoni GB, Inglese P, Redolfi A, Tangaro S, Tateo A, Bellotti R, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (2015) Automated hippocampal segmentation in 3D MRI using random undersampling with boosting algorithm, Pattern Analysis and Applications DOI 10.1007/s10044-015-0492-0.
Tangaro S, Amoroso N, Boccardi M, Bruno SD, Chincarini A, Ferraro G, Frisoni GB, Maglietta L, Redolfi A, Rei L, Tateo A, Bellotti R, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (2014) Automated voxel- by-voxel tissue classification for hippocampal segmentation: methods and validation, Physica Medica 30 (8), 878-87.
De Leonardis F, Koronica R, Bruno SD, Santoro N (2013) Non-activated protein C rescue treatment in Wilms tumour associated hepatic sinusoidal obstructive syndrome, Pediatric Blood & Cancer 61, 5, 940– 941.
Metzger S, Walter C, Riess O et al, REGISTRY Investigators of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (2017) The V471A Polymorphism in autophagy-related gene ATG7 modifies age at onset specifically in Italian Huntington’s Disease patients, PLoS ONE, July 2013.
Bruno SD, Cercignani M, Wheeler-Kingshott C (2012) Neurodegenerative dementias: from MR Physics lab to assessment room, European Physical Journal Plus 127: 139. DOI: 10.1140/epjp/i2012-12139-2.
Gutierrez-Galve L, Bruno SD, Wheeler-Kingshott C, Summers M, Ron MA (2012) IQ and fronto-temporal cortex in Bipolar Disorder, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 18, 1-5.
Gutierrez-Galve L, Summers M, Bruno SD, et al (2011) Characteristics of frontal and temporal cortex in relation to cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorders, International Clinical Psychopharmacology 26, e124-e125.
Bruno SD, Cercignani M, Ron MA (2008) White matter abnormalities in bipolar disorder: a voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging study, Bipolar Disorders 10, 460-468.
Summers M, Papadopoulou K, Bruno SD, Cipolotti L, Ron MA (2006) Bipolar I and Bipolar II Disorder: Cognition and Emotion Processing, Psychological Medicine 36, 1799-1809.
Bruno SD, Papadopoulou K, Cercignani M, Cipolotti L and Ron MA (2006) Structural brain correlates of IQ changes in bipolar disorder, Psychological Medicine 36, 5: 609-618.
Bruno SD (2005) Neuroimaging of Bipolar Disorder: an emphasis on new techniques, Epilepsia
46 Suppl 4: 14-8.
Bruno SD, Barker GJ, Cercignani M, Symms M, Ron MA (2004) A study of bipolar disorder using magnetisation transfer imaging and voxel-based-morphometry, Brain 127: 2433-440.
Sewry C, D’Alessandro M, Naom I, Sorokin LM, Bruno SD, Wilson LA (1997) Variable phenotype in merosin-deficient Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and differential expression of two fragments of the laminin a2 chain, Neuromuscular Disorders 7, 169-175.
Sewry C, D’Alessandro M, Wilson LA, Sorokin LM, Naom I, Bruno SD, Ferlini A, Dubowitz V, Muntoni F (1997) Expression of laminin chains in skin in merosin-deficient Congenital Muscular Dystrophy,
Neuropediatrics 28, 1-6.