European journal of radiology
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Comparative Study
The galenic venous system: surgical anatomy and its angiographic and magnetic resonance venographic correlations.
This study aims at evaluating the adequacy of digital subtraction angiography and magnetic resonance venography in imaging of the galenic venous system for surgical planning of approaches to the pineal region. Anatomical dissections were carried out in 10 cadavers of several age groups and these were compared to imaging findings in 10 living subjects. ⋯ Anatomically, the galenic venous system is highly variable. This variability is caused by interpersonal, intrapersonal and age related differences and causes each individual galenic venous system to be unique. Therefore, modern neurosurgical procedures require anatomical information on individual differences. Current radiological methods of digital subtraction angiography and magnetic resonance venography fail short of providing the necessary information. New and more sophisticated MRI technology may fulfill this need.
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In proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H MRSI), the recorded spectra are often linear combinations of spectra from different cell and tissue types within the voxel. This produces problems for data analysis and interpretation. A sophisticated approach is proposed here to handle the complexity of tissue heterogeneity in MRSI data. ⋯ The ability to classify brain tumours based on IC decomposite spectra was studied by grouping the components with histopathology. To this end, 10 controls and 34 patients with primary brain tumours were studied. The results indicate that ICA may reveal useful information from metabolic profiling for clinical purposes using long echo time MRSI of gliomas.
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We examined six patients with isolated venous thrombosis (n = 2), or venous thrombosis combined with sinus thrombosis (n = 4) (CVT). The clinical symptoms were non-specific (acute cephalea, paresis, epileptic seizure, progressive speech disorder). All examinations were performed on a 1.5 T system (Magnetom Symphony, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany), maximum gradient field strength 30 mT/m, minimal gradient rise time 450 micros, according to the following protocol: Transverse T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE), fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), T1-weighted spin-echo (SE), before and after administration of contrast medium, T2*-weighted conventional gradient-echo (GRE), T2*-weighted spin-echo echo planar imaging (SE EPI), both without and with diffusion weighting as well as two-dimensional (2D) venous time-of-flight (TOF) MRA. ⋯ The T2*-weighted conventional GRE sequence was superior to the T2*-weighted SE EPI sequence in all patients. To sum up, it can be concluded, that T2*-weighted conventional GRE sequences are possibly the best method of detection of acute cortical vein thromboses. Therefore, it seems to be of benefit to integrate a T2*-weighted conventional GRE sequence into the MR-protocol for the diagnosis of isolated cortical vein thrombosis.