European journal of radiology
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patency: assessment with high-resolution submillimeter 16-slice multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) versus coronary angiography.
To investigate the ability of 16-slice multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) to visualize coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patency and to detect bypass stenoses. ⋯ Sixteen-slice coronary CTA with sub-millimeter spatial resolution and premedication with oral beta-blockade permits non-invasive assessment of coronary artery bypass grafts with decreasing numbers of unevaluable graft segments. However, patient-based analysis reveals that only a relatively small number of patients ("negative" and completely evaluable graft-CTA) truly profits from noninvasive work-up and could be spared invasive angiography.
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The aim of this study was to evaluate our preliminary experience at 3.0 T with imaging of the carotid bifurcation in healthy and atherosclerotic subjects. Application at 3.0 T is motivated by the signal-to-noise gain for improving spatial resolution and reducing signal averaging requirements. ⋯ High SNR and CNR images have been demonstrated for the healthy and diseased carotid. Improvements in RF coils along with pulse sequence optimization, and evaluation of endogenous and exogenous contrast mechanisms will further enhance carotid imaging at 3.0T.
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Chest pain is one of the most frequent complaints for patients seen in the emergency department. The current article describes the clinical stratification of patients who present to the emergency department with chest pain and discusses imaging options and analysis for these patients. It reviews conventional imaging approaches to assessing chest pain including chest radiography and stress testing. The main discussion focuses on the potential utility use of cross-sectional imaging, particularly multidetector CT, in the evaluation of chest pain in the emergency department.
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In this review, we demonstrate the developmental appearance, structural features, and reorganization of transient cerebral zones and structures in the human fetal brain using a correlative histological and MRI analysis. The analysis of postmortem aldehyde-fixed specimens (age range: 10 postovulatory weeks to term) revealed that, at 10 postovulatory weeks, the cerebral wall already has a trilaminar appearance and consists of: (1) a ventricular zone of high cell-packing density; (2) an intermediate zone; (3) the cortical plate (in a stage of primary consolidation) with high MRI signal intensity. The anlage of the hippocampus is present as a prominent bulging in the thin limbic telencephalon. ⋯ The period between 27 and 30 postovulatory weeks is characterized by gradual blurring of the laminar structure in parallel with the formation of cerebral convolutions. In near-term preterm infants, T2-weighted MR images showed better contrast resolution than T1-weighted images. We conclude that transient fetal zones and subcortical structures display characteristic MRI features due to the high content of extracellular matrix in the subplate zone, higher MRI signal intensity of zones with high cell-packing intensity, and the presence of growing fibers.