Acta radiologica
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We performed a retrospective analysis of 398 patients with subarachnoidal hemorrhage (SAH) confirmed by CT. On the first CT examination the temporal horns were enlarged in 84%, the frontal horns in 32%, and the third ventricle in 21% of the patients. The amount of blood in the basal cisterns was highly correlated to dilatation of the temporal horns. ⋯ The frontal and temporal horns were dilated only when moderate or large amounts of blood were present in the cisterns. In 24 patients no blood was seen in the basal cisterns on CT performed within 5 days of the hemorrhage; none of the 3 patients with aneurysms showed normal temporal horns while 18 without demonstrable aneurysms had normal, and 3 had moderately dilated, temporal horns. Because the temporal horns cannot usually be seen at CT of healthy individuals, dilatation could be a useful sign in the diagnosis of SAH.
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A radio-anatomical study was performed of the distal dural sac (DS) in 121 patients subjected to myelography. In 83.4% the termination of the DS was located from the upper half of the S1-segment to the lower half of the S2-segment. In the remaining patients the dural terminations were more distally located. ⋯ The linear diminution in cross-sectional area of the DS from the level of L3 towards the lumbo-sacral junction was not correlated with the degree of caudal extension of the DS into the sacrum. Thus the length of the DS and its transverse diameters are independent of each other. These results supported the view that the location of the termination of the DS (and hence that of the spinal cord) is not related to stenosis of the central spinal canal.
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During a 10-year period, intraparenchymal aneurysms were found in 38 of 748 patients at selective abdominal angiography with magnification technique. According to strict criteria, 17 patients were classified as suffering from necrotizing vasculitis of the polyarteritis nodosa group (PAN), 7 from severe arterial hypertension, and 3 from rheumatoid arthritis. The diagnoses of 5 patients remained to be confirmed, and each of the remaining 6 patients suffered from various other diseases. ⋯ Five PAN patients had numerous and large aneurysms, whereas the aneurysms of the other 12 PAN patients did not differ from those of patients with other diseases. Patients with PAN had renal infarcts more often than the other patients (p less than 0.05). Our findings suggest that visceral angiography is useful in establishing the diagnosis of PAN, but the angiographic finding of aneurysms is not pathognomonic.
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Six pigs with coronary artery occlusion were investigated with MR imaging before and subsequently for about 2.5 hours at repeated intervals after the intravenous administration of Gd-DTPA (0.4 mmol/kg). The animals were sacrificed after a total occlusion time of 6 hours and the hearts were excised. The excised hearts were then reexamined in the MR equipment and stained with TTC (triphenyl tetrazolium) in order to define areas of infarction. ⋯ Ex vivo, without any contrast media, the infarctions were poorly discriminated with a discretely increased signal intensity relative to normal myocardium in the T2 weighted images. Gd-DTPA was found to accumulate in the infarctions, which caused an elevated signal intensity most pronounced in the T1 weighted images. This considerably improved the delineation of the infarcted area.