Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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The vertical-occipital fasciculus (VOF), historically named as "the fasciculus occipitalis verticalis of Wernicke," has been recently brought to the attention of the neuroscience community. In this study, we delineated and quantified this tract with deterministic diffusion tensor imaging protocol. ⋯ We believe that our work will pave the way for future imaging studies investigating VOF in different conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and multiple sclerosis.
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To assess the diagnostic value of parenchymal hyperdense lesions visualized on the flat-panel CT scan in detecting/excluding intraparenchymal hemorrhage (IPH) after the endovascular treatment of acute stroke patients. ⋯ The absence of hyperdense lesions on immediate postprocedural flat-panel CT scan of ischemic stroke patients can exclude IPH with a high sensitivity and negative predictive value. The hyperdense parenchymal lesions visualized on flat-panel versus multidetector CT studies may have comparable sensitivity and negative predictive value for the detection of IPH.
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Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) is frequently associated with atypical clinical presentations and its early detection remains a challenging issue. In this study, we used arterial spin labeling (ASL), a noninvasive perfusion MRI sequence, and [(18)F]-FDG-PET to detect the perfusion and metabolic features in patients with EOAD. ⋯ ASL and [(18)F]-FDG-PET detected pathological areas of similar distribution mainly located in the inferior parietal lobules and local zones in the temporal cortex in patients with EOAD. Our preliminary study showed that ASL and [(18)F]-FDG-PET may have a complementary role in combination with structural MRI for the assessment of suspected EOAD.
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Brain lesions converting to chronic T1 hypointensities ("chronic black holes" [CBH]), indicate severe tissue destruction (axonal loss and irreversible demyelination) in multiple sclerosis (MS). Two mechanisms by which fingolimod could limit MS lesion evolution include sequestration of lymphocytes in the periphery or direct neuroprotective effects. We investigated the effect of fingolimod on the evolution of acute gadolinium-enhancing (Gd+) brain lesions to CBH in patients with MS. ⋯ This pilot study shows a trend of fingolimod on reducing the conversion rate from acute to chronic destructive MS lesions. Such an effect awaits verification in larger randomized prospective studies.
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To evaluate whether breath-holding (BH) blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI can quantify differences in vascular reactivity (VR), as there is a need for improved contrast mechanisms in gliomas. ⋯ BH maps based on peak-to-trough can be used to characterize VR in brain tumors. VR maps in brain tumor patients appear to be caused by a different mechanism than gadolinium enhancement.