Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Studies have shown an association between infarct patterns and recurrent stroke in patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis (sICAS) but there are limited data on associations with perfusion imaging mismatch profile. We aim to determine the association between infarct pattern, optimal mismatch profile definition, and recurrent cerebrovascular events (RCVE) in patients with anterior circulation sICAS. ⋯ IBZ infarcts may be a surrogate marker of distal perfusion status and RCVE risk. Larger multicenter, prospective, core-lab blindly adjudicated studies are needed to confirm our findings.
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Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors, typically treated with surgery and adjuvant radiation in cases of subtotal resection and/or higher histopathologic grade. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the gold standard for postoperative assessment and adjuvant treatment planning. However, MRI can have limited accuracy particularly in the presence of posttreatment change. [68Ga]-DOTATATE is a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radiotracer targeting somatostatin receptor 2A (SSTR2A). SSTR2A is a reliable biomarker of meningiomas. We report a consecutive case series of 20 patients evaluated with [68Ga]-DOTATATE PET/MRI, propose a novel approach to quantitative analysis, and discuss clinical implications. ⋯ [68Ga]-DOTATATE PET/MRI is a promising tool in the assessment of both treatment naïve and resected/irradiated meningiomas, allowing improved diagnosis and extent of disease evaluation. Future prospective studies are needed to determine utility of [68Ga]-DOTATATE PET/MRI in treatment response assessment.
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There is a paucity of literature related to the neuroimaging of CNS tuberculosis (TB) and largely covers pediatric CNS TB. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of different forms of CNS TB and its associated complications and to study longitudinal disease course using computed tomography (CT) and MRI. ⋯ Tuberculoma, hydrocephalus, and cerebral infarcts are the most prominent findings in CNS tuberculosis. Our study showed development of new lesions on subsequent neuroimaging suggesting a dynamic and progressive nature of the disease process in some individuals.
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Quantitative neuroimaging is an important part of multiple sclerosis research and clinical trials, and measures of lesion volume (LV) and brain atrophy are key clinical trial endpoints. However, translation of these endpoints to heterogeneous historical datasets and nonstandardized clinical routine imaging has been difficult. The NeuroSTREAM technique was recently introduced as a robust and broadly applicable surrogate for brain atrophy measurement, but no such surrogate currently exists for conventional T2-LV. Therefore, we sought to develop a fully automated proxy for T2-LV with similar analytic value but increased robustness to common issues arising in clinical routine imaging. ⋯ SCLV is a robust, fully-automated proxy for T2-LV in situations where conventional T2-LV is not easily or reliably calculated.
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Previous magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies have concluded that hippocampal and parahippocampal metabolite concentrations remain stable during healthy adult aging. However, these studies used short repetition times (TR ≤ 2 seconds), which lead to incomplete longitudinal magnetization recovery, and thus, heavily T1 -weighted measurements. It is important to accurately characterize brain metabolites changes with age to enable appropriate interpretations of MRS findings in the context of neurodegenerative diseases. Our goal was to assess hippocampal brain metabolite concentrations in a large cohort of diversely aged healthy volunteers using a longer TR of 4 seconds. ⋯ We observed increases in hippocampal/parahippocampal metabolite concentrations with age, a finding that is in contrast to previous literature. Our findings illustrate the importance of using a sufficiently long TR in MRS to avoid T1 -relaxation effects influencing the measurement of absolute metabolite concentrations.