Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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The embryologic development of the spinal cord is a remarkably complex process. Spinal abnormalities can occur in isolation or be part of a clinical syndrome commonly summarized as spinal dysraphism. Proper evaluation of spinal malformations with imaging is required for early diagnosis prior to counseling and selection of postnatal treatment options. ⋯ It is critical to follow a strict protocol in an attempt to precisely identify all imaging findings, one should be familiar with the normal ultrasonographic appearance of bony and soft tissue structures in the various planes and one should be able to correlate the abnormal findings with spinal cord embryology as it aids in identifying the etiology. US should be considered as a first-line imaging for neonates suspected of spinal anomalies. In this article, we discuss up-to-date US technique of the spine, the most frequently encountered neonatal spinal malformations seen with US and correlate these findings with the relevant embryologic processes.
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In this pilot study, we investigated functional brain activation changes in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) in remission compared to age and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs). ⋯ These results suggest that CD patients in remission may show accelerated signs of aging in terms of brain responses to a typical cognitive task. Future work with larger sample size will need to replicate these results as well as investigate the influence of factors, such as chronicity of the disease and medication effects on task-associated brain activation patterns in this patient population.
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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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Visualization of structural details of treatment devices during neurointerventional procedures can be challenging. A new true two-resolution imaging X-ray detector system features a 194 µm pixel conventional flat-panel detector (FPD) mode and a 76 µm pixel high-resolution high-definition (Hi-Def) zoom mode in one detector panel. The Hi-Def zoom mode was developed for use in interventional procedures requiring superior image quality over a small field of view (FOV). We report successful use of this imaging system during intracranial aneurysm treatment in 1 patient with a Pipeline-embolization device and 1 patient with a low-profile visualized intramural support (LVIS Blue) device plus adjunctive coiling. ⋯ Visualization of device structures was much improved in the high-resolution Hi-Def mode, leading to easier, more controlled deployment of stents and coils than conventional FPD mode.
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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.