Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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The changing MRI signal accompanying brain maturation in fetal brains can be quantified on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps. Deviations from the natural course of ADC values may reflect structural pathology. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of fetal pathologies on the ADC values in different regions of the fetal brain and their evolution with increasing gestational age. ⋯ The ADC values in different regions of the fetal brain and their evolution with increasing gestational age are influenced by pathologies compromising the cerebral maturation.
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The purpose of this systematic review is to identify trends and extent of variability in intracranial vessel wall MR imaging (VWI) techniques and protocols. Although variability in selection of protocol design and pulse sequence type is known, data on what and how protocols vary are unknown. Three databases were searched to identify publications using intracranial VWI. ⋯ Innovative work continues to emerge to address implementation challenges. Gradual adoption into the research and scientific community was suggested by a shift in the name in the literature from "high-resolution MR" to "vessel wall imaging," specifying diagnostic intent. Insight into current practices and identifying the extent of technical variability in the literature will help to direct future clinical and technical efforts to address needs for implementation.
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Sports-related concussion is a serious health challenge, and females are at higher risk of sustaining a sports-related concussion compared to males. Although there are many studies that investigate outcomes following concussion, females remain an understudied population, despite representing a large proportion of the organized sports community. In this review, we provide a summary of studies that investigate sex-related differences in outcome following sports-related concussion. ⋯ Nonetheless, there is initial evidence to suggest that sex-related differences following concussion are important to consider in efforts to develop objective biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of concussion. Additional studies on this topic are, however, clearly needed to improve our understanding of sex-related differences following concussion, as well as to understand their neurobiological underpinnings. Such studies will help pave the way toward more personalized clinical management and treatment of sports-related concussion.
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Meta Analysis
Diffusion MRI Reversibility in Ischemic Stroke Following Thrombolysis: A Meta-Analysis.
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) detects early infarction in acute stroke. With the substantial progress in stroke therapies, the frequency of posttreatment DWI reversibility in modern stroke cohorts is currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic literature review examining the relationship between characteristics of patients with ischemic stroke and DWI reversibility following treatment with lytic therapy. ⋯ These data suggest that early DWI signal may not represent the definitive DWI burden in recanalized populations. However, substantial heterogeneity exists regarding the rate of DWI reversal following recanalization. Additional studies are needed to elucidate the relationship among time to treatment, early reversal rates, and clinical outcomes. Physicians should use caution when basing clinical decisions on DWI lesion volumes, as these likely change to some degree with recanalization.
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Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to a general lack of sensory and motor functions below the level of injury and may promote deafferentation-induced brain reorganization. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been established as an essential tool in neuroscience research and can precisely map the spatiotemporal distribution of brain activity. Task-based fMRI experiments associated with the tongue, upper limbs, or lower limbs have been used as the primary paradigms to study brain reorganization following SCI. ⋯ In articles that show alterations, there is no agreement if they are transient or permanent. Besides, there is no consensus on which areas are most prone to activation changes, or on the intensity and direction (increase vs. decrease) of those possible changes. In this article, we present a critical review of the literature and trace possible reasons for those contradictory findings on brain reorganization following SCI. fMRI studies based on the ankle dorsiflexion, upper-limb, and tongue paradigms are used as case studies for the analyses.