Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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This study aims to investigate the longitudinal changes in translocator protein (TSPO) following stroke in different brain regions and potential associations with chronic brain infarction. ⋯ This study expands the current knowledge of spatial and temporal TSPO expression in humans by quantifying TSPO changes in lesional, connected, and nonconnected brain regions at three time points after cerebral infarction as well as correlating late-stage TSPO upregulation and chronic infarction volume.
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Silent brain infarcts (SBIs), which manifest as dot-like lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) after endovascular procedures, are associated with an increased risk of stroke, dementia, and cognitive decline. We aimed to identify the factors associated with SBIs following middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenting or balloon angioplasty. ⋯ Stenosis diameter, stenosis length, and MCA tortuosity were significantly associated with the development of SBIs following MCA stenting.
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Working memory, a primary cognitive domain, is often impaired in pediatric brain tumor survivors, affecting their attention and processing speed. This study investigated the long-term effects of treatments, including surgery, radiotherapy (RT), and chemotherapy (CT), on working memory tracts in children with posterior fossa tumors (PFTs) using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and diffusion MRI tractography. ⋯ Tractography-derived features highlighted white matter damage as a biomarker of treatment-related neurotoxicity in PFTs survivors. These findings underscore the detrimental impact of RT and CT on working memory networks and emphasize the importance of preserving cognitive function during treatment planning.
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Peak width of skeletonized mean diffusivity (PSMD) is a novel marker of white matter damage, which may be related to small vessel disease. This study aimed to investigate the presence of white matter damage in patients with isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) using PSMD. ⋯ Patients with isolated RBD had a higher PSMD than healthy controls, indicating the evidence of white matter damage in patients with RBD. This finding highlights the potential of PSMD as a marker for detecting white matter damage, which may be related to small vessel diseases, in patients with sleep disorders.
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Comparative Study
A novel automated pipeline to assess MR spectroscopy quality control: Comparing current standards and manual assessment.
The absence of a consensus data quality control (DQC) process inhibits the widespread adoption of MR spectroscopy. Poor DQC can lead to unreliable clinical diagnosis and irreproducible research conclusions. Currently, manual visual assessment or the standard quantitative metrics of signal-to-noise, linewidth, and model fit are used as classifiers, but these measures may not be sufficient. To supplement standard metrics, this paper proposes a novel automated DQC pipeline named Visual Evaluative Control Technology Of Resonance Spectroscopy (VECTORS). ⋯ Standard quantitative metrics may not account for all DQC artifacts as they are not monotonic to the manual ratings. However, manual ratings are labor intensive, subjective, and irreproducible. VECTORS addresses these issues and should be used in conjunction with standard quantitative metrics.