Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Studies in animal models suggest that inflammation is a major contributor to secondary injury after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Direct, noninvasive monitoring of inflammation in the human brain after ICH will facilitate early-phase development of anti-inflammatory treatments. We sought to investigate the feasibility of multimodality brain imaging in subacute ICH. ⋯ Our study demonstrates for the first time the feasibility of performing complex multimodality brain imaging for noninvasive monitoring of neuroinflammation for this severe stroke subtype.
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Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) provides preoperative maps of neurosurgical patients' white matter tracts, but these maps suffer from echo-planar imaging (EPI) distortions caused by magnetic field inhomogeneities. In clinical neurosurgical planning, these distortions are generally not corrected and thus contribute to the uncertainty of fiber tracking. Multiple image processing pipelines have been proposed for image-registration-based EPI distortion correction in healthy subjects. In this article, we perform the first comparison of such pipelines in neurosurgical patient data. ⋯ Quantitative results of mean tract distortions on the order of 1-2 mm are in line with other recent studies, supporting the potential need for distortion correction in neurosurgical planning. Novel results include significantly higher distortion estimates in the tumor hemisphere and greater effect of image resolution choice on results in the tumor hemisphere. Overall, this study demonstrates possible pitfalls and indicates that care should be taken when implementing EPI distortion correction in clinical settings.
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Acetazolamide reactivity on 123 I-IMP SPECT is used to detect misery perfusion due to intracranial atherosclerosis. Noninvasive fractional flow assessed by signal intensity ratio (SIR) on time of flight-magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) might offer a feasible alternative to identify high-risk intracranial stenosis. ⋯ In patients with unilateral MCA stenosis, decreased SIR was correlated with misery perfusion, providing a simpler, widely available predictor of high-risk intracranial stenosis.
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Blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption detected on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in acute ischemic stroke as a hyperintense acute reperfusion marker (HARM) is associated with upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). Although activated leukocytes, including monocytes, are the main source of MMPs, limited data exist to support relationship between leukocyte activation and BBB disruption in patients with acute ischemic stroke. The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes with BBB disruption detected as HARM (+) in patients with acute ischemic stroke. ⋯ Increased monocyte count associated with HARM supports importance of systemic inflammation in BBB disruption in acute ischemic stroke.
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We have found DSA-Dynavision with multiplanar reconstruction very helpful in understanding the complex anatomy and planning of treatment of carotico-cavernous fistulas. The purpose of our study was to examine whether using DSA-Dynavision in pretreatment planning results in better outcome after endovascular treatment of dural arterio-venous fistulas (dAVFs). ⋯ The use of DSA-Dynavision in planning of endovascular treatment of dAVF is associated with higher rates of elimination of CVR and less need for postembolization surgery.