Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Functional imaging is becoming increasingly important for the detection of neurodegenerative disorders. Perfusion MRI with arterial spin labeling (ASL) has been reported to provide promising diagnostic possibilities but is not yet widely used in routine clinical work. The aim of this study was to compare, in a clinical setting, the visual assessment of subtracted ASL CBF maps with and without additional smoothing, to FDG-PET data. ⋯ Spatial smoothing of ASL images increased false positive results in the discrimination of hypoperfusion conditions from healthy elderly. It also decreased interreader agreement. However, regional characterization and subjective perception of image quality was improved.
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Success in clinical trials of intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) is related to accurate identification of high-risk patients. Noninvasive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of stenotic lesions may enhance therapeutic decision-making. We determined whether physiologic parameters change downstream cerebral hemodynamics in patients with ICAS. ⋯ Our study showed that systolic BP along with the degree of stenosis was associated with pressure decreases across stenotic lesions. Physiologic conditions may superimpose further changes in post-stenotic or downstream blood flow.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Serum Uric Acid Is Associated with Cerebral White Matter Hyperintensities in Patients with Acute Lacunar Infarction.
The Effect of Cilostazol in Acute Lacunar Infarction Based on Pulsatility Index of Transcranial Doppler (ECLIPse) study showed a significant decrease in transcranial Doppler pulsatility index (PI) with cilostazol treatment after 90 days of acute lacunar infarction. The aim of this analysis was to perform a subgroup analysis of the ECLIPse study to explore the relationship between serum uric acid (UA) and the volume of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in patients with acute lacunar infarction. ⋯ This study showed that serum UA was associated with cerebral WMH in patients with acute lacunar infarction.
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Comparative Study
Detection of Right-to-Left Cardiac Shunt in the Absence of Transcranial Acoustic Bone.
Paradoxical thrombotic embolism via right-to-left cardiac shunt (RLS) is a risk factor of cryptogenic ischemic stroke. Transtemporal Doppler (TTD) is a valid method used in the detection of patent foramen ovale (PFO). Temporal acoustic bone windows are missing with increasing age and in some younger subjects. We studied prospectively whether Doppler ultrasound of the cervical arteries (submandibular internal carotid artery [ICA] and vertebral artery [VA]) is an alternative, when compared to TTD, in the detection and quantification of PFO. ⋯ When transcranial acoustic bone windows are missing, Doppler ultrasound of the cervical submandibular ICA and VAs are valid screening methods to detect RLS due to a PFO.
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Contrast-enhancing lesions (CEL) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are believed to represent inflammatory disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS), but their relationship to subsequent long-term disability and progression is unclear, particularly at longer time periods such as 8-10 years. ⋯ While number and volume of CEL at baseline do not directly correlate with disability in the longer term in MS, our data suggest that 1 route to disability involves relapses as a mediator variable in the causal sequence of MS progression from CEL to disability. Further studies using relapse as a mediator variable in a larger data set may be warranted.