Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Case Reports
Neuroblastoma with a solitary intraventricular brain metastasis visualized on I-123 MIBG scan.
Although metastatic skull lesions of neuroblastoma are not uncommon, brain involvement is infrequent and prompt diagnosis is of utmost importance in such cases. Previous studies have shown that Meta-Iodo-Benzyl-Guanidine (MIBG) scans were not always reliable in detecting central nervous system metastases, however most published reports referred to the Iodine-131 ((131)I)-MIBG scans. Herein, we report an intraventricular metastasis of neuroblastoma diagnosed using an Iodine-123 ((123)I)-MIBG scan, which is increasingly being used in clinical practice and reported as a more accurate method for detecting metastatic lesions. ⋯ Our case shows that (123) I-MIBG scintigraphy can be useful in detecting intraventricular brain metastases of neuroblastoma. Although the (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy has been reported to have a significantly superior sensitivity in monitoring asymptomatic patients with neuroblastoma compared with (131)I-MIBG scans, bone marrow histology, bone scan, CT, and urinary catecholamine levels, further studies may be necessary to evaluate its sensitivity in detecting brain lesions.
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Recurrence following endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysm is attributed to either coil compaction or aneurysm growth but these processes have not been studied as distinct processes. ⋯ This is one of the first studies to differentiate coil compaction and aneurysm growth as distinct etiologies for aneurysm recurrence.
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Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with nontumoral amygdala enlargement (AE) has been reported to be a possible subtype of TLE without hippocampal sclerosis (HS). The purpose of this study was to clarify morphologic and functional characteristics of TLE with AE (TLE + AE). ⋯ TLE + AE is different from MTLE + HS from morphologic and functional points of view, and the enlarged amygdala per se is potentially an epileptic focus in patients with partial epilepsy.
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To examine the distributions of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) observed metabolites in Parkinson's disease (PD) throughout the whole brain. ⋯ PD is associated with widespread alterations of brain metabolite concentrations, with a primary finding of increased creatine. Higher creatine values in our PD sample may reflect greater neuronal energy expenditure early in the disease process that is compensatory. This is the first whole brain MRS study of PD that has examined metabolite changes across a large fraction of the brain volume, including the cortical mantle.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Extending communication for patients with disorders of consciousness.
The difficulty of distinguishing disorders of consciousness from certain disorders of communication leads to the possibility of false diagnosis. Our aim is to communicate with patients with disorders of consciousness through asking them to answer questions with "yes/no" by performing mental imagery tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). ⋯ The results from 2 patients provide independent support of similar work by others with 3 T fMRI, and demonstrate broader clinical utility for these tests at 1.5 T despite lower signal-to-noise ratio. Based on the control results, mental calculation adds a robust imagery task for use in future studies of this kind.