Neuroimaging clinics of North America
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · May 2003
ReviewPercutaneous vertebroplasty: rationale, clinical outcomes, and future directions.
Percutaneous transpediculate vertebroplasty is an innovative and successful treatment of painful osteoporotic and pathologic compression fractures that are refractory to medical therapy. Large-scale clinical series have shown that vertebroplasty can provide significant pain relief with very low complication rates. Expectations of positive results of the ongoing randomized trials are high. With the accumulation of scientific data, technological advancements, and acceptance by the general community, vertebroplasty may be become the standard of care for treatment of painful vertebral body compression fractures.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · May 2003
ReviewAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis and primary lateral sclerosis: evidence-based diagnostic evaluation of the upper motor neuron.
Magnetic resonance imaging and MR spectroscopy are important tools in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with suspected motor neuron disease. Further investigation is needed to determine and to compare the utility of various neuroimaging markers for diagnosis and disease progression [112]. Newer MR tools, such as diffusion tensor imaging, magnetization transfer imaging, and functional MR imaging, have substantial promise as scientific and clinical tools in this ongoing endeavor.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · May 2003
ReviewNeuroimaging in Alzheimer disease: an evidence-based review.
Current clinical criteria (DSM-IIIR and NINCDS-ADRDA) for the diagnosis of dementia and AD are reliable; however, these criteria remain to be validated by clinicians of different levels of expertise at different clinical settings. Structural neuroimaging has an important role in initial evaluation of dementia for ruling out potentially treatable causes. Although CT is the appropriate choice when brain tumors, subdural hematoma, or normal pressure hydrocephalus is suspected, MR imaging is more sensitive to the white-matter changes in vascular dementia. ⋯ These neuroimaging markers may be useful for monitoring symptomatic progression in groups of patients with AD for drug trials. Furthermore, antemortem MR-based hippocampal volumes correlate with the pathologic stage of AD, and the rate of hippocampal volume loss on MR imaging correlates with clinical disease progression in the cognitive continuum from normal aging to MCI and to AD. Hence, as an in vivo correlate of pathologic involvement, structural imaging measures are potential surrogate markers for disease progression in patients with established AD and in patients with prodromal AD, who will benefit most from disease-modifying therapies underway.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · May 2003
ReviewBrain neoplasms: epidemiology, diagnosis, and prospects for cost-effective imaging.
Currently, the literature lacks a solid body of research on decision and cost-effectiveness analysis of imaging strategies for adults and children suspected of having a brain neoplasm. This article describes the epidemiology and clinical presentation of brain neoplasms, reviews current diagnostic strategies, highlights gaps in the literature on decision and cost-effectiveness analysis, and suggests directions for future research.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · May 2003
ReviewSickle cell disease and stroke in a pediatric population. Evidence-based diagnostic evaluation.
Cerebrovascular complications are common in SCD and constitute a major source of concern to the pediatric hematologist. These complications can be either clinically overt or covert. ⋯ Imaging guidelines for children have emerged based on the available level 2 and 3 literature, however, CT and MR imaging remain the initial tests of choice for stroke assessment, and TCD is the imaging tool of choice for stroke prevention. Based on guidelines handed down from the NIH, TCD has become a part of routine continuing care of children with SCD.