Neuroimaging clinics of North America
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Spinal MR imaging is excellent for identifying details of spinal anatomy, including intraspinal contents, neural foramina, joints, ligaments, intervertebral discs, and bone marrow. Cortical bony structures of the spine are better imaged using CT. ⋯ Motion- and flow-related artifacts may occur during imaging and should not be mistaken for lesions. With advancements in MR imaging hardware and software, spinal MR imaging can expand its role in the delineation of normal and abnormal spinal anatomy.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · Nov 2019
ReviewSpontaneous Intracranial Hypotension: Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is a clinical syndrome that is increasingly recognized as an important and treatable secondary cause of headaches. Insight into the condition has evolved significantly over the past decade, resulting in a greater understanding of the underlying pathophysiology, development of new diagnostic imaging tools, and a broadening array of targeted treatment options. This article reviews the clinical presentation and pathogenesis of SIH, discusses the important role of imaging in diagnosis, and describes how imaging guides treatment.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · Nov 2019
ReviewPercutaneous Vertebroplasty: A History of Procedure, Technology, Culture, Specialty, and Economics.
Percutaneous vertebroplasty (VP) progressed from a virtually unknown procedure to one performed on hundreds of thousands of patients annually. The development of VP provides a historically exciting case study into a rapidly adopted procedure. ⋯ It was designed as a revolutionary technique to treat vertebral body fractures with minimal side effects and was rapidly adopted and marketed in the United States. The impact of percutaneous vertebroplasty on spine surgery was profound.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · Nov 2019
ReviewImage-Guided Percutaneous Treatment of Lumbar Stenosis and Disc Degeneration.
Low back pain, radicular leg pain, and lumbar spinal stenosis are the most common of all chronic pain disorders. Discogenic pain is related to distress of annular fibers and tears, whereas spinal stenosis is related to reduction of the spinal canal dimensions and compression of the neural elements; radicular pain is mainly related to disc herniation and is initially managed conservatively. The percutaneous minimally invasive approach in discogenic and radicular pain is designed to reduce the volume of the nucleus pulposus in patients with failure of medical and physical treatment prolonged for at least 6 weeks.
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The vertebral column is the most common site of osseous metastasis, and percutaneous minimally invasive thermal ablation is becoming an important contributor to multidisciplinary treatment algorithms. Continuously evolving minimally invasive image-guided percutaneous spine thermal ablation procedures have proven safe and effective in management of selected patients with spinal metastases to achieve pain palliation and/or local tumor control. This article details the armamentarium available and the most recent advances in minimally invasive, percutaneous image-guided thermal ablation for management of spinal metastases.