The British journal of radiology
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Advances in imaging, including multivoxel spectroscopy, tractography, functional MRI and positron emission spectroscopy, are being used by neurosurgeons to target aggressive areas in gliomas, and to help identify tumour boundaries, functional areas and tracts. Neuro-oncological surgeons need to understand these techniques to help maximise tumour resection, while minimising morbidity in an attempt to improve the quality of patient outcome. This article reviews the evidence for the practical use of multimodal imaging in modern glioma surgery.
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We review the role of MRI in retinoblastoma and simulating lesions. Retinoblastoma is the most common paediatric intra-ocular tumour. ⋯ MRI is essential for monitoring patients after treatment and detection of associated second malignancies. It helps to differentiating the tumour from simulating lesions with leukocoria.
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Review
Adult patient radiation doses from non-cardiac CT examinations: a review of published results.
CT is a valuable tool in diagnostic radiology but it is also associated with higher patient radiation doses compared with planar radiography. The aim of this article is to review patient dose for the most common types of CT examinations reported during the past 19 years. ⋯ The introduction of mechanisms for dose reduction resulted in significantly lower patient effective doses for CT examinations of the head, chest and abdomen reported by studies published after 1995. Owing to the limited number of studies reporting patient doses for multislice CT examinations the statistical power to detect differences with single-slice scanners is not yet adequate.
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Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the third most common acute cardiovascular disease after myocardial infarction and stroke, and results in thousands of deaths each year. Improvements in MRI accuracy are ongoing with the use of parallel imaging for angiography techniques and pulmonary perfusion. ⋯ Acute PE can manifest itself as complete arterial occlusion and the affected artery may be enlarged. We report the main vascular and parenchymal signs, and an overview of current literature regarding accuracy, limitations and technical aspects is provided.
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Sciatica is the most frequently encountered symptom in neurosurgical practice and is observed in 40% of adults at some point in their lives. It is described as pain of the hip and the lower extremity secondary to pathologies affecting the sciatic nerve within its intraspinal or extraspinal course. ⋯ Early diagnosis of sciatica significantly improves the likelihood of relieving symptoms, as well as avoiding any additional neurologic injury and unnecessary surgery. We evaluate histolopathologically confirmed extraspinal causes of sciatica cases, accompanied by their presented computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging findings.