Microstructural Alterations in Tract Development in College Football and Volleyball Players: A Longitudinal Diffusion MRI Study.

Background And Objectives: Repeated impacts in high-contact sports such as American football can affect the brain's microstructure, which can be studied using diffusion MRI. Most imaging studies are cross-sectional, do not include low-contact players as controls, or lack advanced tract-specific microstructural metrics. We aimed to investigate longitudinal changes in high-contact collegiate athletes compared with low-contact controls using advanced diffusion MRI and automated fiber quantification.

A rare case of sino-nasal aneurysmal bone cyst.

Aneurysmal bone cysts (ABC) are rare in the paranasal sinuses. They are benign expansile multicystic masses containing blood-filled spaces which typically occur in the long bones of pediatric patients. The lesion often produces symptoms due to the compression of adjacent structures or pathological fracture and depends on localization.

Neuroradiologic Evaluation of MRI in High-Contact Sports.

Athletes participating in high-contact sports experience repeated head trauma. Anatomical findings, such as a cavum septum pellucidum, prominent CSF spaces, and hippocampal volume reductions, have been observed in cases of mild traumatic brain injury. The extent to which these neuroanatomical findings are associated with high-contact sports is unknown.

Congenital Hearing Loss Is Associated With a High Incidence of Central Nervous System Abnormalities.

Objective(s): To assess the incidence of central nervous system abnormalities in pediatric subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

Methods: One hundred forty-three pediatric subjects evaluated for SNHL at a single academic center from 2007 to 2014 were included and divided into eight diagnosis groups based on etiology of SNHL. One hundred forty-three age- and gender-matched control subjects with no known brain-related pathology or history of hearing loss were included as healthy controls for comparison.

Central skull base osteomyelitis manifesting with a preclival mass and internal carotid artery mycotic aneurysm.

Central skull base osteomyelitis is a rare entity that can demonstrate confounding radiologic, clinical, and laboratory data leading to a delay in diagnosis. The morbidity and mortality for skull base osteomyelitis are both high, thus a rapid diagnosis is required for appropriate treatment. In this case report, we discuss a 68-year-old male who presented with acute left facial nerve paralysis in the setting of chronic headache and left mucoid middle ear effusion.

Longitudinal alteration of cortical thickness and volume in high-impact sports.

Collegiate football athletes are subject to repeated head impacts. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this exposure can lead to changes in brain structure. This prospective cohort study was conducted with up to 4 years of follow-up on 63 football (high-impact) and 34 volleyball (control) male collegiate athletes with a total of 315 MRI scans (after exclusions: football n ​= ​50, volleyball n ​= ​24, total scans ​= ​273) using high-resolution structural imaging.

Longitudinal Changes in Hippocampal Subfield Volume Associated with Collegiate Football.

Collegiate football athletes are subject to repeated traumatic brain injuriesthat may cause brain injury. The hippocampus is composed of several distinct subfields with possible differential susceptibility to injury. The aim of this study is to determine whether there are longitudinal changes in hippocampal subfield volume in collegiate football.

APRIL/BLyS Blockade Reduces Donor-specific Antibodies in Allosensitized Mice.

Background: Highly sensitized candidates on the transplant waitlist remain a significant challenge, as current desensitization protocols have variable success rates of donor-specific antibody (DSA) reduction. Therefore, improved therapies are needed. A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) and B-lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS) are critical survival factors for B-lymphocytes and plasma cells, which are the primary sources of alloantibody production.

Desensitization and treatment with APRIL/BLyS blockade in rodent kidney transplant model.

Alloantibody represents a significant barrier in kidney transplant through the sensitization of patients prior to transplant through antibody mediated rejection (ABMR). APRIL BLyS are critical survival factors for mature B lymphocytes plasma cells, the primary source of alloantibody. We examined the effect of APRIL/BLyS blockade via TACI-Ig (Transmembrane activator calcium modulator cyclophilin lig interactor-Immunoglobulin) in a preclinical rodent model as treatment for both desensitization ABMR.

Tension pneumocephalus - A rare complication of cerebrospinal fluid leak.

Three months following a craniectomy and cranioplasty indicated for intraperenchymal hemorrhage, a 74-year-old male suffered a cerebrospinal fluid leak complicated by delayed tension pneumocephalus and declining neurologic status demonstrating a particularly rare complication of neurologic trauma and surgery. While with symptoms of a space occupying mass is the most common presentation, the patient presented cerebrospinal fluid leak prompting CT imaging and diagnosis. Urgent surgical decompression is necessary and was performed resulting in improved mental status.

Pediatric Semicircular Canal Dehiscence: Radiographic and Histologic Prevalence, With Clinical Correlation.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of radiographic and histologic superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD) and posterior semicircular canal dehiscence (PSCD) and associated changes in temporal bone thickness in children aged 0 to 7 years.

Study Design: Retrospective chart review and histopathologic review of cadaveric bone specimens.

Setting: Two tertiary referral centers.

Pulmonary embolism at follow-up outpatient CT pulmonary angiography: implications on patient risk stratification.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of pulmonary embolism in outpatients who return to care with clinical suspicion of pulmonary embolism and are evaluated by computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) after an initial CTPA was negative for pulmonary embolism within the preceding 12 months. Following institutional review board approval, we performed a retrospective review of all CTPAs performed at our institution from June 2006 through June 2009. One hundred and seventy-two outpatients [102 women; mean age 56.

Serial MR findings and comprehensive review of bilateral lupus mastitis with an additional case report.

Lupus Mastitis (LM) is a rare presentation of lupus panniculitis involving the breast. Because it often presents as a tender palpable mass, a workup for malignancy usually ensues. It is well documented that surgery may worsen the condition; therefore, it is important to consider LM in the differential of a palpable breast mass in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Lemierre syndrome: from pharyngitis to fulminant sepsis.

We report a case of a previously healthy 33-year-old male who presented to his primary care physician with nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. One week prior to presentation the patient reported a history of sore throat which he presumed to be a viral infection and sought no medical attention. Upon hospital presentation, the patient was admitted and rapidly progressed to sepsis and respiratory failure.

Suppression of hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene expression by daily melatonin supplementation in aging rats.

Both plasma melatonin levels and hypothalamic arcuate nucleus pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) (biosynthetic precursor to the endogenous opioid ss-endorphin and other opiomelanocortins) mRNA content decrease with aging. To test whether the decline in melatonin is responsible for the decline in POMC mRNA, we investigated the effects of daily melatonin treatment on hypothalamic POMC mRNA content in middle-aged and older Sprague-Dawley rats. Daily nocturnal melatonin treatment (50 microg kg bw(-1) night(-1), in the night-time drinking water) for 7 months, starting at 13 months of age, did not significantly alter female arcuate nucleus POMC mRNA content determined at the end of the light period (i.

Chronic daily ethanol and withdrawal: 3. Forebrain pro-opiomelanocortin gene expression and implications for dependence, relapse, and deprivation effect.

Background: Although forebrain pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC)-producing neurons seem to mediate or modulate many responses to ethanol consumption, changes in activity of this opiomelanocortinergic system in response to chronic ethanol consumption, withdrawal, and subsequent abstinence remain unresolved.

Methods: We investigated the effects of chronic daily ethanol consumption, withdrawal, and subsequent abstinence on adult male Sprague-Dawley rat forebrain opiomelanocortinergic activity as reflected by changes in hypothalamic POMC messenger RNA (mRNA) content by using a well characterized liquid diet model that we have previously demonstrated to accurately simulate not only daily oral ethanol consumption quantity and pattern, but also both neuroendocrine and behavioral changes characteristic of actively drinking and subsequently abstinent alcoholics.

Results: After 7 weeks of daily ethanol consumption at night and withdrawal during the day, evening mediobasal hypothalamus POMC mRNA concentrations were suppressed versus both ad libitum-fed and pair-fed controls.

Chronic daily ethanol and withdrawal: 1. Long-term changes in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Background: Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function has been demonstrated to be compromised for weeks and even months after alcoholics cease ethanol consumption. Because nonalcoholic subjects with family history-associated increased risk for alcoholism also exhibit compromised HPA function, it is not clear whether defects in the HPA axis of abstinent alcoholics reflect a preexisting condition that may be responsible for increased risk for alcohol abuse versus a persisting adaptational change in response to prolonged alcohol abuse. Consequently, we investigated whether chronic daily ethanol consumption and withdrawal by male Sprague Dawley rats would induce persistent HPA changes consistent with those demonstrated in abstinent alcoholics.

Daily melatonin administration at middle age suppresses male rat visceral fat, plasma leptin, and plasma insulin to youthful levels.

Human and rat pineal melatonin secretion decline with aging, whereas visceral fat and plasma insulin levels increase. Melatonin modulates fat metabolism in some mammalian species, so these aging-associated melatonin, fat and insulin changes could be functionally related. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of daily melatonin supplementation to male Sprague-Dawley rats, starting at middle age (10 months) and continuing into old age (22 months).

Acute alcohol effects on opiomelanocortinergic regulation.

To assess acute effects of alcohol on forebrain and pituitary opiomelanocortinergic regulation, a model was developed in which "experienced" (previously introduced to ethanol administration, so the subjective response was not a novel stimulus) male Sprague-Dawley rats received pulsatile intragastric ethanol infusions during the dark (active) photophase to produce and sustain (for 3 hr) behaviorally relevant (0, 40 to 70, 80 to 110, or 120 to 150 mg/dl) plasma ethanol levels. The effects of alcohol on hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (H-P-A) axis function were biphasic with respect to dosage (inhibition with low dosage and stimulation with higher dosages) and time (initial stimulation with higher dosages was followed by rapid return to control levels even though elevated plasma ethanol levels were maintained). The effects of alcohol on H-P-A activation were also inconsistent; some of the animals did not appear to respond even though elevated (i.

One-tube method for complete HPA-1 genotyping by PCR using sequence-specific primers.

Human platelet antigens (HPA) can be targets for antibody responses that cause life-threatening thrombocytopenia following platelet transfusions or pregnancy. As an aid to diagnosis and prevention, serologic and DNA-based methods have been developed to type HPA. Of the DNA-based strategies, those using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are very sensitive, but often require processing of amplification products.