Magnetic resonance metrics to evaluate the effect of therapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: the experience with edaravone.

Background: Edaravone was approved as a new treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), although there are different opinions on its effectiveness. Magnetic resonance (MRI) measures appear promising as diagnostic and prognostic indicators of disease. However, published studies on MRI using to monitor treatment efficacy in ALS are lacking.

Recurrent Painful Ophthalmoplegic Neuropathy and Oculomotor Nerve Schwannoma: A Pediatric Case Report with Long-Term MRI Follow-Up and Literature Review.

Background: Recurrent painful ophthalmoplegic neuropathy (RPON), previously known as ophthalmoplegic migraine (OM), is an uncommon disorder with repeated episodes of ocular cranial nerve neuropathy associated with ipsilateral headache. The age of presentation is most often during childhood or adolescence. MRI has a central role in the assessment of the RPON, especially to distinguish orbital, parasellar, or posterior fossa lesions that mimic symptoms of RPON.

"Less is better"-always true?

Objective: The aim of the study is to try to explain what an overtreatment is and which ones are the possible risks related to an excess of simplification in the medical practice, through the description of an emblematic clinical case.

Methods: In the present article, we report the case of a female patient aged 57 who complained about lower back pain and crural neuralgia and had a lumbar and sacral magnetic resonance imaging performed in the Department of Neuroradiology in Bari showing suspicious repetitive bone lesions; therefore, the patient underwent several medical procedures and laboratory exams which ended with a surgical removal of a left L3-L4 foraminal disc herniation and a bone biopsy.

Results: When it was finally possible to exclude any other diseases including thyroid neoplasms, a "reassuring" osteoporosis diagnosis has been made since the lesions were likely to be degenerative and the patient underwent menopause 7 years ago.

Serum biomarkers in the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection: consolidated evidence and recent developments.

Periprosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) represents one of the leading causes of revision prosthetic surgery, accounting for 25% of failed Total Knee Replacement (TKR) and 15% of failed Total Hip Replacement (THR). The search for a biomarker that, together with clinical and radiological findings, could improve the management of such a kind of patients is currently a big challenge for orthopaedic surgeons. This review aims (1) to assess the accuracy and the limitations of the traditional (Serum Erythrocytes Sedimentation Rate, C-reactive Protein, Procalcitonin, Interleukin 6, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha), (2) and to analyse the emerging serum biomarkers (Presepsin, Toll-like Receptor 2, soluble urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator Receptor, Chemokine Ligand 2 and Osteopontin) in the diagnosis of PJI.

Convexal subarachnoid hemorrhage and acute ischemic stroke: a border zone matter?

Background: Convexal subarachnoid hemorrhage (c-SAH) is an infrequent condition with variable causes. c-SAH concomitant to acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is even less frequent, and the relationship between the two conditions remains unclear.

Methods: Between January 2016 and January 2018, we treated four patients who were referred to our stroke unit with ischemic stroke and concomitant nontraumatic c-SAH.