Evaluation of pituitary macroadenomas with multidetector-row CT (MDCT): comparison with MR imaging.

Introduction: It is important to have information on cavernous sinus extension and bony destruction in pituitary macroadenomas before surgery, but magnetic resonance (MR) imaging cannot always depict them. In the present study we sought to determine whether multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) could provide preoperative information in addition to that provided by MR imaging in pituitary macroadenoma.

Methods: The subjects comprised 33 consecutive patients (15 women, 18 men; mean age 50 years) with surgically proven macroadenoma.

Clinical and radiographic indices associated with airflow limitation in patients with sarcoidosis.

Background: Airflow limitation is found in some patients with sarcoidosis, and it is associated with a poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical and radiographic indices associated with airflow limitation in patients with sarcoidosis.

Methods: A prospective, observational study was performed on 228 consecutive sarcoidosis patients followed up at our patient clinic at the Central Clinic of Kyoto.

"Target bypass": a method for preoperative targeting of a recipient artery in superficial temporal artery-to-middle cerebral artery anastomoses.

Objective: To introduce a method for preoperative targeting of a proper recipient artery in superficial temporal artery-to-middle cerebral artery anastomosis.

Methods: Six operations for superficial temporal artery-to-middle cerebral artery anastomosis in four patients with moyamoya disease or moyamoya-like disease and two operations in two patients with atherosclerotic cerebrovascular occlusive disease accompanied by coronary artery stenosis were performed using our method. Before surgery, a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging study was performed with axial T1-weighted three-dimensional magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo sequences and three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography.

Corticospinal tract localization: integration of diffusion-tensor tractography at 3-T MR imaging with intraoperative white matter stimulation mapping--preliminary results.

Institutional review board approval and written informed consent were obtained. The purpose of this study was to prospectively validate usefulness of diffusion-tensor (DT) fiber tractography of the corticospinal tract at 3-T magnetic resonance imaging, in combination with the subcortical motor-evoked potential (MEP) technique, as a tool for tractography-guided neurosurgery. DT imaging and corticospinal tractography were performed at 3 T in eight patients (four men, four women; mean age, 41 years; age range, 23-58 years) with intracranial space-occupying lesions.

MR imaging of Liliequist's membrane.

Liliequist's membrane is an arachnoid structure well-known to neurosurgeons. However, the importance of this membrane had been lost until the development of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV). ETV is superior in its minimal invasiveness, but in some subgroups of hydrocephalus, the effectiveness of ETV may be reduced.

Incidence of pulmonary hypertension and its clinical relevance in patients with sarcoidosis.

Objective: To investigate the frequency of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and clinical parameters associated with PH in sarcoidosis patients.

Methods: A prospective, observational study was performed on 246 consecutive Japanese sarcoidosis patients followed up at the outpatient sarcoidosis clinic in the Central Clinic of Kyoto. The patients were evaluated for PH by Doppler echocardiography.

Comparison of 3.0- and 1.5-T three-dimensional time-of-flight MR angiography in moyamoya disease: preliminary experience.

Purpose: To prospectively compare 3.0- and 1.5-T three-dimensional (3D) time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance (MR) angiography in patients with moyamoya disease, with special emphasis on the visualization of abnormal netlike vessels (moyamoya vessels).

Early experience with 3-T magnetic resonance tractography in the surgery of cerebral arteriovenous malformations in and around the visual pathway.

Objective: To evaluate of the role of magnetic resonance (MR) tractography on the optic radiation with a 3-T MR unit in the surgery of cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in and around the visual pathway.

Methods: Of the 322 patients with cerebral AVMs admitted to our clinic between 1978 and 2005, a study of MR tractography was made on 29 patients. Ten of those patients had AVMs in and around the visual pathway and were included in this study.

Diffusion-tensor fiber tractography: intraindividual comparison of 3.0-T and 1.5-T MR imaging.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate the depiction of brain fiber tracts at 3.0- versus 1.5-T diffusion-tensor (DT) fiber tractography performed with parallel imaging.

Whole brain magnetization transfer histogram analysis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients receiving intrathecal methotrexate therapy.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the hypothesis that magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) histogram analysis of the whole brain could detect early and subtle brain changes nonapparent on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) receiving methotrexate (MTX) therapy.

Materials And Methods: Subjects in this prospective study comprised 10 children with ALL (mean age, 6 years; range, 0-16 years). In addition to conventional MRI, magnetization transfer images were obtained before and after intrathecal and intravenous MTX therapy.

Ectopic posterior pituitary high signal in preoperative and postoperative macroadenomas: dynamic MR imaging.

Background And Purpose: In patients with macroadenoma, posterior pituitary high signal (PPHS) on T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is sometimes observed in an ectopic location. The present study compared incidences of ectopic PPHS before and after macroadenoma surgery using MR imaging, including dynamic MR imaging to ascertain whether this ectopic change is irreversible.

Materials And Methods: MR imaging was performed preoperatively in 111 cases of macroadenoma, and then repeated more than 1-year postoperatively in 47 patients.

Different signal intensities between intra- and extracranial components in jugular foramen meningioma: an enigma.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively differences in MR signal intensity and contrast enhancement between intra- and extracranial components of jugular foramen meningioma (JFM).

Methods: MR studies of eight patients who underwent surgery for histologically confirmed JFM were reviewed retrospectively. Signal intensity differences between intra- and extracranial components of all eight JFMs on axial T1-, T2-, and postcontrast T1-weighted images were evaluated visually.

Age-related signal intensity changes in the corpus callosum: assessment with three orthogonal FLAIR images.

The presence of age-related hyperintensities of the corpus callosum has not been thoroughly evaluated. Fifty-two patients of 50 years of age or older (mean, 71 years; range, 50-87 years) were included in this study. Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images were obtained in three orthogonal planes.

Dynamic MR imaging in Tolosa-Hunt syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate the cavernous sinuses with dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in patients with Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (THS).

Methods: The sellar and parasellar regions of five patients with THS and 12 control subjects were examined with dynamic MR (1.5 T) imaging in the coronal plane.

Liliequist membrane: three-dimensional constructive interference in steady state MR imaging.

Purpose: To evaluate the Liliequist membrane in healthy volunteers by using three-dimensional (3D) Fourier transformation constructive interference in steady state (CISS) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Materials And Methods: In 31 volunteers, the authors performed 3D CISS MR imaging. They divided the membrane into three segments: the sellar, diencephalic, and mesencephalic segments.

Sudden death caused by tension pneumothorax after rupture of a thoracic aortic aneurysm. Case report.

A rare case of fatal tension pneumothorax is reported. An aged Japanese man with marked subcutaneous emphysema of the neck was found collapsed in a betting office. He was ascertained to have left tension pneumothorax, based on radiographic examinations carried out before his death.

Sex determination by discriminant function analysis of lateral cranial form.

To sex the cranium, morphological features of cranial specimens were quantified with a personal computer that automatically measures distance and gradient for 39 craniometric points in the lateral contour line of the skull, which were digitized by a tablet digitizer connected to the computer. Specimens used for discriminant analysis were 50 male and 50 female adult Japanese skulls. The lateral contour showed sex differences in the nasal bone, supraorbital ridge, forehead and vertex.