Paraspinal muscle asymmetry in Parkinson's disease.

Lateral postural deviation in Parkinson's disease (PD) is not uncommon but has never been radiographically queried to evaluate for specific muscle anatomy. Ten subjects (9 female) were identified with paraspinal asymmetry on examination and MRI. Relative atrophy was seen diffusely in all paraspinal muscles (psoas, interspinalis, quadratus, multifidus, longissimus and ileocostalis).

An image analysis pipeline for the semi-automated analysis of clinical fMRI images based on freely available software.

The technique of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has evolved in the last 15 years from a research concept into a clinically relevant medical procedure. In this study, an efficient, semi-automated and cost-effective solution for the analysis of fMRI images acquired in a clinical setting is presented relying heavily on open source software. The core of the pipeline is the software Analysis of Functional NeuroImages (AFNI, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)) combined with K-PACS and ImageJ.

Wall shear stress variations in basilar tip aneurysms investigated with computational fluid dynamics.

Hemodynamics are thought to play an important role in the creation, thrombosis, recanalization, regrowth and re-bleeding of cerebral aneurysms treated by endovascular means. However, their exact role and interaction is unclear and warrants further study. Towards a systematic classification of the hemodynamics in intracranial aneurysms, we investigated the dependence of the values of the magnitude of the wall shear stresses in the vicinity of the aneurysm on varying inflow conditions in three basilar tip aneurysms.

T cell vaccination in multiple sclerosis: results of a preliminary study.

Myelin basic protein (MBP)-reactive T cells are potentially involved in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), and can be depleted by subcutaneous inoculations with irradiated autologous MBP-reactive T cells (T cell vaccination). This preliminary open label study was undertaken to evaluate whether depletion of MBP-reactive T cells would be clinically beneficial to patients with MS. Fifty-four patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) MS (n=28) or secondary progressive (SP) MS (n=26) were immunized with irradiated autologous MBP-reactive T cells and monitored for changes in rate of relapse, expanded disability scale score (EDSS) and MRI lesion activity over a period of 24 months.