Relation between cerebrospinal fluid, gray matter and white matter changes in families with schizophrenia.

Background: Gray matter reduction and ventricular enlargement belong to the best replicated findings in schizophrenia. Brain morphologic changes were also found in non-schizophrenic family members (FM). The intention of this study was to examine whether non-psychotic first-degree relatives reveal similar morphologic changes as schizophrenic patients and how state of genetic loading contribute to these abnormalities.

[Volumetric changes of the breast during radiotherapy. Is a replanning necessary for the electron boost?].

Background And Purpose: Radiotherapy can induce tissue reactions with an edema leading to increased breast volume. The aim of the present study was to quantify this increase and analyze its effect on the electron boost technique.

Patients And Methods: 140 patients with breast cancer treated with breast-conserving surgery underwent CT planning before, during and/or after radiotherapy in order to evaluate breast volume changes due to radiotherapy.

Limbic system abnormalities associated with Ammon's horn sclerosis do not alter seizure outcome after amygdalohippocampectomy.

Purpose: To evaluate whether limbic system abnormalities associated with Ammon's horn sclerosis alter seizure outcome after selective amgydalohippocampectomy.

Methods: In 45 patients with unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, histologically proven Ammon's horn sclerosis, and uneventful postoperative course, volumes of the hippocampus, hemisphere, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, mamillary body, and fornix were measured by using a T(1)-weighted 3-D gradient-echo sequence with roughly isotropic (1.17 x 1.

Sensitivity encoding for diffusion-weighted MR imaging at 3.0 T: intraindividual comparative study.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate whether diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) at 3.0 T can help to improve image quality and confidence in and accuracy of diagnosis of ischemic lesions, compared with DW MR imaging with conventional phase encoding, in patients.

Materials And Methods: Patients provided informed consent after the study had been explained, and the institutional review board approved the study protocol.

Three-dimensional dynamic susceptibility-weighted perfusion MR imaging at 3.0 T: feasibility and contrast agent dose.

Purpose: To prospectively investigate if T2*-weighted dynamic susceptibility-weighted first-pass perfusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is feasible at 3.0 T and which dose of contrast agent is suitable for high-field-strength imaging.

Materials And Methods: Informed consent was obtained from all participants; study protocol was approved by the institutional review board.

Shape changes in prefrontal, but not parieto-occipital regions: brains of schizophrenic patients come closer to a circle in coronal and sagittal view.

There is some evidence for prefrontal (PF) lobe changes in schizophrenia while the parieto-occipital (PO) region seems to be unaffected. This magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was performed to examine shape differences as part of the spectrum of structural abnormalities in schizophrenia. The measurements were done on families affected with schizophrenia to identify the influence of genetic and environmental factors on these changes.

Acute and subacute ischemic stroke at high-field-strength (3.0-T) diffusion-weighted MR imaging: intraindividual comparative study.

Purpose: To compare signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs), image quality, and confidence in diagnosis between 1.5- and 3.0-T diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of ischemic stroke lesions.

Noninvasive detection of steno-occlusive disease of the supra-aortic arteries with three-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography: a prospective, intra-individual comparative analysis with digital subtraction angiography.

Background And Purpose: Concomitant disease of the supra-aortic arteries can influence the outcome of surgical treatment of carotid artery stenosis. However, sensitivity and specificity data of noninvasive contrast-enhanced 3-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance angiography (CE MRA) for the detection of steno-occlusive disease of the entire supra-aortic arteries including the circle of Willis remain unclear. We aimed to intra-individually compare high-spatial-resolution CE 3D MRA and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) for the assessment of steno-occlusive vascular disease of the supra-aortic arteries.

MR imaging in the presurgical workup of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Background And Purpose: Whether an epileptic lesion is detected with MR imaging depends on the quality of the images and the expertise of the reader. We analyzed the role of 1.5-T MR imaging in the presurgical evaluation of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy at one center.

1H metabolite relaxation times at 3.0 tesla: Measurements of T1 and T2 values in normal brain and determination of regional differences in transverse relaxation.

Purpose: To measure 1H relaxation times of cerebral metabolites at 3 T and to investigate regional variations within the brain.

Materials And Methods: Investigations were performed on a 3.0-T clinical whole-body magnetic resonance (MR) system.

Time-of-flight MR angiography: comparison of 3.0-T imaging and 1.5-T imaging--initial experience.

Intracranial three-dimensional time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance (MR) angiography was performed in seven healthy volunteers and eight patients with both 1.5-T and 3.0-T MR systems with standard and high spatial resolutions (true voxel sizes, 0.

Breast MR imaging during or soon after radiation therapy.

Purpose: To investigate the degree and prevalence of radiation-induced changes on breast magnetic resonance (MR) images in patients who were undergoing radiation therapy at that time or soon after, to assess prospectively whether possible radiation-induced effects impair diagnostic accuracy of imaging, and to investigate the prevalence of residual ipsilateral and synchronous contralateral breast cancer in patients undergoing radiation therapy after resection of a supposedly solitary breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: A total of 116 dynamic bilateral breast MR studies were performed during and up to 12 months after radiation therapy in 72 patients who had undergone breast-conservation surgery without preoperative MR imaging. Patients were assigned to four groups according to the time span between imaging and radiation therapy.

Sensitivity encoding for fast MR imaging of the brain in patients with stroke.

Purpose: To evaluate sensitivity encoding (SENSE) technique in a clinical setting for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in patients who are suspected of having infarction.

Materials And Methods: This intraindividual comparative study included 62 patients suspected of having cerebral ischemia. Patients underwent T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR) (n = 62), T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE) (n = 48), and single-shot echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging (n = 27) with standard sequential and SENSE MR acquisitions with a 1.

Prognostic impact of renal impairment and sodium imbalance in patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting for the prevention of variceal rebleeding.

Background/aim: Kidney function and portal pressure have prognostic relevance in nonshunted patients with cirrhosis. Since insertion of a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) reduces portal pressure and may improve the renal function, the aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic role of renal impairment and portal hemodynamics in patients with compensated cirrhosis electively shunted due to recurrent variceal hemorrhages.

Methods: Data of 101 consecutive and prospectively followed patients with compensated cirrhosis (bilirubin <5 mg/dl) undergoing elective TIPS due to recurrent variceal bleeding (45 died, and 8 were transplanted during the follow-up period) were evaluated in a multivariate Cox model.

Reduced hippocampal activation during encoding and recognition of words in schizophrenia patients.

Objective: In patients with schizophrenia, impaired hippocampal activation either during encoding or recognition tasks has been observed in a few functional imaging experiments. In this fMRI study, the authors report results of word encoding and recognition in schizophrenia patients and healthy comparison subjects, with a special focus on correcting for behavioral recognition success in order to prevent a bias related to lower task performance in the schizophrenia patients.

Method: The verbal encoding and recognition tasks were both first analyzed irrespective of recognition success.

Comparison of MELD, Child-Pugh, and Emory model for the prediction of survival in patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting.

Objectives: Recently, new prognostic models (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease [MELD model] and Emory score) were proposed for the prediction of survival in transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) patients. Although the MELD model is considered to be superior and has consecutively been applied to priority listing for liver transplantation, these models have never been directly compared in terms of long-term prognosis. We therefore compared the prognostic accuracy of the different models, including the Child-Pugh score, in an unselected cohort of TIPS patients followed long-term.

Influence of genetic loading, obstetric complications and premorbid adjustment on brain morphology in schizophrenia: a MRI study.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) space enlargement in schizophrenia is a prominent finding. This study was initiated to examine the influence of genetic loading, obstetric complications and premorbid adjustment on the extent of this enlargement. The sample of this MRI study consisted of 40 schizophrenic patients, 24 psychiatric and 40 healthy family members from 10 uniaffected and 19 multiple affected families with schizophrenia, such as 27 control subjects from non-affected families.

Thalamic involvement in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a diffusion-weighted MR imaging study.

Background And Purpose: Recent neuropathologic research suggests thalamic involvement in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), which has been disregarded in imaging studies. Diffusion-weighted (DW) MR imaging has the highest sensitivity for the detection of signal intensity (SI) abnormalities in CJD. We hypothesized that pathologic changes in the thalamus in sCJD can be detected by using a subtle analysis of DW MR imaging.

Randomly segmented central k-space ordering in high-spatial-resolution contrast-enhanced MR angiography of the supraaortic arteries: initial experience.

Contrast material-enhanced three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance (MR) angiography of the supraaortic arteries with randomly segmented central k-space ordering (ie, contrast-enhanced timing-robust angiography [CENTRA]) was performed in 16 patients. CENTRA enabled reliable depiction of the aortic arch up to the circle of Willis at high spatial resolution (true voxel size, 0.81 x 0.

Novelty detection and repetition suppression in a passive picture viewing task: a possible approach for the evaluation of neuropsychiatric disorders.

The applicability of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or schizophrenia is frequently limited by cognitive impairment, which prevents the adequate execution of complex tasks. An experimental design that puts only minor demands on the patients' cognitive ability but engages disease-relevant brain structures would be of benefit. Novelty detection and repetition suppression are two basic components of memory that might be used to investigate specific brain areas under these conditions.

Abdomen: diffusion-weighted MR imaging with pulse-triggered single-shot sequences.

Magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion measurements of the abdomen were performed in 12 healthy volunteers by using a diffusion-weighted single-shot sequence both without and with pulse triggering for different trigger delays. Pulse triggering to the diastolic heart phase led to reduced motion artifacts on the diffusion-weighted MR images and to significantly improved accuracy and reproducibility of measurements of the apparent diffusion coefficients, or ADCs, of abdominal organs.