Stasis imaging predicts the risk of cardioembolic events related to acute myocardial infarction: the ISBITAMI study.

Introduction And Objectives: In the setting of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), imaging-based biomarkers could be useful for guiding oral anticoagulation to prevent cardioembolism. Our objective was to test the efficacy of intraventricular blood stasis imaging for predicting a composite primary endpoint of cardioembolic risk during the first 6 months after STEMI.

Methods: We designed a prospective clinical study, Imaging Silent Brain Infarct in Acute Myocardial Infarction (ISBITAMI), including patients with a first STEMI, an ejection fraction ≤ 45% and without atrial fibrillation to assess the performance of stasis metrics to predict cardioembolism.

CT angiography for diagnosis of carotid near-occlusion: a digital subtraction angiography validation study.

Introduction: Carotid near-occlusion (CNO) is a variant of severe stenosis where there is a distal luminal collapse of the internal carotid artery (ICA) beyond a tight stenosis. This study aimed to validate new visual extracranial diagnostic CT angiography (CTA) criteria, for the diagnosis of CNO. The new criteria include distal ICA diameter smaller than contralateral ICA and distal ICA diameter less than or equal to the ipsilateral external carotid artery (ECA).

Tract-specific damage at spinal cord level in pure hereditary spastic paraplegia type 4: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

Background: SPG4 is a subtype of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), an upper motor neuron disorder characterized by axonal degeneration of the corticospinal tracts and the fasciculus gracilis. The few neuroimaging studies that have focused on the spinal cord in HSP are based mainly on the analysis of structural characteristics.

Methods: We assessed diffusion-related characteristics of the spinal cord using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), as well as structural and shape-related properties in 12 SPG4 patients and 14 controls.

Corticospinal tract and motor cortex degeneration in pure hereditary spastic paraparesis type 4 (SPG4).

SPG4 is an autosomal dominant pure form of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) caused by mutations in the gene. HSP is considered an upper motor neuron disorder characterized by progressive retrograde degeneration, or "dying-back" phenomenon, of the corticospinal tract's longest axons. Neuroimaging studies mainly focus on white matter changes and, although previous studies reported cortical thinning in complicated HSP forms, cortical changes remain unclear in SPG4 patients.