Neuroprotective Effects of Inhaled Xenon Gas on Brain Structural Gray Matter Changes After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Evaluated by Morphometric Analysis: A Substudy of the Randomized Xe-Hypotheca Trial.

Background: We have earlier reported that inhaled xenon combined with hypothermia attenuates brain white matter injury in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). A predefined secondary objective was to assess the effect of inhaled xenon on the structural changes in gray matter in comatose survivors after OHCA.

Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to receive either inhaled xenon combined with target temperature management (33 °C) for 24 h (n = 55, xenon group) or target temperature management alone (n = 55, control group).

Infants' sex affects neural responses to affective touch in early infancy.

Social touch is closely related to the establishment and maintenance of social bonds in humans, and the sensory brain circuit for gentle brushing is already active soon after birth. Brain development is known to be sexually dimorphic, but the potential effect of sex on brain activation to gentle touch remains unknown. Here, we examined brain activation to gentle skin stroking, a tactile stimulation that resembles affective or social touch, in term-born neonates.

Structural brain correlates of non-verbal cognitive ability in 5-year-old children: Findings from the FinnBrain birth cohort study.

Non-verbal cognitive ability predicts multiple important life outcomes, for example, school and job performance. It has been associated with parieto-frontal cortical anatomy in prior studies in adult and adolescent populations, while young children have received relatively little attention. We explored the associations between cortical anatomy and non-verbal cognitive ability in 165 5-year-old participants (mean scan age 5.

Effect of xenon on brain injury, neurological outcome, and survival in patients after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage-study protocol for a randomized clinical trial.

Background: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a neurological emergency, affecting a younger population than individuals experiencing an ischemic stroke; aSAH is associated with a high risk of mortality and permanent disability. The noble gas xenon has been shown to possess neuroprotective properties as demonstrated in numerous preclinical animal studies. In addition, a recent study demonstrated that xenon could attenuate a white matter injury after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Prenatal maternal depressive symptoms are associated with neonatal left amygdala microstructure in a sex-dependent way.

Exposures to prenatal maternal depressive symptoms (PMDS) may lead to neurodevelopmental changes in the offspring in a sex-dependent way. Although a connection between PMDS and infant brain development has been established by earlier studies, the relationship between PMDS exposures measured at various prenatal stages and microstructural alterations in fundamental subcortical structures such as the amygdala remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the associations between PMDS measured during gestational weeks 14, 24 and 34 and infant amygdala microstructural properties using diffusion tensor imaging.

Association of cumulative prenatal adversity with infant subcortical structure volumes and child problem behavior and its moderation by a coexpression polygenic risk score of the serotonin system.

Prenatal adversity has been linked to later psychopathology. Yet, research on cumulative prenatal adversity, as well as its interaction with offspring genotype, on brain and behavioral development is scarce. With this study, we aimed to address this gap.

Sex differences, asymmetry, and age-related white matter development in infants and 5-year-olds as assessed with tract-based spatial statistics.

The rapid white matter (WM) maturation of first years of life is followed by slower yet long-lasting development, accompanied by learning of more elaborate skills. By the age of 5 years, behavioural and cognitive differences between females and males, and functions associated with brain lateralization such as language skills are appearing. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to quantify fractional anisotropy (FA) within the WM and increasing values correspond to advancing brain development.

Maternal psychological distress associates with alterations in resting-state low-frequency fluctuations and distal functional connectivity of the neonate medial prefrontal cortex.

Prenatal stress exposure (PSE) has been observed to exert a programming effect on the developing infant brain, possibly with long-lasting consequences on temperament, cognitive functions and the risk for developing psychiatric disorders. Several prior studies have revealed that PSE associates with alterations in neonate functional connectivity in the prefrontal regions and amygdala. In this study, we explored whether maternal psychological symptoms measured during the 24th gestational week had associations with neonate resting-state network metrics.

Comparison of the prognostic value of early-phase proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging with serum neuron-specific enolase at 72 h in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest-a substudy of the XeHypotheca trial.

Purpose: We compared the predictive accuracy of early-phase brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), and serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE) against the motor score and epileptic seizures (ES) for poor neurological outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

Methods: The predictive accuracy of DTI, 1H-MRS, and NSE along with motor score at 72 h and ES for the poor neurological outcome (modified Rankin Scale, mRS, 3 - 6) in 92 comatose OHCA patients at 6 months was assessed by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Combined models of the variables were included as exploratory.

Effect of number of diffusion-encoding directions in diffusion metrics of 5-year-olds using tract-based spatial statistical analysis.

Methodological aspects and effects of different imaging parameters on DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) results and their reproducibility have been recently studied comprehensively in adult populations. Although MR imaging of children's brains has become common, less interest has been focussed on researching whether adult-based optimised parameters and pre-processing protocols can be reliably applied to paediatric populations. Furthermore, DTI scalar values of preschool aged children are rarely reported.

Prenatal and early-life environmental factors, family demographics and cortical brain anatomy in 5-year-olds: an MRI study from FinnBrain Birth Cohort.

The human brain develops dynamically during early childhood, when the child is sensitive to both genetic programming and extrinsic exposures. Recent studies have found links between prenatal and early life environmental factors, family demographics and the cortical brain morphology in newborns measured by surface area, volume and thickness. Here in this magnetic resonance imaging study, we evaluated whether a similar set of variables associates with cortical surface area and volumes measured in a sample of 170 healthy 5-year-olds from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

Subcortical and hippocampal brain segmentation in 5-year-old children: Validation of FSL-FIRST and FreeSurfer against manual segmentation.

Developing accurate subcortical volumetric quantification tools is crucial for neurodevelopmental studies, as they could reduce the need for challenging and time-consuming manual segmentation. In this study, the accuracy of two automated segmentation tools, FSL-FIRST (with three different boundary correction settings) and FreeSurfer, were compared against manual segmentation of the hippocampus and subcortical nuclei, including the amygdala, thalamus, putamen, globus pallidus, caudate and nucleus accumbens, using volumetric and correlation analyses in 80 5-year-olds. Both FSL-FIRST and FreeSurfer overestimated the volume on all structures except the caudate, and the accuracy varied depending on the structure.

Allometry in the corpus callosum in neonates: Sexual dimorphism.

The corpus callosum (CC) is the largest fiber tract in the human brain, allowing interhemispheric communication by connecting homologous areas of the two cerebral hemispheres. In adults, CC size shows a robust allometric relationship with brain size, with larger brains having larger callosa, but smaller brains having larger callosa relative to brain size. Such an allometric relationship has been shown in both males and females, with no significant difference between the sexes.

Feasibility of FreeSurfer Processing for T1-Weighted Brain Images of 5-Year-Olds: Semiautomated Protocol of FinnBrain Neuroimaging Lab.

Pediatric neuroimaging is a quickly developing field that still faces important methodological challenges. Pediatric images usually have more motion artifact than adult images. The artifact can cause visible errors in brain segmentation, and one way to address it is to manually edit the segmented images.

Sex-specific associations between maternal pregnancy-specific anxiety and newborn amygdalar volumes - preliminary findings from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

Previous literature links maternal pregnancy-specific anxiety (PSA) with later difficulties in child emotional and social cognition as well as memory, functions closely related to the amygdala and the hippocampus. Some evidence also suggests that PSA affects child amygdalar volumes in a sex-dependent way. However, no studies investigating the associations between PSA and newborn amygdalar and hippocampal volumes have been reported.

Individualised non-contrast MRI-based risk estimation and shared decision-making in men with a suspicion of prostate cancer: protocol for multicentre randomised controlled trial (multi-IMPROD V.2.0).

Introduction: European Association of Urology and UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines recommend that all men with suspicions of prostate cancer should undergo prebiopsy contrast enhanced, that is, multiparametric prostate MRI. Subsequent prostate biopsies should also be performed if MRI is positive, that is, Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) scores 3-5. However, several retrospective post hoc analyses have shown that this approach still leads to many unnecessary biopsy procedures.

ASIC-E4: Interplay of Beta-Amyloid, Synaptic Density and Neuroinflammation in Cognitively Normal Volunteers With Three Levels of Genetic Risk for Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease - Study Protocol and Baseline Characteristics.

Background: Detailed characterization of early pathophysiological changes in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) is necessary to enable development of correctly targeted and timed disease-modifying treatments. ASIC-E4 study ("Beta-Amyloid, Synaptic loss, Inflammation and Cognition in healthy ε4 carriers") combines state-of-the-art neuroimaging and fluid-based biomarker measurements to study the early interplay of three key pathological features of AD, i.e.

How to read biparametric MRI in men with a clinical suspicious of prostate cancer: Pictorial review for beginners with public access to imaging, clinical and histopathological database.

Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is increasingly being used in men with a clinical suspicion of prostate cancer (PCa). Performing prostate MRI without the use of an intravenous contrast (IV) agent in men with a clinical suspicion of PCa can lead to reduced MRI scan time. Enabling a large array of different medical providers (from mid-level to specialized radiologists) to evaluate and potentially report prostate MRI in men with a clinical suspicion of PCa with a high accuracy could be one way to enable wide adoption of prostate MRI in men with a clinical suspicion of PCa.

Differences in brain changes between adults with childhood-onset epilepsy and controls: A prospective population-based study.

Purpose: To determine the impact of childhood-onset uncomplicated epilepsy (COE) on brain aging over 50-year prospective follow-up.

Methods: A population-based cohort of 41 aging subjects with COE and their 46 matched controls participated in a detailed in-person prospective assessment in 2012 and 2017 to characterize ongoing changes in the aging brain.

Results: The mean age of the COE participants was 63.

Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI associates with neonate local and distal functional connectivity of the left superior frontal gyrus.

Maternal obesity/overweight during pregnancy has reached epidemic proportions and has been linked with adverse outcomes for the offspring, including cognitive impairment and increased risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. Prior neuroimaging investigations have reported widespread aberrant functional connectivity and white matter tract abnormalities in neonates born to obese mothers. Here we explored whether maternal pre-pregnancy adiposity is associated with alterations in local neuronal synchrony and distal connectivity in the neonate brain.

Feasibility of T2 relaxation time in predicting the technical outcome of MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment of uterine fibroids.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of T2 relaxation time in predicting the immediate technical outcome i.e., nonperfused volume ratio (NPVr) of magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU) treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids and to compare it with existing T2-weighted imaging methods (Funaki classification and scaled signal intensity, SSI).

Salvage Magnetic Resonance Imaging-guided Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation for Localized Radiorecurrent Prostate Cancer: 12-Month Functional and Oncological Results.

Background: Up to half of all men who undergo primary radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer (PCa) experience local recurrence.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and early functional and oncological outcomes of salvage magnetic resonance imaging-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (sTULSA) for men with localized radiorecurrent PCa.

Design Setting And Participants: This prospective, single-center phase 1 study (NCT03350529) enrolled men with biopsy-proven localized PCa recurrence after radiotherapy.

Infant and Child MRI: A Review of Scanning Procedures.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe method to examine human brain. However, a typical MR scan is very sensitive to motion, and it requires the subject to lie still during the acquisition, which is a major challenge for pediatric scans. Consequently, in a clinical setting, sedation or general anesthesia is often used.

Detection of Prostate Cancer Using Biparametric Prostate MRI, Radiomics, and Kallikreins: A Retrospective Multicenter Study of Men With a Clinical Suspicion of Prostate Cancer.

Background: Accurate detection of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa), Gleason Grade Group ≥ 2, remains a challenge. Prostate MRI radiomics and blood kallikreins have been proposed as tools to improve the performance of biparametric MRI (bpMRI).

Purpose: To develop and validate radiomics and kallikrein models for the detection of csPCa.