The usefulness of the apparent diffusion coefficient value in diagnosing acute spinal cord ischemia.

The purpose of our study was to assess the usefulness of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value in differentiating between a normal spinal cord and a spinal cord with acute ischemia. Control group of 113 and 8 acute spinal cord ischemia patients were enrolled in this study. The ADC values were measured when diffusion-weighted imaging was first performed after the onset of acute spinal cord ischemia.

Association between National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and Functional Independence Measure scores in patients with ischemic stroke from convalescent rehabilitation outcomes.

We investigated the associations among neurological severity, activities of daily living (ADLs), and clinical factors in patients with ischemic stroke in convalescent rehabilitation outcome. The study sample included 723 patients with ischemic stroke (484 men and 239 women; mean age, 73.2 ± 8.

Investigation of inpatient convalescent rehabilitation outcomes in branch atheromatous disease.

Purpose: We investigated inpatient convalescent rehabilitation outcomes of Branch atheromatous disease (BAD).

Subjects And Methods: The subjects were 116 patients with lenticulostriate artery territory - BAD (LSA-BAD) and 29 with paramedian pontine artery territory - BAD (PPA-BAD). For all patients, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores, and Brunnstrom recovery stages (BRS) of the upper limb, fingers, and lower limb were measured on admission and at discharge.

Acute Meningoencephalitis after COVID-19 Vaccination in an Adult Patient with Rheumatoid Vasculitis.

We herein report a 72-year-old woman with rheumatoid vasculitis who exhibited a depressed level of consciousness after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA BNT162b COVID-19 vaccine and was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis. Although there was no confirmatory examination, the diagnosis was based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings and etiological assessments, including microbiological and autoimmune investigations. Both intravenous steroid pulse and gammaglobulin therapies alleviated the patient's symptoms, and the MRI findings improved.

Subarachnoid Hemorrhage After Ischemic Stroke Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Antiphospholipid Syndrome.

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease associated with increased risk of stroke. Antiphospholipid syndrome is another autoimmune disease that frequently overlaps with SLE. We report the case of a patient presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage after ischemic stroke associated with SLE and antiphospholipid syndrome.

Cilostazol use is associated with FIM cognitive improvement during convalescent rehabilitation in patients with ischemic stroke: a retrospective study.

Cilostazol is a phosphodiesterase III-inhibiting antiplatelet agent that is often used to prevent stroke and peripheral artery disease, and its administration has shown significant improvements for cognitive impairment. We investigate the potential of cilostazol for reducing or restoring cognitive decline during convalescent rehabilitation in patients with non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke. The study sample included 371 consecutive patients with lacunar (n = 44) and atherothrombosis (n = 327) subtypes of non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke (224 men and 147 women; mean age, 72.

Acute Bilateral Oculomotor Nerve Palsy in an Adult Patient with Neisseria meningitidis.

A 69-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with a fever, dizziness, and headache caused by Neisseria meningitidis. After ceftriaxone was administered, she suddenly developed bilateral oculomotor nerve palsy. Intra-orbital magnetic resonance imaging using appropriate sequences revealed that her bilateral third intracranial nerves were enlarged and enhanced.

Acute Unilateral Isolated Oculomotor Nerve Palsy in an Adult Patient with Influenza A.

An otherwise healthy 44-year-old woman exhibited isolated unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy accompanied by an influenza A infection. An intra-orbital MRI scan revealed that her right third intracranial nerve was enlarged and enhanced. She recovered completely during the first month after treatment with oseltamivir phosphate.

Structural MRI correlates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis progression.

Purpose: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) presents with varying degrees of brain degeneration that can extend beyond the corticospinal tract (CST). Furthermore, the clinical course and progression of ALS varies widely. Brain degeneration detected using structural MRI could reflect disease progression.

Active brain changes after initiating fingolimod therapy in multiple sclerosis patients using individual voxel-based analyses for diffusion tensor imaging.

Voxel-based analysis (VBA) of diffusion tensor images (DTI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) can sensitively detect occult tissue damage that underlies pathological changes in the brain. In the present study, both at the start of fingolimod and post-four months clinical remission, we assessed four patients with MS who were evaluated with VBA of DTI, VBM, and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR). DTI images for all four patients showed widespread areas of increased mean diffusivity (MD) and decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) that were beyond the high-intensity signal areas across images.

Involvement of the caudate nucleus head and its networks in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia continuum.

We investigated common structural and network changes across the sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-frontotemporal dementia (FTD) continuum. Based on cluster analysis using the frontotemporal assessment battery, 51 patients with sporadic ALS were subdivided into three groups: 25 patients with ALS with cognitive deficiency (ALS-CD); seven patients who satisfied FTD criteria (ALS-FTD), and 19 patients with ALS with normal cognitive function (ALS-NC). Compared with the controls, gray matter images from patients with ALS-FTD showed atrophic changes in the following order of severity: caudate head, medial frontal gyrus, thalamus, amygdala, putamen, and cingulate gyrus (peak level, uncorrected p < 0.

Distinctive distribution of brain volume reductions in MELAS and mitochondrial DNA A3243G mutation carriers: A voxel-based morphometric study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinically latent brain atrophy of patients with mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) harboring a mitochondrial DNA A3243G mutation (A3243G) and A3243G carriers without stroke-like episodes (SEs).

Methods: We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) with magnetic resonance imaging to investigate gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume reductions in four MELAS patients and in five A3243G carriers compared to 16 healthy controls. In addition, we investigated the regions of previous SEs using conventional MRI.

Thrombectomy using Trevo ProVue Stent Retriever Devices after Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Thrombolysis for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion during Vertebral Artery Dissection.

A 41-year-old woman was admitted due to a sudden-onset severe headache, left hemiparesis and dysarthria. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed an acute infarct in the bilateral pons, and magnetic resonance angiography revealed basilar artery (BA) occlusion resulting from dissection of the right vertebral artery (VA). She was treated with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) 110 minutes after symptom onset.

Association of Leukoaraiosis With Convalescent Rehabilitation Outcome in Patients With Ischemic Stroke.

Background And Purpose: We investigated the factors influencing inpatient convalescent rehabilitation outcomes in patients with ischemic stroke, particularly severity of leukoaraiosis on magnetic resonance imaging.

Methods: Participants included 520 patients with ischemic stroke (317 men and 203 women; mean age, 72.8±8.

Voice features of Parkinson's disease patients with subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.

Voice and speech disorders are one of the most important issues after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in Parkinson's disease patients; however, their characteristics remain unclear. We performed a comprehensive voice evaluation including the multi-dimensional voice program for acoustic analysis, the GRBAS scale for perceptual analysis, and the evaluation of the voice handicap index (VHI) for psychosocial analysis. In total, 68 patients who had undergone STN-DBS (37 assessed in the on- and off-stimulation conditions) and 40 who had been treated with medical therapy alone were evaluated.

Impact of albuminuria on early neurological deterioration and lesion volume expansion in lenticulostriate small infarcts.

Background And Purpose: Albuminuria, a marker of chronic kidney disease, is associated with an increased risk of incident stroke and unfavorable long-term outcomes. However, the association of albuminuria with short-term outcomes and change in infarct volume in patients with acute small subcortical infarction remains unknown.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 85 consecutive patients with acute small subcortical infarcts in the lenticulostriate artery territory who were admitted to our stroke center within 24 hours of symptom onset and underwent serial diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI).

[Cutting-edge MRI techniques for studying neurological diseases focusing on spinocerebellar degeneration].

This symposium discusses the utility of the different MR techniques in the diagnosis and management of spinocerebellar degeneration (SCD). Conventional MRI is widely used and can show characteristic signal abnormalities such as putaminal hyperintensity, hyperintense putaminal rim, putaminal hypointensity, hot cross bun sign in the pontine base, and hyperintensity in the middle cerebellar peduncles strengthening a diagnosis of multiple system atrophy (MSA). However, the diagnostic utility of these signal abnormalities in early MSA remains restricted.

Diagnostic accuracy of diffusion tensor imaging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis.

Rationale And Objectives: There have been a large number of case-control studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The objective of this study was to perform an individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis for the estimation of the diagnostic accuracy measures of DTI in the diagnosis of ALS using corticospinal tract data.

Materials And Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases (1966-April 2011) were searched.

MRI mean diffusivity detects widespread brain degeneration in multiple sclerosis.

We investigated the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of 32 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and voxel-based analysis of white matter fluid-attenuated inversion recovery image (FLAIR) high-intensity lesions and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Compared with 18 healthy controls, MS patients showed gray matter volume reduction in the thalamus, hypothalamus, caudate, limbic lobe, and frontal lobe. A marked volume reduction of white matter was evident along the ventriculus lateralis and corpus callosum.

Progressive and widespread brain damage in ALS: MRI voxel-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging study.

We investigated 17 patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and voxel-based analysis of diffusion tensor images (DTI) at baseline and after a six-month follow-up. Compared with 17 healthy controls, ALS patients at baseline showed only minimal white matter volume decreases in the inferior frontal gyrus but marked decreases in the gray matter of several regions, especially in the bilateral paracentral lobule of the premotor cortex. DTI revealed reduced fractional anisotropy in the bilateral corticospinal tracts, insula, ventrolateral premotor cortex, and parietal cortex.

Paradoxical brain embolism induced by Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection with deep venous thrombus.

A 21-year-old man had sudden-onset right hemiplegia and aphasia with respiratory infection. A chest X-ray disclosed consolidation in both lungs and magnetic resonance imaging showed an embolism in the left middle cerebral artery. A pelvic computed tomography scan revealed deep venous thrombus in both femoral veins.

Correlation between pyramidal tract degeneration and widespread white matter involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a study with tractography and diffusion-tensor imaging.

Our aim was to evaluate the location and extent of white matter involvement in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI). We obtained fractional anisotropy (FA) values from the internal capsule and various white matter regions of 46 patients with sporadic ALS and 19 control subjects. In ALS patients, FA values in the internal capsule, frontal white matter, genu and splenium of the corpus callosum (p<0.