Impact of Balloon Guide Catheters in Elderly Patients Treated with Mechanical Thrombectomy: Insights from the ROSSETTI Registry.

Background And Purpose: Several nonrandomized studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of balloon guide catheters in treating patients with anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion. However, their impact on the elderly populations has been underreported. We aimed to analyze the effect of balloon guide catheters in a cohort of elderly patients (80 years of age or older) with anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion.

Patterns of statin use and cholesterol goal attainment in a high-risk cardiovascular population: A retrospective study of primary care electronic medical records.

Objective: To describe real-life patterns of statin use and cholesterol goal attainment in a retrospective cohort of patients with high cardiovascular risk.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 21,636 individuals, 18.34% women, mean age 63.

Gut Microbiota Interacts With Brain Microstructure and Function.

Context: Evidence from animals suggests that gut microbiota affects brain structure and function but evidence in humans is scarce.

Objective: This study sought to evaluate potential interactions among gut microbiota composition, brain microstructure, and cognitive tests in obese and nonobese subjects.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This was a cross-sectional study at a tertiary hospital including 20 consecutive obese and 19 nonobese subjects similar in age and sex.

High-resolution blood-pool-contrast-enhanced MR angiography in glioblastoma: tumor-associated neovascularization as a biomarker for patient survival. A preliminary study.

Introduction: The objective of the study was to determine whether tumor-associated neovascularization on high-resolution gadofosveset-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a useful biomarker for predicting survival in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastomas.

Methods: Before treatment, 35 patients (25 men; mean age, 64 ± 14 years) with glioblastoma underwent MRI including first-pass dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion and post-contrast T1WI sequences with gadobutrol (0.1 mmol/kg) and, 48 h later, high-resolution MRA with gadofosveset (0.

Lower serum osteocalcin concentrations are associated with brain microstructural changes and worse cognitive performance.

Objective: Rodent models have found that osteocalcin crosses the blood-brain barrier and regulates behaviour. No data are available on osteocalcin's effects on brain microstructure and cognitive performance in humans. We evaluated the association between serum osteocalcin concentrations and (i) brain microstructural changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and (ii) neuropsychological performance.

Improving prevalence estimation through data fusion: methods and validation.

Background: Estimation of health prevalences is usually performed with a single survey. Some attempts have been made to integrate more than one source of data. We propose here to validate this approach through data fusion.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and age are strong indicators for atherosclerosis in morbid obesity.

Objective: Whether nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) can predict atherosclerosis in obese patients remains unclear. The aim of our study was to investigate the usefulness of NAFLD and other cardiometabolic parameters in predicting subclinical atherosclerosis in obese patients.

Design, Patients And Measurements: We studied 314 consecutive obese subjects (223 women; mean age, 45·04 ± 9·34 years; body mass index 44·3 ± 5 kg/m(2) ) and 47 healthy lean individuals.

Carotid pulse wave velocity by magnetic resonance imaging is increased in middle-aged subjects with the metabolic syndrome.

Arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV), an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease, physiologically increases with age; however, growing evidence suggests metabolic syndrome (MetS) accelerates this increase. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enables reliable noninvasive assessment of arterial stiffness by measuring arterial PWV in specific vascular segments. We investigated the association between the presence of MetS and its components with carotid PWV (cPWV) in asymptomatic subjects without diabetes.

Hypothalamic damage is associated with inflammatory markers and worse cognitive performance in obese subjects.

Context: Growing evidence implicates hypothalamic inflammation in the pathogenesis of diet-induced obesity and cognitive dysfunction in rodent models. Few studies have addressed the association between obesity and hypothalamic damage in humans and its relevance.

Objective: This study aimed to determine markers of obesity-associated hypothalamic damage on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and to determine whether DTI metrics are associated with performance on cognitive testing.

Brain iron overload, insulin resistance, and cognitive performance in obese subjects: a preliminary MRI case-control study.

Objective: The linkage among the tissue iron stores, insulin resistance (IR), and cognition remains unclear in the obese population. We aimed to identify the factors that contribute to increased hepatic iron concentration (HIC) and brain iron overload (BIO), as evaluated by MRI, and to evaluate their impact on cognitive performance in obese and nonobese subjects.

Research Design And Methods: We prospectively recruited 23 middle-aged obese subjects without diabetes (13 women; age 50.

Decreased corticospinal tract fractional anisotropy predicts long-term motor outcome after stroke.

Background And Purpose: Nearly 50% of patients have residual motor deficits after stroke, and long-term motor outcome is difficult to predict. We assessed the predictive value of axonal damage to the corticospinal tract indexed by diffusion tensor imaging fractional anisotropy for long-term motor outcome.

Methods: Consecutive patients with middle cerebral artery stroke underwent multimodal MRI, including diffusion tensor imaging ≤12 hours, 3 days, and 30 days after onset.

Increased corticospinal tract fractional anisotropy can discriminate stroke onset within the first 4.5 hours.

Background And Purpose: The role of diffusion tensor imaging in determining stroke age remains unclear. We tested the ability of diffusion tensor imaging metrics to discriminate ischemic stroke <4.5 hours of onset.

Albumin-binding MR blood pool contrast agent improves diagnostic performance in human brain tumour: comparison of two contrast agents for glioblastoma.

Objective: We qualitatively and quantitatively compared MRI enhancement obtained with gadofosveset, an albumin-binding blood-pool contrast agent, and with gadobutrol, an extracellular contrast agent, in patients with glioblastoma.

Methods: Thirty-five patients (25 men; 64 ± 14 years) with histologically proven glioblastoma underwent MRI including pre- and post-contrast T1-weighted SE images acquired 5 min after gadobutrol (0.1 mmol/kg) and, 48 h later, images acquired with identical parameters 5 min and 3, 6, and 24 h after gadofosveset (0.

Reliability of the ABC/2 method in determining acute infarct volume.

Background And Purpose: Infarct volume is used as a surrogate outcome measure in clinical trials of therapies for acute ischemic stroke. ABC/2 is a fast volumetric method, but its accuracy remains to be determined. We aimed to study the accuracy and reproducibility of ABC/2 in determining acute infarct volume with diffusion-weighted imaging.

Magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers of ischemic stroke: criteria for the validation of primary imaging biomarkers.

Ischemic stroke is associated with a high rate of disability and death. Establishing valid biomarkers could help accelerate the approval of promising new therapies for stroke. Whereas many serum biomarkers have been evaluated, possible imaging biomarkers of stroke lack validation.