Human cerebral cortices: signal variation on diffusion-weighted MR imaging.

Introduction: We have often encountered high signal intensity (SI) of the cingulate gyrus and insula during diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) on neurologically healthy adults. To date, cortical signal heterogeneity on DW images has not been investigated systematically. The purpose of our study was to determine whether there is regional signal variation in the brain cortices of neurologically healthy adults on DW-MR images.

Signal intensity of the normal pontine tegmentum on T2-weighted MR imaging.

On T2-weighted MR images, the pontine tegmentum frequently shows a signal of high intensity in neurologically healthy individuals. We examined whether the signal intensity of the pontine tegmentum normally differs from that of the pontine base. We evaluated the signal intensity of the pontine tegmentum and pontine base on T2-weighted images from 38 neurologically healthy subjects.

Mechanism of pancreatitis caused by ERCP.

Background: Acute pancreatitis can develop after either ERCP or endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES). The pathogenesis of this complication remains poorly understood.

Methods: The frequency and severity of acute pancreatitis were retrospectively evaluated after 17,602 ERCP procedures and 3003 ES procedures.