Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator therapy for acute ischemic stroke: initial Israeli experience.

Background: Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator therapy within 3 hours of stroke onset is a proven effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke.

Objective: To assess the feasibility and safety of rt-PA therapy for reperfusion in routine clinical practice in Israel, in the setting of a dedicated stroke unit.

Methods: Consecutive patients presenting within less than 3 hours of stroke onset were evaluated by an emergency physician and the neurology stroke team.

A prospective evaluation of thallium-201 single photon emission computerized tomography for brain tumor burden.

Purpose: The follow-up of patients with malignant brain tumors after surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy has been inadequate for evaluating brain tumor burden using computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Thallium-201 has been shown to concentrate in viable tumor, and Tl-201 single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) imaging can identify tumor burden more accurately than CT.

Methods And Materials: Thirty-one patients with glioblastoma and three patients with low grade astrocytoma were studied with Tl-201 SPECT.

MRI demonstration and CT correlation of the brain in patients with idiopathic intracerebral calcification.

Twenty-two patients aged 36-63 years were diagnosed as having Fahr's syndrome on the basis of the presence on CT of unexpected extensive calcification of the basal ganglia. Even when associated with calcification of other brain areas, the main diagnostic criterion remained basal ganglia calcification larger than 800 mm2. Normal values of parathormone, serum calcium and phosphorus excluded hypercalcaemia and hypoparathyroidism.