Atypical central neurocytoma with metastatic craniospinal dissemination: a case report.

Central neurocytomas comprise nearly half of adult intraventricular neoplasms. The median age of onset is 34 years. It is typically a low-grade neoplasm (World Health Organization grade II), although some cases of malignant neurocytomas have been described.

Hypocretin Deficiency Associated with Narcolepsy Type 1 and Central Hypoventilation Syndrome in Neurosarcoidosis of the Hypothalamus.

We report a case of a 53-year-old man presenting with depressed alertness and severe excessive sleepiness in the setting of neurosarcoidosis. Neuroimaging demonstrated hypothalamic destruction due to sarcoidosis with a CSF hypocretin level of 0 pg/mL. The patient also experienced respiratory depression that presumably resulted from hypocretin-mediated hypothalamic dysfunction as a result of extensive diencephalic injury.

Dementia with Lewy bodies.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common diagnosis of dementia after Alzheimer disease (AD). The essential pathologic feature is the Lewy body, a neuronal inclusion containing α-synuclein, found in brainstem nuclei and the neocortex. Clinical features include early fluctuations in attention, hallucinations, and parkinsonism, with progression to a combined cortical and subcortical dementia.

Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia with corticobasal degeneration pathology: phenotypic comparison to bvFTD with Pick's disease.

Patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) pathology present with diverse clinical syndromes also associated with other neuropathologies, including corticobasal syndrome, progressive nonfluent aphasia, and an Alzheimer's-type dementia. Some present with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), though this subtype still requires more detailed clinical characterization. All patients with CBD pathology and clinical assessment were reviewed (N = 17) and selected if they initially met criteria for bvFTD [bvFTD(CBD), N = 5].

Clinicopathological correlations in corticobasal degeneration.

Objective: To characterize cognitive and behavioral features, physical findings, and brain atrophy patterns in pathology-proven corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS) with known histopathology.

Methods: We reviewed clinical and magnetic resonance imaging data in all patients evaluated at our center with either an autopsy diagnosis of CBD (n = 18) or clinical CBS at first presentation with known histopathology (n = 40). Atrophy patterns were compared using voxel-based morphometry.

Relationship of glioblastoma multiforme to neural stem cell regions predicts invasive and multifocal tumor phenotype.

Neural stem cells with astrocyte-like characteristics exist in the human brain subventricular zone (SVZ), and these cells may give rise to glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). We therefore analyzed MRI features of GBMs in specific relation to the SVZ. We reviewed the preoperative and serial postoperative MR images of 53 patients with newly diagnosed GBM.

Genetic aberrations in gliomatosis cerebri.

Objective: Identifying the genetic alterations in gliomatosis cerebri (GC) may yield clinically useful prognostic markers and provide clues as to whether GC represents a distinct pathological entity or is an extreme form of diffusely infiltrative glioma.

Methods: Clinical histories, treatment histories, magnetic resonance imaging, and pathological analysis of patients with GC treated at either the University of California San Francisco or the Mayo Clinic were reviewed. Degenerate oligonucleotide-primed polymerase chain reaction was performed on biopsy samples of GC.

Diffusion-weighted MR imaging abnormalities in pediatric patients with surgically-treated intracranial mass lesions.

Introduction: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that measures the degree of water diffusion in vivo. DWI abnormalities are frequently observed on immediate postoperative imaging following surgical resection of gliomas in adults. These abnormalities subsequently demonstrate contrast enhancement, which may be confused with lesion recurrence.

Serial diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in cases of glioma: distinguishing tumor recurrence from postresection injury.

Object: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is an invaluable tool in the diagnosis of acute stroke and other types of brain injury. Abnormalities in and around the resection cavity on diffusion-weighted imaging have been observed following surgery for infiltrating glioma. The purpose of this study was to investigate prospectively the incidence, time course, and ultimate outcome of these abnormalities.