Interrater Agreement of BT-RADS for Evaluation of Follow-up MRI in Patients with Treated Primary Brain Tumor.

Background And Purpose: The Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) is a structured radiology reporting algorithm that was introduced to provide uniformity in posttreatment primary brain tumor follow-up and reporting, but its interrater reliability (IRR) assessment has not been widely studied. Our goal is to evaluate the IRR among neuroradiologists and radiology residents in the use of BT-RADS.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study reviewed 103 consecutive MR studies in 98 adult patients previously diagnosed with and treated for primary brain tumor (January 2019 to February 2019).

Using Brain Tumor MRI Structured Reporting to Quantify the Impact of Imaging on Brain Tumor Boards.

Multidisciplinary tumor boards (TB) are an essential part of brain tumor care, but quantifying the impact of imaging on patient management is challenging due to treatment complexity and a lack of quantitative outcome measures. This work uses a structured reporting system for classifying brain tumor MRIs, the brain tumor reporting and data system (BT-RADS), in a TB setting to prospectively assess the impact of imaging review on patient management. Published criteria were used to prospectively assign three separate BT-RADS scores (an initial radiology report, secondary TB presenter review, and TB consensus) to brain MRIs reviewed at an adult brain TB.

Cranial nerve abnormalities in spontaneous intracranial hypotension and their clinical relevance.

Background And Purpose: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is a known cause of headaches and neurologic symptoms, but the frequency of cranial nerve symptoms and abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has not been well described. The purpose of this study was to document cranial nerve findings in patients with SIH and determine the relationship between imaging findings and clinical symptoms.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with SIH with pre-treatment brain MRI at a single institution from September 2014 to July 2017 were retrospectively reviewed to determine the frequency of clinically significant visual changes/diplopia (cranial nerves 3 and 6) and hearing changes/vertigo (cranial nerve 8).

A brain tumor reporting and data system to optimize imaging surveillance and prognostication in high-grade gliomas.

Background And Purpose: High-grade glioma (HGG), including glioblastoma, is the most common primary brain neoplasm and has a dismal prognosis. After initial treatment, follow-up decisions are guided by longitudinal MRI performed at routine intervals. The Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) is a proposed structured reporting system for posttreatment brain MRIs.

MRI-Visible Anatomy of the Brainstem.

Human brainstem internal anatomy is intricate, complex, and essential to normal brain function. The brainstem is affected by stroke, multiple sclerosis, and most neurodegenerative diseases-a 1-mm focus of pathologic condition can have profound clinical consequences. Unfortunately, detailed internal brainstem anatomy is difficult to see with conventional MRI sequences.

MRI-Visible Anatomy of the Basal Ganglia and Thalamus.

Conventional MR imaging does not discriminate basal ganglia and thalamic internal anatomy well. Radiology reports describe anatomic locations but not specific functional structures. Functional neurosurgery uses indirect targeting based on commissural coordinates or atlases that do not fully account for individual variability.

Application of Diffusion Weighted Imaging and Diffusion Tensor Imaging in the Pretreatment and Post-treatment of Brain Tumor.

Diffusion MR imaging exploits the diffusion properties of water to generate contrast between normal tissue and pathology. Diffusion is an essential component of nearly all brain tumor MR imaging examinations. This review covers the important clinical applications of diffusion weighted imaging in the pretreatment diagnosis and grading of brain tumors and assessment of treatment response.

A comprehensive data-driven analysis framework for detecting impairments in brain function networks with resting state fMRI in HIV-infected individuals on cART.

Central nervous system (CNS) sequelae continue to be common in HIV-infected individuals despite combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). These sequelae include HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) and virologic persistence in the CNS. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) is a widely used tool to examine the integrity of brain function and pathology.

Reduced gray-white matter contrast localizes the motor cortex on double inversion recovery (DIR) 3T MRI.

Purpose: Reduced gray-white matter contrast along the central sulcus has been described on T1- and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The purpose of this study was to assess the gray-white matter contrast of the motor cortex on double inversion recovery (DIR), a sequence with superior gray-white matter differentiation.

Methods: The gray-white matter signal on DIR was retrospectively compared to T1-weighted magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (T1-MPRAGE) using normal (n = 25) and abnormal (n = 25) functional MRI (fMRI) exams.

Malignant seeding of the biopsy needle tract outside of the radiation therapy field in a patient with Glioblastoma.

A 44-year-old male initially presented with a right thalamic brain tumor that was confirmed with stereotactic biopsy to be glioblastoma (GBM). The patient was treated with radiotherapy and temozolomide for 6 weeks. At 1 month after completing chemoradiation therapy, the patient underwent follow-up imaging that revealed the primary lesion had mildly responded to chemoradiation, but a secondary lesion had developed along the biopsy needle tract.

Inner SPACE: 400-Micron Isotropic Resolution MRI of the Human Brain.

Objectives: Clinically relevant neuroanatomy is challenging to teach, learn and remember since many functionally important structures are visualized best using histology stains from serial 2D planar sections of the brain. In clinical patients, the locations of specific structures then must be inferred from spatial position and surface anatomy. A 3D MRI dataset of neuroanatomy has several advantages including simultaneous multi-planar visualization in the same brain, direct end-user manipulation of the data and image contrast identical to clinical MRI.

Using a Website to Teach a Structured Reporting System, the Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System.

Background: The Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) is a proposed standardized radiology reporting scheme for magnetic resonance imagings in brain tumor patients. A website was created to introduce the classification system and to promote its use during daily radiology readouts with trainees.

Objectives: To demonstrate how a website can help implement a structured reporting at a tertiary academic facility.

CT Myelography: Clinical Indications and Imaging Findings.

CT myelography is an important imaging modality that combines the advantages of myelography and the high resolution of CT. It provides a detailed delineation of pathologic spine conditions, especially those involving the thecal sac and its contents. However, the role of CT myelography has dramatically and appropriately decreased with the advent of MRI, which provides a noninvasive method to demonstrate pathologic spine conditions with high signal intensity in soft tissues.

Quantitative Improvement in Brain Tumor MRI Through Structured Reporting (BT-RADS).

Rationale And Objectives: Determine the objective benefits of structured reporting of brain tumors through Brain tumor-RADS (BT-RADS) by analyzing discrete quantifiable metrics of the reports themselves.

Materials And Methods: Following Institutional Review Board approval, post-treatment glioma reports were acquired from two matched 3-month time periods for pre- and postimplementation of BT-RADS. The reports were analyzed for presence of history words, such as "Avastin" and "methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase," as well as hedge words, such as "Possibly" and "Likely.

Appearance of cerebral infarct fogging on CT perfusion.

Fogging is a deceptive phenomenon that can partially or completely obscure a subacute infarct on noncontrast head CT. We present the appearance of infarct fogging on CT perfusion through 3 cases. At time of fogging, the subacute infarctions demonstrated variable mean transit time with increased cerebral blood volume and cerebral blood flow on CT perfusion.

Combined task activation display as an effective method to teach introductory fMRI users.

Rationale And Objectives: Interpreting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be an overwhelming and challenging task for trainees, particularly when post processing, synthesizing and interpreting data from multiple language paradigms. Currently, there is no established best method for teaching fMRI interpretation to new trainees. The purpose of our study is to compare the use of combined task activation display (CTAD) and conventional display of fMRI language paradigms as an effective method to teach fMRI to the introductory learner.

Glioblastoma with brainstem leptomeningeal pseudoprogression following radiation therapy.

In brain tumor patients, worsening of imaging findings in the first 6 months after surgical debulking and chemoradiation can occur in the absence of tumor growth, a phenomenon known as pseudoprogression. Awareness of pseudoprogression is important as it can lead to unnecessary additional changes in patient management. In this case, a patient with bilateral frontal glioblastoma presented with new post-treatment brainstem leptomeningeal enhancement which was distant from the original tumor site, concerning for disease progression.

Pre-operative MRI predictors of hormonal remission status post pituitary adenoma resection.

Introduction: Contrast-enhanced (CE) Constructive Interference in Steady State (CISS) and Volumetric Interpolated Breath-hold Examination (VIBE) are MRI sequences used to improve the detection of pituitary adenomas and adjacent cranial nerves. The purpose of this study was to assess image quality and identify imaging predictors of postoperative hormonal remission of functioning pituitary adenomas using CE-T1 weighted image (WI), T2WI, CE-CISS, and CE-VIBE MRI sequences.

Materials And Methods: Patients with pre-operative CE-T1WI, T2WI, CE-CISS, and CE-VIBE pituitary MRI sequences were included in this institutional retrospective review.

Institutional Implementation of a Structured Reporting System: Our Experience with the Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System.

Rationale And Objectives: Analyze the impact of implementing a structured reporting system for primary brain tumors, the Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System, on attitudes toward radiology reports at a single institution.

Materials And Methods: Following Institutional Review Board approval, an initial 22 question, 5 point (1-worst to 5-best), survey was sent to faculty members, house staff members, and nonphysician providers at our institution who participate in the direct care of brain tumor patients. Results were used to develop a structured reporting strategy for brain tumors which was implemented across an entire neuroradiology section in a staged approach.

Accelerated Internal Auditory Canal Screening Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocol With Compressed Sensing 3-Dimensional T2-Weighted Sequence.

Background And Purpose: High-resolution T2-weighted sequences are frequently used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies to assess the cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal (IAC) in sensorineural hearing loss patients but have low yield and lengthened examinations. Because image content in the Wavelet domain is sparse, compressed sensing (CS) that uses incoherent undersampling of k-space and iterative reconstruction can accelerate MRI acquisitions. We hypothesized that an accelerated CS T2 Sampling Perfection with Application optimized Contrasts using different flip angle Evolution (SPACE) sequence would produce acceptable diagnostic quality for IAC screening protocols.

Clinical utility for diffusion MRI sequence in emergency and inpatient spine protocols.

Diffusion imaging of the spine has the potential to change clinical management, but is challenging due to the small size of the cord and susceptibility artifacts from adjacent structures. Reduced field-of-view (rFOV) diffusion can improve image quality by decreasing the echo train length. Over the past 2 years, we have acquired a rFOV diffusion sequence for MRI spine protocols on most inpatients and emergency room patients.