Interest of surgical vascular reconstructions aiming at preserving hemodialysis access.

Background: Vascular hemodialysis access is a very precious asset for patients with end-stage renal failure. Ideally complications in these accesses should be detected early in order to treat them in time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of vascular reconstructions to preserve the vascular access for hemodialysis and to examine their benefits in terms of conserving the venous network, using hemodialysis catheters, time of cannulation after surgery, patency and postoperative morbi-mortality, by comparing them to those of newly created arterio-venous fistula (AVF).

Three-year quantitative magnetic resonance imaging and phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy study in lower limb muscle in dysferlinopathy.

Background: Natural history studies in neuromuscular disorders are vital to understand the disease evolution and to find sensitive outcome measures. We performed a longitudinal assessment of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( P MRS) outcome measures and evaluated their relationship with function in lower limb skeletal muscle of dysferlinopathy patients.

Methods: Quantitative MRI/ P MRS data were obtained at 3 T in two different sites in 54 patients and 12 controls, at baseline, and three annual follow-up visits.

Exploration of New Contrasts, Targets, and MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques for Neuromuscular Disease - A Workshop Report of Working Group 3 of the Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences COST Action BM1304 MYO-MRI.

Neuromuscular diseases are characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and muscle weakness resulting in functional disabilities. While each of these diseases is individually rare, they are common as a group, and a large majority lacks effective treatment with fully market approved drugs. Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy techniques (MRI and MRS) are showing increasing promise as an outcome measure in clinical trials for these diseases.

Skeletal muscle water T as a biomarker of disease status and exercise effects in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The purpose of this study was to examine exercise effects on muscle water T in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In 12 DMD subjects and 19 controls, lower leg muscle fat (%) was measured by Dixon and muscle water T and R (1/T) by the tri-exponential model. Muscle water R was measured again at 3 hours after an ankle dorsiflexion exercise.

Quantitative ultrashort TE imaging of the short-T components in skeletal muscle using an extended echo-subtraction method.

Purpose: To introduce an ultrashort echo time (UTE) based method for quantitative mapping of short-T signals in skeletal muscle (SKM) in the presence of fat, with the aim of monitoring SKM fibrosis.

Methods: From a set of at least five UTE images of the same slice, a long- T2* map, a fat-fraction map, and a map of short-T -signal fraction are extracted. The method was validated by numerical simulations and in vitro studies on collagen solutions.