Internal Structures of the Globus Pallidus in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Evaluation with Phase Difference-enhanced Imaging.

Purpose: The medial medullary lamina (MML) separates the medial globus pallidus (GPm) from the lateral. The aim of this study was to assess the changes in appearance of MML related to age using the phase difference-enhanced (PADRE) imaging and to determine whether PADRE can depict the MML in the patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Materials And Methods: We enrolled 20 patients with PD and 50 normal control subjects (NC).

Juxtacortical Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis: Assessment of Gray Matter Involvement Using Phase Difference-enhanced Imaging (PADRE).

Purpose: In multiple sclerosis (MS), a juxtacortical lesion at the border between the gray matter (GM) and subcortical white matter (WM) may often involve the GM. A recently developed, phase-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique "phase difference enhanced imaging (PADRE)" can delineate the GM and WM clearly due to the difference in myelin concentration. We evaluated whether PADRE is useful for the detection of GM involvement in the juxtacortical MS lesions.

Prediction of hard meningiomas: quantitative evaluation based on the magnetic resonance signal intensity.

Background: From a surgical perspective, presurgical prediction of meningioma consistency is beneficial.

Purpose: To quantitatively analyze the correlation between the magnetic resonance (MR) signal intensity (SI) or apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and meningioma consistency and to determine which MR sequence could help predicting hard meningiomas.

Material And Methods: This study included 43 patients with meningiomas who underwent preoperative MR imaging (MRI), including T1-weighted (T1W) imaging, T2-weighted (T2W) imaging, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), contrast-enhanced (CE)-T1W imaging, and CE-fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (FIESTA).

Internal structures of the globus pallidus in patients with Parkinson's disease: evaluation with quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the susceptibility change in medial and lateral globus pallidus (GPm and GPl) related to age separately, using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and to determine whether QSM can depict GPm in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

Methods: QSM was performed in 19 PD patients and in 41 normal control (NC) subjects. First, we quantitatively analysed age-related changes in QSM value in NC for GPl and GPm by a manual region of interest (ROI) technique.

Systemic lupus erythematosus: prediction by MRI of the subsequent development of brain lesions.

Rationale And Objectives: Many patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) manifest the recurrence of new brain lesions on follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. We assessed whether the initial MRI findings help to predict the subsequent development of brain lesions in patients with SLE.

Materials And Methods: We enrolled 64 patients with SLE who had undergone initial and follow-up MRI studies.

[Cerebral infarction and intracranial aneurysm related to the reactivation of varicella zoster virus in a Japanese acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patient].

A 35-years-old right-handed man admitted to our hospital with a worsening of dysarthria, left facial palsy and left hemiparesis for 2 days. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was diagnosed when he was 28 years old. At that time, he also was treated for syphilis.

Diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhagic lesions: comparison between 3D-SWAN (3D T2*-weighted imaging with multi-echo acquisition) and 2D-T2*-weighted imaging.

Background: 3D-susceptibility-weighted angiography (SWAN) can produce high-resolution images that yield excellent susceptibility-weighted contrast at a relatively short acquisition time.

Purpose: To compare SWAN- and 2D-T2*-weighted gradient-echo images (T2*-WI) for their sensitivity in the depiction of cerebral hemorrhagic lesions.

Material And Methods: We subjected 75 patients with suspected cerebral hemorrhagic lesions to SWAN and T2*-WI at 3T.

Parkinson's disease: diagnostic potential of high-resolution phase difference enhanced MR imaging at 3 T.

Objectives: To determine whether it is possible to diagnose patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on an individual basis using magnetic resonance imaging with phase difference enhanced imaging (PADRE).

Methods: PADRE delineated the crural fibres as a layer of low signal intensity and the substantia nigra as a layer of medium signal intensity in a healthy volunteer, and showed a clear boundary between the crural fibres and the substantia nigra (BCS). Twenty-four PD patients and 24 control subjects were enrolled.

Delineation of optic radiation and stria of Gennari on high-resolution phase difference enhanced imaging.

Rationale And Objectives: Phase difference enhanced (PADRE) imaging technique can selectively enhanced the phase difference between the target and surrounding tissue. Our purpose is to assess the delineations of the optic radiation and primary visual cortex (stria of Gennari) using PADRE.

Materials And Methods: The subjects were 6 healthy volunteers.

Pitfalls of 3D FLAIR brain imaging: a prospective comparison with 2D FLAIR.

Rationale And Objectives: To prospectively compare the image contrast of various brain lesions on two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR) images and to highlight the pitfalls of 3D FLAIR.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained. We examined 94 brain lesions with 2D and 3D FLAIR at 3T.

Delineation of optic nerves and chiasm in close proximity to large suprasellar tumors with contrast-enhanced FIESTA MR imaging.

Purpose: To evaluate whether contrast material-enhanced (CE) fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (FIESTA) can depict the anterior optic pathways in patients with large suprasellar tumors.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained. Twenty-eight patients with large suprasellar tumors undergoing surgical treatment (19 pituitary adenomas, six meningiomas, and three additional miscellaneous tumors) underwent preoperative magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, including CE FIESTA, at 3.

A novel tract imaging technique of the brainstem using phase difference enhanced imaging: normal anatomy and initial experience in multiple system atrophy.

Objectives: To develop a new tract imaging technique for visualising small fibre tracts of the brainstem and for detecting the abnormalities in multiple system atrophy of the cerebellar type (MSA-C) using a phase difference enhanced (PADRE) imaging technique, in which the phase difference between the target and surrounding tissue is selectively enhanced.

Methods: Two neuroradiologists compared the high-spatial-resolution PADRE imaging, which was acquired from six healthy volunteers, three patients with MSA-C, and 7 patients with other types of neurodegenerative diseases involving the brainstem or cerebellum.

Results: Various fine fibre tracts in the brainstem, the superior and inferior cerebellar peduncles, medial lemniscus, spinothalamic tract, medial longitudinal fasciculus, central tegmental tract, corticospinal tract and transverse pontine fibres, were identified on PADRE imaging.

Influence of work shift on glutamic acid and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA): evaluation with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3T.

Working conditions such as shift work constitute a well-known risk factor for insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness complaints. We compared brain gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamic acid (Glu), glutamine (Gln), and Glx (Glu+Gln) levels in day-shift versus alternate-shift workers with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) at 3T. The study population consisted of 32 healthy adult volunteers (16 day-shift and 16 alternate-shift workers).

Superficial siderosis associated with a chronic subdural hematoma: T2-weighted MR imaging at 3T.

Rationale And Objectives: The purposes of this study were to assess the association between superficial siderosis (SS) and subdural hematoma (SDH) and to evaluate the magnetic resonance imaging (MR) characteristics of SS in patients with the presence or histories of SDH compared to those with histories of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).

Materials And Methods: A radiology database for a 4-year period contained data on patients with diagnoses of SDH. From these patients, 47 patients were further selected who underwent brain MR examinations using a 3-T MR system (the SDH group).

Gray and white matter volumetric and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analyses in the early stage of first-episode schizophrenia.

Purpose: To determine whether statistical analyses of quantitative MR imaging data, including morphological changes, mean diffusivity (MD), and fractional anisotropy (FA), could provide useful biomarkers in early stage of first-episode schizophrenia.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-three patients, who met all the criteria in the DSM-IV-TR category for schizophrenia excluding the duration of the disease (less than 6 months of follow-up), were examined by MR imaging during the initial consultation. Nineteen of the 23 patients were finally diagnosed to have schizophrenia after a 6-month follow-up, and they were included in this study as having been in the early stage of first-episode schizophrenia.

Partial loss of hippocampal striation in medial temporal lobe epilepsy: pilot evaluation with high-spatial-resolution T2-weighted MR imaging at 3.0 T.

Purpose: To determine whether partial loss of the hippocampal striation (PLHS) at 3.0 T is more accurate than the currently accepted methods of using conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to detect hippocampal sclerosis in medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE).

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study had institutional review board approval, and informed consent was waived.

Signal intensity of motor and sensory cortices on T2-weighted and FLAIR images: intraindividual comparison of 1.5T and 3T MRI.

We compared the signal intensity of motor and sensory cortices on T2-weighted and FLAIR images obtained at 3T and 1.5T. MR images of 101 consecutive neurologically normal patients who underwent both 1.

MRA of intracranial aneurysms embolized with platinum coils: a vascular phantom study at 1.5T and 3T.

Purpose: To analyze the influence of matrix and echo time (TE) of three-dimensional time-of-flight (3D TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) on the depiction of residual flow in aneurysms embolized with platinum coils at 1.5T and 3T.

Materials And Methods: A simulated intracranial aneurysm of the vascular phantom was loosely packed to maintain the patency of some residual aneurysmal lumen with platinum coils and connected to an electromagnetic flow pump with pulsatile flow.

3D TOF MRA of intracranial aneurysms at 1.5 T and 3 T: influence of matrix, parallel imaging, and acquisition time on image quality - a vascular phantom study.

Rationale And Objectives: A 3-T magnetic resonance imaging system provides a better signal-to-noise ratio and inflow effect than 1.5 T in three-dimensional time-of-flight (3D TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of matrix, parallel imaging, and acquisition time on image quality of 3D TOF MRA at 1.

Usefulness of cone-beam volume CT with flat panel detectors in conjunction with catheter angiography for transcatheter arterial embolization.

Purpose: To assess the usefulness of cone-beam volume computed tomography (CT) (cone-beam CT) with use of flat panel detectors of the direct conversion type in conjunction with conventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Materials And Methods: Forty-nine consecutive patients (52 suspicious lesions) were prospectively examined. All patients underwent intraarterial rotational angiography with a flat panel detector system, and the cone-beam CT scans were reconstructed from the volume data set.

The usefulness of three-dimensional angiography with a flat panel detector of direct conversion type in a transcatheter arterial chemoembolization procedure for hepatocellular carcinoma: initial experience.

The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of a three-dimensional (3D) angiography system using a flat panel detector of direct conversion type in treatments with subsegmental transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). Thirty-six consecutive patients who underwent hepatic angiography were prospectively examined. First, two radiologists evaluated the degree of visualization of the peripheral branches of the hepatic arteries on 3D digital subtraction angiography (DSA).

Detection of brain metastasis at 3T: comparison among SE, IR-FSE and 3D-GRE sequences.

The objective of this study is to compare the detectability of brain metastases at 3T among three contrast-enhanced sequences, spin-echo (SE) sequence, inversion recovery fast SE (IR-FSE) sequence (both with section thickness of 6 mm), and three-dimensional fast spoiled gradient-echo (3D fast SPGR) sequence with 1.4 mm isotropic voxel. First, phantom studies were performed to quantify the contrast-enhancement ratio (CER) with three sequences.

Effect of prophylactic hyperbaric oxygen treatment for radiation-induced brain injury after stereotactic radiosurgery of brain metastases.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the prophylactic effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy for radiation-induced brain injury in patients with brain metastasis treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

Methods And Materials: The data of 78 patients presenting with 101 brain metastases treated with SRS between October 1994 and September 2003 were retrospectively analyzed. A total of 32 patients with 47 brain metastases were treated with prophylactic HBO (HBO group), which included all 21 patients who underwent subsequent or prior radiotherapy and 11 patients with common predictors of longer survival, such as inactive extracranial tumors and younger age.

Intracranial 2D and 3D DSA with flat panel detector of the direct conversion type: initial experience.

The purpose of this study was to compare the image quality of two-dimensional (2D) digital subtraction angiography (DSA) between a flat panel detector (FPD) of the direct conversion type with low radiation dose and a conventional image intensifier (I.I.)-TV system, and to assess 3D DSA with the FPD system in the depiction of intracranial vessels.