Quality of life assessment in interventional radiology.

The aim of this review was to describe quality of life (QoL) questionnaires relevant to interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists perform a large number of palliative procedures. The effect of these therapies on QoL is important.

Transcatheter treatment of liver laceration from blunt trauma.

Blunt hepatic trauma is a fairly common pathology seen in trauma centers. We describe a pediatric patient who suffered blunt hepatic trauma that was managed successfully with a combination of exploratory laparotomy and liver packing, followed by hepatic artery embolization by interventional radiology (IR) after he continued to have significant arterial extravasation. Also discussed are trends in overall blunt hepatic trauma management and the technique of IR management.

Bullet embolization: multidisciplinary approach by interventional radiology and surgery.

Bullet embolization after penetrating trauma is an infrequent but important phenomenon. It presents an unexpected sequelae to the otherwise predictable injury pattern of penetrating missile injury mechanism and poses a challenging diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. Bullets from penetrating wounds can gain access to the vasculature and migrate to nearly every large vascular bed.

Multidisciplinary management of blunt pelvic trauma.

Pelvic fractures account for ∼3% of all fractures and usually occur in patients with polytrauma. Pelvic fractures usually indicate high energy transfer and a significant mechanism of injury, and they can involve massive hemorrhage. For this reason, mortality from pelvic trauma is high, ranging from 40% to 60% among patients in shock, and up to 90% in patients considered to be in extremis.

The value of cervical magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of the obtunded or comatose patient with cervical trauma, no other abnormal neurological findings, and a normal cervical computed tomography.

Background: The value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of the obtunded or comatose patient with a potential neck injury is a controversial subject. Some authors have suggested that MRI of the cervical spine adds no value in the evaluation of patients with a normal computed tomography (CT) of the neck. However, others have suggested that MRI is the gold standard for clearing the cervical spine in a clinically suspicious or unevaluatable blunt trauma patient.

Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of a basilar artery herniation into the sphenoid sinus.

We report a rare case of herniation of a basilar artery into the sphenoid sinus after a traumatic skull base fracture. Computed tomographic angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and cerebral angiogram demonstrated patency of the basilar artery through the fractured clivus at the time of injury, a very rare occurrence. The following day, the patient developed pontine and cerebellar infarcts.

Memantine as adjunctive therapy in children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders: an observation of initial clinical response and maintenance tolerability.

Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified are common developmental problems often seen by child neurologists. There are currently no cures for these lifelong and socially impairing conditions that affect core domains of human behavior such as language, social interaction, and social awareness. The etiology may be multifactorial and may include autoimmune, genetic, neuroanatomic, and possibly excessive glutaminergic mechanisms.

Elevation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in cerebrospinal fluid of autistic children.

Recent reports implicating elevated cytokines in the central nervous system in a small number of patients studied with autism have reported clinical regression. These studies have not focused on tumor necrosis factor-alpha as a possible marker for inflammatory damage. A series of 10 children with autism had clinical evaluation of their serum and spinal fluid for inflammatory changes and possible metabolic disease as part of their neurological evaluation.

Curcumin inhibits dose-dependently and time-dependently neuroglial cell proliferation and growth.

Objectives: Curcumin (CUR), the active chemical of the Asian spice turmeric, has strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. CUR inhibits proliferation and growth of several cell types, e.g.