Occipital condyle fracture and lower cranial nerve palsy after blunt head trauma - a literature review and case report.

Background: Lower cranial nerve (IX-XII) palsy is a rare condition with numerous causes, usually non-traumatic. In the literature it has been described only a few times after trauma, mostly accompanied by a fracture of the occipital condyle. Although these types of fractures have rarely been reported one could suspect they have been under-diagnosed.

Analysis of diffusion tensor imaging metrics for gliomas grading at 3 T.

Objectives: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) values derived from DTI for grading of glial tumors, and to estimate the correlation between DTI parameters and tumor grades.

Methods: Seventy-eight patients with glial tumors underwent DTI. AD, RD, ADC and FA values of tumor, peritumoral edema and contralateral normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) and AD, RD, ADC and FA ratios: lowest average AD, RD, ADC and FA values in tumor or peritumoral edema to AD, RD, ADC and FA of NAWM were calculated.

Diagnosis of dementia--automatic quantification of brain structures.

Background: The aim of the present study was to examine the usefulness of a fully automatic quantification of brain structures by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosing dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT).

Material And Method: MRI scans of the brains of 122 patients, referred to a memory clinic, were analysed using Neuroquant® software, which quantifies the volume of various brain structures. Clinical diagnoses were made by two doctors without knowledge of the MRI results.

Associations between variants near a monoaminergic pathways gene (PHOX2B) and amygdala reactivity: a genome-wide functional imaging study.

As the amygdala is part of the phylogenetic old brain, and its anatomical and functional properties are conserved across species, it is reasonable to assume genetic influence on its activity. A large corpus of candidate gene studies indicate that individual differences in amygdala activity may be caused by genetic variants within monoaminergic signaling pathways such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. However, to our knowledge, the use of genome-wide data to discover genetic variants underlying individual differences in adult amygdala activity is novel.

Surgical management of acute odontoid fractures: surgery-related complications and long-term outcomes in a consecutive series of 97 patients.

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of surgery for odontoid fractures and to study surgical mortality, surgical morbidity, and long-term outcome in a large, contemporary, consecutive, single-institution, surgical series of odontoid fractures.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of all odontoid fractures treated by open surgery at our hospital during 2002 to 2009. The fractures were classified according to Grauer.

Arousal Modulates Activity in the Medial Temporal Lobe during a Short-Term Relational Memory Task.

This study investigated the effect of arousal on short-term relational memory and its underlying cortical network. Seventeen healthy participants performed a picture by location, short-term relational memory task using emotional pictures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the blood-oxygenation-level dependent signal relative to task.

Measurements of diagnostic examination performance and correlation analysis using microvascular leakage, cerebral blood volume, and blood flow derived from 3T dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging in glial tumor grading.

Introduction: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of microvascular leakage (MVL), cerebral blood volume (CBV) and blood flow (CBF) values derived from dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging (DSC-MR imaging) for grading of cerebral glial tumors, and to estimate the correlation between vascular permeability/perfusion parameters and tumor grades.

Methods: A prospective study of 79 patients with cerebral glial tumors underwent DSC-MR imaging. Normalized relative CBV (rCBV) and relative CBF (rCBF) from tumoral (rCBVt and rCBFt), peri-enhancing region (rCBVe and rCBFe), and the value in the tumor divided by the value in the peri-enhancing region (rCBVt/e and rCBFt/e), as well as MVL, expressed as the leakage coefficient K(2) were calculated.

Measurements of diagnostic examination performance using quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient and proton MR spectroscopic imaging in the preoperative evaluation of tumor grade in cerebral gliomas.

Purpose: Tumor grading is very important both in treatment decision and evaluation of prognosis. While tissue samples are obtained as part of most therapeutic approaches, factors that may result in inaccurate grading due to sampling error (namely, heterogeneity in tissue sampling, as well as tumor-grade heterogeneity within the same tumor specimen), have led to a desire to use imaging better to ascertain tumor grade. The purpose in our study was to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), area under the curve (AUC), and accuracy of diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI), proton MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) or both in grading primary cerebral gliomas.

Diagnostic examination performance by using microvascular leakage, cerebral blood volume, and blood flow derived from 3-T dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging in the differentiation of glioblastoma multiforme and brain metastasis.

Introduction: Conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has limited capacity to differentiate between glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and metastasis. The purposes of this study were: (1) to compare microvascular leakage (MVL), cerebral blood volume (CBV), and blood flow (CBF) in the distinction of metastasis from GBM using dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging (DSC-MRI), and (2) to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of perfusion and permeability MR imaging.

Methods: A prospective study of 61 patients (40 GBMs and 21 metastases) was performed at 3 T using DSC-MRI.

Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Background: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are severe psychiatric diseases with overlapping symptomatology. Widespread brain morphologic abnormalities, including cortical thinning and subcortical volume reductions, have been demonstrated in schizophrenia but it is unclear whether similar abnormalities are present in bipolar disorder. The purpose of this study was to compare cortical thickness and subcortical volumes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, to assess differences and similarities in cortical and subcortical brain structure.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the distinction of high-grade cerebral gliomas from single metastatic brain tumors.

Background: Brain metastases and primary high-grade gliomas, including glioblastomas multiforme (GBM) and anaplastic astrocytomas (AA), may be indistinguishable by conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Identification of these tumors may have therapeutic consequences.

Purpose: To assess the value of MR spectroscopy (MRS) using short and intermediate echo time (TE) in differentiating solitary brain metastases and high-grade gliomas on the basis of differences in metabolite ratios in the intratumoral and peritumoral region.

No altered dorsal anterior cingulate activation in bipolar II disorder patients during a Go/No-go task: an fMRI study.

Objectives: It has been reported that one of the core features in patients with bipolar disorder II (BD II) is increased impulsivity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether patients with BD II showed decreased activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as compared to healthy controls when performing a task sensitive to impulsivity.

Methods: Twenty-seven BD II patients and 28 healthy controls performed a Go/No-go task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session.

Vascular interventional neuroradiology in a country with a small and scattered population. Twenty years' experience in norway.

Experience with neuroradiological endovascular therapy in a small country is presented. Five Norwegian university hospitals are currently performing coiling of cerebral aneurysms and three are embolizing cerebral arteriovenous malformations. The small number of procedures in most of these institutions may threaten the quality of treatment, education of neuroinradiologists, research and scientific work in this field.

[Brain metastases in adults].

Background And Methods: Brain metastases are far more common than primary central nervous system tumours. Based on our own clinical experiences and relevant literature published over the last decade (Medline), we present an overview of diagnosis and treatment.

Results: Brain metastases are caused by haematogenous spread from extracranial tumours, most frequently from cancers in the lung, breast, melanoma, renal carcinomas and colorectal carcinomas.