Influence of MRI Follow-Up on Treatment Decisions during Standard Concomitant and Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Glioblastoma: Is Less More?

MRI is the gold standard for treatment response assessments for glioblastoma. However, there is no consensus regarding the optimal interval for MRI follow-up during standard treatment. Moreover, a reliable assessment of treatment response is hindered by the occurrence of pseudoprogression.

The Correlation of In Vivo MR Spectroscopy and Ex Vivo 2-Hydroxyglutarate Concentration for the Prediction of Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Mutation Status in Diffuse Glioma.

Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation status is an important biomarker in the glioma-defining subtype and corresponding prognosis. This study proposes a straightforward method for 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) quantification by MR spectroscopy for IDH mutation status detection and directly compares in vivo 2-HG MR spectroscopy with ex vivo 2-HG concentration measured in resected tumor tissue. Eleven patients with suspected lower-grade glioma (ten IDH1; one IDHwt) were prospectively included.

Prognostic value of 11C-methionine volume-based PET parameters in IDH wild type glioblastoma.

Purpose: 11C-Methionine (11C-MET) PET prognostication of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild type glioblastomas is inadequate as conventional parameters such as standardized uptake value (SUV) do not adequately reflect tumor heterogeneity. We retrospectively evaluated whether volume-based parameters such as metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion methionine metabolism (TLMM) outperformed SUV for survival correlation in patients with IDH wild type glioblastomas.

Methods: Thirteen IDH wild type glioblastoma patients underwent preoperative 11C-MET PET.

Value of screening and follow-up brain MRI scans in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Background: Novel treatments make long-term survival possible for subsets of patients with melanoma brain metastases. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may aid in early detection of brain metastases and inform treatment decisions. This study aimed to determine the impact of screening MRI scans in patients with metastatic melanoma and follow-up MRI scans in patients with melanoma brain metastases.

Ventricle contact may be associated with higher 11C methionine PET uptake in glioblastoma.

Purpose: Ventricle contact is associated with a worse prognosis and more aggressive tumor characteristics in glioblastoma (GBM). This is hypothesized to be a result of neural stem cells located around the lateral ventricles, in the subventricular zone. 11C Methionine positron emission tomography (metPET) is an indicator for increased proliferation, as it shows uptake of methionine, an amino acid needed for protein synthesis.

Myelin quantification with MRI: A systematic review of accuracy and reproducibility.

Objectives: Currently, multiple sclerosis is treated with anti-inflammatory therapies, but these treatments lack efficacy in progressive disease. New treatment strategies aim to repair myelin damage and efficacy evaluation of such new therapies would benefit from validated myelin imaging techniques. Several MRI methods for quantification of myelin density are available now.

Cortical pencil lining on SWI MRI in NBIA and healthy aging.

Background: Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) is characterized by pathological iron accumulation in the subcortical nuclei and the cortex. As age-related iron accumulation studies in these structures are lacking in healthy aging, we aimed to characterize the dynamics of age-dependent iron accumulation in subcortical nuclei in healthy aging and selected NBIA cases. This is fundamental to understand the natural age-related iron deposition in the healthy brain prior to using this marker as a potential prognostic or diagnostic tool in neurodegenerative disorders.

Diagnostic Accuracy of PET Tracers for the Differentiation of Tumor Progression from Treatment-Related Changes in High-Grade Glioma: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis.

Posttreatment high-grade gliomas are usually monitored with contrast-enhanced MRI, but its diagnostic accuracy is limited as it cannot adequately distinguish between true tumor progression and treatment-related changes. According to recent Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology recommendations, PET overcomes this limitation. However, it is currently unknown which tracer yields the best results.

A shrunken world - micropsia after a right occipito-parietal ischemic stroke.

Micropsia is a rare condition in which patients perceive the outside world smaller in size than it actually is. We examined a patient who, after a right occipito-parietal stroke, subjectively reported perceiving everything at seventy percent of the actual size. Using experimental tasks, we confirmed the extent of his micropsia at 70%.

Inter-observer reproducibility of quantitative dynamic susceptibility contrast and diffusion MRI parameters in histogram analysis of gliomas.

Background: Dynamic-susceptibility contrast and diffusion-weighted imaging are promising techniques in diagnosing glioma grade.

Purpose: To compare the inter-observer reproducibility of multiple dynamic-susceptibility contrast and diffusion-weighted imaging parameters and to assess their potential in differentiating low- and high-grade gliomas.

Material And Methods: Thirty patients (16 men; mean age = 40.

Accuracy of Intraoperative Computed Tomography in Deep Brain Stimulation-A Prospective Noninferiority Study.

Introduction: Clinical response to deep brain stimulation (DBS) strongly depends on the appropriate placement of the electrode in the targeted structure. Postoperative MRI is recognized as the gold standard to verify the DBS-electrode position in relation to the intended anatomical target. However, intraoperative computed tomography (iCT) might be a feasible alternative to MRI.

Perfusion MRI in treatment evaluation of glioblastomas: Clinical relevance of current and future techniques.

Treatment evaluation of patients with glioblastomas is important to aid in clinical decisions. Conventional MRI with contrast is currently the standard method, but unable to differentiate tumor progression from treatment-related effects. Pseudoprogression appears as new enhancement, and thus mimics tumor progression on conventional MRI.

Ventricle contact is associated with lower survival and increased peritumoral perfusion in glioblastoma.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate outcome and differences in peritumoral MRI characteristics of glioblastomas (GBMs) that were in contact with the ventricles (ventricle-contacting tumors) and those that were not (noncontacting tumors). GBMs are heterogeneous tumors with variable survival. Lower survival is suggested for patients with ventricle-contacting tumors than for those with noncontacting tumors.

Functional MRI for Treatment Evaluation in Patients with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Review of the Literature from a Radiologist Perspective.

Purpose Of Review: To show the role of functional MRI in patients treated for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Recent Findings: MRI is commonly used for treatment evaluation in patients with head and neck tumors. However, anatomical MRI has its limits in differentiating between post-treatment effects and tumor recurrence.

The relation between flocculus volume and tinnitus after cerebellopontine angle tumor surgery.

Purpose: Chronic tinnitus is a common symptom after cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumor removal. Sometimes, the tinnitus is gaze-modulated. In that case, patients can change the loudness or pitch of their tinnitus by ocular movements.

Social cognition impairments after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: Associations with deficits in interpersonal behaviour, apathy, and impaired self-awareness.

Behavioural disturbances are frequently found after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH). Social cognition impairments have been suggested as a possible underlying mechanism for behavioural problems. Also, aSAH is likely to result in damage affecting frontal-subcortical circuits underlying social cognition.

Subventricular Zone Involvement Characterized by Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Glioblastoma.

Background: Glioblastomas have a poor prognosis, possibly because of a subpopulation of therapy-resistant stem cells within the heterogeneous glioblastoma. Because the subventricular zone is the main source of neural stem cells, we aimed at characterizing the subventricular zone using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to show subventricular zone involvement in glioblastoma.

Methods: We prospectively included 93 patients with primary glioblastomas who underwent preoperative DTI.

Diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging techniques for treatment response evaluation in patients with head and neck tumors, a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Novel advanced MRI techniques are investigated in patients treated for head and neck tumors as conventional anatomical MRI is unreliable to differentiate tumor from treatment related imaging changes.

Purpose: As the diagnostic accuracy of MRI techniques to detect tumor residual or recurrence during or after treatment is variable reported in the literature, we performed a systematic meta-analysis.

Data Sources: Pubmed, EMBASE and Web of Science were searched from their first record to September 23th 2014.

Incidence of Tumour Progression and Pseudoprogression in High-Grade Gliomas: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: High-grade gliomas are the most common primary brain tumours. Pseudoprogression describes the false appearance of radiation-induced progression on MRI. A distinction should be made from true tumour progression to correctly plan treatment.

Diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging techniques for treatment response evaluation in patients with high-grade glioma, a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Treatment response assessment in high-grade gliomas uses contrast enhanced T1-weighted MRI, but is unreliable. Novel advanced MRI techniques have been studied, but the accuracy is not well known. Therefore, we performed a systematic meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic accuracy of anatomical and advanced MRI for treatment response in high-grade gliomas.

Dynamics of cerebral blood flow in patients with mild non-ischaemic heart failure.

Aims: Heart failure (HF) is associated with tissue hypoperfusion and congestion leading to organ dysfunction. Although cerebral blood flow (CBF) is preserved over a wide range of perfusion pressures in healthy subjects, it is impaired in end-stage HF. We aimed to compare CBF, autoregulation, and cognitive function in patients with mild non-ischaemic HF with healthy controls.

Surgical Accuracy of 3-Tesla Versus 7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson Disease.

Background: In deep brain stimulation (DBS), accurate placement of the lead is critical. Target definition is highly dependent on visual recognition on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We prospectively investigated whether the 7-T MRI enabled better visualization of targets and led to better placement of leads compared with the 1.

FDG-PET for Prediction of AD Dementia in Mild Cognitive Impairment. A Review of the State of the Art with Particular Emphasis on the Comparison with Other Neuroimaging Modalities (MRI and Perfusion SPECT).

This review article aims at providing a state-of-the-art review of the role of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging (FDG-PET) in the prediction of Alzheimer's dementia in subjects suffering mild cognitive impairment (MCI), with a particular focus on the predictive power of FDG-PET compared to structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). We also address perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) as a less costly and more accessible alternative to FDG-PET. A search in PubMed was performed, taking into consideration relevant scientific articles published in English within the last five years and limited to human studies.

A novel diagnostic approach to patients with myoclonus.

Myoclonus is a hyperkinetic movement disorder characterized by brief, involuntary muscular jerks. Recognition of myoclonus and determination of the underlying aetiology remains challenging given that both acquired and genetically determined disorders have varied manifestations. The diagnostic work-up in myoclonus is often time-consuming and costly, and a definitive diagnosis is reached in only a minority of patients.