Thoracic spinous process nonunion as an unusual cause of back pain: a case report and review of the literature.

Background: Purely isolated spinous processes fractures are rare and are usually treated conservatively, although a few authors have reported cases of nonunion that ultimately required surgical resection.

Case Presentation: We present a case of an isolated T6 spinous process pseudoarthrosis that was treated by surgical resection of the tip of the spinous process. A 34-year-old Caucasian male patient was complaining of mid-thoracic back pain without neurologic impairment more than 2 years after an isolated spinous process fracture.

MRI signal and morphological alterations of the suprapatellar fat pad in asymptomatic subjects: are these normal variants?

Objective: To study the prevalence of suprapatellar fat pad (SPFP) MR alterations in asymptomatic subjects, in relation to a wide range of clinical/imaging parameters, including muscle performance tests and physical activity data.

Materials And Methods: We prospectively included 110 asymptomatic subjects as part of a cohort study. Inclusion criteria were no knee pain in the last year.

MRI of non-specific low back pain and/or lumbar radiculopathy: do we need T1 when using a sagittal T2-weighted Dixon sequence?

Objective: To show that for the MRI workup of non-specific low back pain and/or lumbar radiculopathy, the acquisition of T1-weighted sequences in the sagittal plane could be waived when using an FSE T2-weighted Dixon sequence.

Materials And Methods: Three musculoskeletal radiologists retrospectively reviewed fifty lumbar spine MRI examinations performed for non-specific low back pain and/or lumbar radiculopathy. Two protocols were separately analyzed in the sagittal plane: a standard protocol (T1-weighted, in-phase, and water-only images of an FSE T2-weighted Dixon sequence) and a simplified protocol (fat-only, in-phase, and water-only images of an FSE T2-weighted Dixon sequence).

Bone Marrow Metastases: T2-weighted Dixon Spin-Echo Fat Images Can Replace T1-weighted Spin-Echo Images.

Purpose To test the potential of Dixon T2-weighted fat-only sequences to replace T1-weighted sequences for the detection of bone metastases, with the hypothesis that diagnostic performance with an alternative magnetic resonance (MR) imaging protocol (sagittal spin-echo Dixon T2-weighted fat-only and water-only imaging) would not be inferior to that with the standard protocol (sagittal spin-echo T1-weighted and spin-echo Dixon T2-weighted water-only imaging). Materials and Methods A total of 121 consecutive whole-spine MR imaging examinations (63 men; mean age ± standard deviation, 61.4 years ± 11.

Considerations on the Relevance of Cerebral Fusiform Aneurysms Observed During HIV Infection.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated ectatic cerebral vasculitis (HIV-AECV) is a rare form of vasculitis with diffuse fusiform aneurysms. Its pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Although extensively described in children, it is still incompletely studied in adults.

Diffusion-weighted MRI in pretreatment prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) provided by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in predicting the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) at baseline in patients according to their breast tumour phenotypes.

Materials & Methods: This retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board. One hundred eighteen consecutive women with locally advanced breast cancer who had undergone NACT followed by breast surgery were included.

Expression of G-protein alpha subunit genes in the vestibular periphery of Rattus norvegicus and their chromosomal mapping.

Objective: Heterotrimeric G-proteins play an important role in mediating signals transduced across the cell membrane by membrane-bound receptors. The precise role of G-proteins and their coupled receptors in the physiology of the vestibular neuroepithelium is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to better define the role of these proteins by examining their expression in the rat vestibular periphery and characterizing their chromosomal location.