Radiofrequency Ablation and Radiation Therapy Improve Local Control in Spinal Metastases Compared to Radiofrequency Ablation Alone.

Purpose:: The spinal column is the most common location for osseous metastases and is associated with pain and decreased quality of life. This study evaluated combined radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with radiation therapy (RT) compared to RFA alone for improving pain and local control.

Methods:: This was a single-institution retrospective review of patients who underwent RFA of spinal metastases between 2016 and 2017, with or without RT to the same vertebral level.

Patterns of magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities in symptomatic patients with Krabbe disease correspond to phenotype.

Background: Initial magnetic resonance imaging studies of individuals with Krabbe disease were analyzed to determine whether the pattern of abnormalities corresponded to the phenotype.

Methods: This was a retrospective, nonblinded study. Families/patients diagnosed with Krabbe disease submitted medical records and magnetic resonance imaging discs for central review.

Laser-interstitial thermal therapy for refractory cerebral edema from post-radiosurgery metastasis.

Background: Stereotactic radiosurgery is often an effective tool for the treatment of brain metastases. A complication of radiosurgical treatment for brain metastasis can be persistent cerebral edema. Treatments of this refractory cerebral edema include observation, corticosteroids, and surgical resection of the edema-inducing mass.

Extent of disease burden determined with magnetic resonance imaging of the bone marrow is predictive of survival outcome in patients with multiple myeloma.

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) remains an incurable cancer. Treatment often is initiated at the time patients experience a progressive increase in tumor burden. The authors of this report investigated magnetic resonance imaging of the bone marrow (BM-MRI) as a novel approach to quantify disease burden and validated a staging system by correlating BM-MRI with common clinical and laboratory parameters.

Pediatric neuroimaging.

This article provides clinical neurologists with an overview of pediatric neuroimaging. Pediatric neuroimaging is a broad subject, and its details are beyond the scope of any short review article. First this article briefly highlights different stages of brain development and explains how these stages correlate with various congenital brain anomalies.

Ewing sarcoma of the mandibular condyle: multidisciplinary management optimizes outcome.

Background: Ewing sarcoma (ES) is a rare, primary malignancy of bone that occurs in childhood and early adolescence. Improved methods of diagnosis and treatment have dramatically increased survival over the last 20 years. Treatment mainstays are chemotherapy and surgical tumor resection.

Gadolinium-enhanced computed tomographic angiography: current status.

This article reviews the research to date, as well as our clinical experience from two institutions, on gadolinium-enhanced computed tomographic angiography (gCTA) for imaging the body. gCTA may be an appropriate examination for the small percentage of patients who would benefit from noninvasive vascular imaging, but who have contraindications to both iodinated contrast and magnetic resonance imaging. gCTA is more expensive than CTA with iodinated contrast, due to the dose of gadolinium administered, and gCTA has limitations compared with CTA with iodinated contrast, in that parenchymal organs are not optimally enhanced at doses of 0.

Intraarterial reteplase and intravenous abciximab for treatment of acute ischemic stroke. A preliminary feasibility and safety study in a non-human primate model.

We performed a preliminary feasibility and safety study using intravenous (IV) administration of a platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor (abciximab) in conjunction with intraarterial (IA) administration of a thrombolytic agent (reteplase) in a primate model of intracranial thrombosis. We introduced thrombus through superselective catheterization of the intracranial segment of the internal carotid artery in 16 primates. The animals were randomly assigned to receive IA reteplase and IV abciximab ( n =4), IA reteplase and IV placebo ( n =4), IA placebo and IV abciximab ( n =4) or IA and IV placebo ( n =4).

Stereotactic gamma knife surgery for trigeminal neuralgia: detailed analysis of treatment response.

Object: The purpose of this study was to assess the durability and completeness of pain relief in patients treated using stereotactic gamma knife surgery (GKS) for trigeminal neuralgia (TN).

Methods: Thirty-eight patients with refractory TN were treated with stereotactic GKS. All patients received a prescription radiation dose of 35, 40, or 45 Gy to the 50% isodose surface through a 4-mm collimator helmet.

Chlorophyll-a analogues conjugated with aminobenzyl-DTPA as potential bifunctional agents for magnetic resonance imaging and photodynamic therapy.

A clinically relevant photosensitizer, 3-devinyl-3-(1-hexyloxyethyl)pyropheophorbide-a (HPPH, a chlorophyll-a derivative), was conjugated with Gd(III)-aminobenzyl-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), an experimental magnetic resonance (MR) imaging agent. In vivo reflectance spectroscopy confirmed tumor uptake of HPPH-aminobenzyl-Gd(III)-DTPA conjugate was higher than free HPPH administered intraveneously (iv) to C3H mice with subcutaneously (sc) implanted radiation-induced fibrosarcoma (RIF) tumor cells. In other experiments, Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with sc implanted Ward Colon Carcinoma cells yielded markedly increased MR signal intensities from tumor regions-of-interest (ROIs) 24 h post-iv injection of HPPH-aminobenzyl-Gd(III)-DTPA conjugate as compared to unconjugated HPPH.

Bronchogenic cyst presenting as a symptomatic neck mass in an adult: case report and review of the literature.

We report the unusual clinical manifestation and subsequent management of a symptomatic congenital bronchogenic cyst that connected to the trachea and presented in the neck of an adult. The embryology, clinical presentation, diagnostic evaluation, and management options of this rare aberration are discussed.

Imaging in head and neck oncology.

Evaluation of head and neck cancer with imaging is a topic that is far more extensive than can be covered in this article. The main reason for head and neck imaging is to evaluate the true extent of disease to best determine surgical and therapeutic options. This process includes evaluation of the size, location, and extent of tumor infiltration into surrounding vascular and visceral structures.

In vivo model of intracranial stent implantation: a pilot study to examine the histological response of cerebral vessels after randomized implantation of heparin-coated and uncoated endoluminal stents in a blinded fashion.

Object: No animal model currently exists for the examination of time-dependent histological changes occurring in intracranial vessels after endoluminal stent placement. The authors' goal was to develop a reproducible in vivo model of stent implantation in intracranial vessels in dogs that was capable of demonstrating stent-related vascular changes after the implantation of coated and uncoated devices.

Methods: The authors implanted heparin-coated or uncoated stents in the basilar arteries (BAs) of 11 mongrel dogs.

Gadopentetate dimeglumine is potentially an alternative contrast agent for three-dimensional computed tomography angiography with multidetector-row helical scanning.

Objective: To demonstrate that gadopentetate dimeglumine is potentially an alternative contrast medium for computed tomographic angiography (CTA).

Methods: One 12.2-kg Beagle dog was studied as proof of principle; the cervical vessels of three adult human patients were imaged for presurgical planning of the neck.