Base-Anchored Model for Highly Scalable and Accessible Compression of Multiview Imagery.

We present a compression scheme for multiview imagery that facilitates high scalability and accessibility of the compressed content. Our scheme relies upon constructing at a single base view, a disparity model for a group of views, and then utilizing this base-anchored model to infer disparity at all views belonging to the group. We employ a hierarchical disparity-compensated inter-view transform where the corresponding analysis and synthesis filters are applied along the geometric flows defined by the base-anchored disparity model.

Modifiable lifestyle factors in dementia: a systematic review of longitudinal observational cohort studies.

Background: Numerous population-based longitudinal studies suggest an association between modifiable lifestyle factors and late-life dementia. A comprehensive description of these factors and their quantification criteria is an important preliminary step toward the elucidation of causes and mechanisms underlying the onset and progression of dementia.

Objective: To present a systematic review of modifiable lifestyle factors associated with dementia risk in longitudinal observational cohort-studies.

Method of aneurysm treatment does not affect clot clearance after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Background: Patients undergoing neurosurgical clipping or endovascular coiling of a ruptured aneurysm may differ in their risk of vasospasm.

Objective: Because clot clearance affects vasospasm, we tested the hypothesis that clot clearance differs in patients depending on method of aneurysm treatment.

Methods: Exploratory analysis was performed on 413 patients from CONSCIOUS-1, a prospective randomized trial of clazosentan for the prevention of angiographic vasospasm in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).

Angiographic vasospasm is strongly correlated with cerebral infarction after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Background And Purpose: The long-standing concept that delayed cerebral infarction after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage results exclusively from large artery vasospasm recently has been challenged. We used data from the CONSCIOUS-1 trial to determine the relationship between angiographic vasospasm and cerebral infarction after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Methods: We performed a post hoc exploratory analysis of the CONSCIOUS-1 data.

Endovascular treatment or neurosurgical clipping of ruptured intracranial aneurysms: effect on angiographic vasospasm, delayed ischemic neurological deficit, cerebral infarction, and clinical outcome.

Background And Purpose: The effects of aneurysm treatment modality (clipping or coiling) on the incidence of cerebral vasospasm and infarction after subarachnoid hemorrhage have not been clearly defined. We hypothesized that there may be a difference in angiographic and clinical vasospasm, cerebral infarction, and clinical outcome between patients undergoing clipping compared to coiling.

Methods: A retrospective, exploratory analysis of 413 patients randomized into the CONSCIOUS-1 trial was conducted.

High-profile flow diverter (silk) implantation in the basilar artery: efficacy in the treatment of aneurysms and the role of the perforators.

Background And Purpose: The introduction of flow diverters (FDs) has expanded the possibilities for reconstructive treatment of difficult intracranial aneurysms. Concern remains as to the long-term patency of the perforating arteries and side branches covered during stent placement. Our purpose was to evaluate the performance of and early effect on covered branches after implantation of the Silk FD in the treatment of basilar artery aneurysms.

Impact of systemic inflammatory response syndrome on vasospasm, cerebral infarction, and outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage: exploratory analysis of CONSCIOUS-1 database.

Background: Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) may develop after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). We investigated factors associated with SIRS after SAH, whether SIRS was associated with complications of SAH such as vasospasm, cerebral infarction, and clinical outcome, and whether SIRS could contribute to a difference in outcome between patients treated by endovascular coiling or neurosurgical clipping of the ruptured aneurysm.

Methods: This was exploratory analysis of 413 patients in the CONSCIOUS-1 study.

Clazosentan to overcome neurological ischemia and infarction occurring after subarachnoid hemorrhage (CONSCIOUS-1): randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 dose-finding trial.

Background And Purpose: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-finding study assessed efficacy and safety of 1, 5, and 15 mg/h intravenous clazosentan, an endothelin receptor antagonist, in preventing vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Methods: Patients (n=413) were randomized to placebo or clazosentan beginning within 56 hours and continued up to 14 days after initiation of treatment. The primary end point was moderate or severe angiographic vasospasm based on centrally read, blinded evaluation of digital subtraction angiography at baseline and 7 to 11 days postsubarachnoid hemorrhage.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty in octogenarians: results and follow-up.

Objectives: To determine pain relief, performance status, morbidity, and mortality associated with percutaneous vertebroplasty for spinal pain in patients aged 80 years and older.

Design: Prospective, descriptive, third-party independent interview, clinical audit.

Setting: University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.

Preclinical testing of a new clot-retrieving wire device using polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel vascular models.

Introduction: Cerebral embolism is the principal cause of cerebral infarction. Recently, mechanical embolectomy has been proposed as an effective method. We performed a preclinical evaluation of a new mechanical clot-retrieving wire.

Outlook for grid service technologies within the @neurIST eHealth environment.

The aim of the @neurIST project is to create an IT infrastructure for the management of all processes linked to research, diagnosis and treatment development for complex and multi-factorial diseases. The IT infrastructure will be developed for one such disease, cerebral aneurysm and subarachnoid haemorrhage, but its core technologies will be transferable to meet the needs of other medical areas. Since the IT infrastructure for @neurIST will need to encompass data repositories, computational analysis services and information systems handling multi-scale, multi-modal information at distributed sites, the natural basis for the IT infrastructure is a Grid Service middleware.

Intracranial aneurysm stenting: follow-up with MR angiography.

Intracranial stenting is increasingly being used to treat intracranial aneurysms and stenoses. We wanted to assess the utility of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) in the follow-up of patients treated with various types of intracranial stents and to assess the utility of performing gadolinium-enhanced MRA. A total of 19 patients having undergone intracranial stenting for aneurysms were imaged by MRI at 1.

Preoperative silk suture embolization of cerebral and dural arteriovenous malformations.

Object: The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of silk sutures as a medical implant when applied for the embolization of cerebral and dural arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The facility of surgery and the clinical significance of complications related to preoperative silk suture embolization were evaluated immediately after surgery and at long-term follow up.

Methods: Thirty-four patients harboring 29 cerebral and five dural AVMs underwent embolization in which silk alone or in association with other agents was used.

Interventional spine procedures.

Minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of some spinal diseases are percutaneous treatments, proposed before classic surgery. By using imaging guidance, one can significantly increase accuracy and decrease complication rates. This review report physiopathology and discusses indications, methods, complications and results of performing these techniques on the spine, including different level (cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacroiliac) and different kind of treatments (nerve block, disc treatment and bone treatment).

Arterialization of cerebral veins on dynamic MDCT angiography: a possible sign of a dural arteriovenous fistula.

Objective: MDCT angiography allows fast imaging of the cerebral vessels, and its potential as a noninvasive technique to detect vascular abnormalities on the basis of morphologic changes is well established. We analyzed vascular enhancement patterns of cerebral venous structures on MDCT angiography, which enabled us to diagnose dural arteriovenous fistula.

Conclusion: MDCT angiography performed during an early arterial phase showed asymmetrically higher contrast intensity in the transverse or sigmoid sinus, or both, in five patients.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty in metastatic disease: transpedicular access and treatment of lysed pedicles--initial experience.

For the treatment of lytic disease involving the pedicles of vertebrae in patients with metastatic disease, the authors performed percutaneous vertebroplasty by using an access route via the lysed pedicle. Fifty-one pedicles were treated in 32 consecutive patients. In all cases, a radiologically satisfactory filling of both the affected pedicle and the vertebral body was achieved.

Radicular pain after vertebroplasty: compression or irritation of the nerve root? Initial experience with the "cooling system".

Study Design: During vertebroplasty (VP), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) may leak into the posterior epidural venus plexus, provoking symptoms ranging from radicular pain to medullar compression.

Objectives: To propose and test the feasibility of a procedure (cooling system) to prevent radicular irritation caused by foraminal PMMA leakage.

Summary Of Background Data: Foraminal leak of PMMA, as observed during VP, may lead to radiculalgia.

Diffusion weighted MR imaging on a low-field open magnet. Comparison with findings at 1.5T in 18 patients with cerebral ischemia.

Diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) is particularly sensitive for the detection of acute stoke. Until recently, DWI was performed with EPI technology. We compared 18 patients with clinical suspicion of acute stroke on a standard 1.

Propofol increased cerebral perfusion as compared with isoflurane during a cerebral angiography in a child with moyamoya disease.

We report the case of a child with Moyamoya disease during a cerebral angiography procedure in which the effects of propofol on the cerebral perfusion were seen to be different compared with isoflurane. We suggest propofol was associated with a better preservation of cerebral circulation compared to isoflurane in this case of Moyamoya, as it maintained blood supply to the watershed areas.

[Advances in the contributions of imaging to stereotaxic localization of cerebral arteriovenous malformations for radiosurgery ].

Historically, angiography was one of the first diagnostic methods to allow for visualization of neurovascular structures. It has been and still is very useful for precise evaluation of vascular pathology and is one of the main elements in treatment planning for radiosurgical targets. It is the only imaging method that gives insight into the angioarchitecture of a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, possibly reducing the target volume.

Elevated levels of angiogenic cytokines in the plasma of cancer patients.

Although in the normal healthy organism angiogenesis is a tightly regulated process, under a variety of circumstances it may contribute to disease states. These include the growth of solid tumors, the hematogenous spread of tumor cells and the growth of metastasis. Our aim was to measure the levels of 5 angiogenic cytokines in the plasma of patients with a variety of cancers, to establish a plasmatic angiogenic profile.

Multiple myeloma presenting with external ear canal mass.

The manifestations of multiple myeloma are protean and related to bony osteolytic lesions, and to medullar and renal insufficiency. We report a patient who presented with otalgia as the inaugural symptom of multiple myeloma. Local irradiation combined with systemic chemotherapy led to the disappearance of the temporal bone mass and the accompanying symptoms.

Termination of the inferior petrosal sinus: an anatomical variant.

Unusual caudal terminations of the inferior petrosal sinus (IPS) characterized by an extracranial extension joining the internal jugular vein up to 40 mm below the external skull base are reported. This variation was observed bilaterally on an anatomical specimen and unilaterally on four patients during diagnostic cerebral angiography. It may be considered an accessory internal jugular vein and, if present, may allow for an alternate endovascular access to the IPS.