Revisiting the NIH Stroke Scale as a screening tool for proximal vessel occlusion: can advanced imaging be targeted in acute stroke?

Background And Purpose: Most patients with stroke-like symptoms screened by advanced imaging for proximal occlusion will not have a thrombus accessible by neurointerventional techniques. Development of a sensitive clinical scoring system for rapidly identifying patients with an emergent large vessel occlusion could help target limited resources and reduce exposure to unnecessary imaging.

Methods: This historical cohort study included patients who underwent non-contrast CT and CT angiography in the emergency department for stroke-like symptoms.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm with inferior vena cava compression in association with deep venous thrombosis.

Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower extremity may be caused by external compression of the inferior vena cava (IVC) by a neighboring mass. A 55-year-old male presented with 8 months of intermittent left lower extremity swelling and signs of chronic venous stasis. Duplex ultrasound showed extensive DVT in the left leg.

Early detection of ovarian cancer with conventional and contrast-enhanced transvaginal sonography: recent advances and potential improvements.

Recently, there have been several major technical advances in the sonographic diagnosis of ovarian cancer in its early stages. These include improved assessment of tumor morphology with transvaginal sonography (TVS), and detection and characterization of tumor neovascularity with transvaginal color Doppler sonography (TV-CDS) and contrast-enhanced transvaginal sonography (CE-TVS). This paper will discuss and illustrate these improvements and describe how they enhance detection of early-stage ovarian cancer.

Individuated finger control in focal hand dystonia: an fMRI study.

Objectives: To better understand deficient selective motor control in focal hand dystonia by determining changes in striatal activation and connectivity in patients performing individuated finger control.

Methods: Functional imaging with a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance scanner was performed on 18 patients and 17 controls during non-symptom producing tasks requiring right-handed individuated or coupled finger control. A global linear model and psychophysiologic interaction model compared individuated to coupled tasks for patients and controls separately, and the results were submitted to a group analysis.

Exostoses of the external auditory canal in white-water kayakers.

Objectives/hypothesis: Exostoses of the external auditory canal are benign bony tumors associated with frequent cold-water exposure. Obstruction may lead to conductive hearing loss and recurrent otitis externa, requiring surgical correction when symptoms become intolerable. This study aimed to characterize the prevalence of exostoses in white-water kayakers and identify associated risk factors and protective measures.