In search of the most cost-effective monitoring strategy for vestibular schwannoma: A decision analytical modelling study.

Objectives: To assess the cost-effectiveness of frequently used monitoring strategies for vestibular schwannoma (VS).

Design: A state transition model was developed to compare six monitoring strategies for patients with VS: lifelong annual monitoring; annual monitoring for the first 10 years after diagnosis; scanning at 1-5, 7, 9, 12, 15 years after diagnosis and subsequently every 5 years; a personalised monitoring strategy for small and large tumours; scanning at 1, 2 and 5 years after diagnosis and no monitoring. Input data were derived from literature and expert opinion.

Resting-state subcortical functional connectivity in HIV-infected patients on long-term cART.

Despite long-term successful treatment with cART, impairments in cognitive functioning are still being reported in HIV-infected patients. Since changes in cognitive function may be preceded by subtle changes in brain function, neuroimaging techniques, such as resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) have become useful tools in assessing HIV-associated abnormalities in the brain. The purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which HIV infection in virologically suppressed patients is associated with disruptions in subcortical regions of the brain in comparison to a matched HIV-negative control group.

Nigrosome-1 on Susceptibility Weighted Imaging to Differentiate Parkinson's Disease From Atypical Parkinsonism: An In Vivo and Ex Vivo Pilot Study.

Background: Previous case-control studies have suggested that the absence of a swallow-tail appearance in the substantia nigra on high-resolution SWI, representing nigrosome-1, has high accuracy to identify Parkinson's disease (PD). The first goal of our study was to evaluate nigrosome-1 ex vivo using optimized high-resolution susceptibility sensitive MRI. Our second goal was to evaluate its diagnostic value in vivo using a clinical 3T SWI sequence to differentiate between PD and atypical parkinsonism (AP) in a cohort of patients with early-stage parkinsonism.

An international comparison of the management of the neck in early oral squamous cell carcinoma in the Netherlands, UK, and USA.

Background: Early oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) management appears to vary both within and between countries. Variation in practice can be an indicator of absence of evidence-based management and may negatively influence survival and morbidity. The exact variation and the relationship to differences in guidelines are unknown.

Cognitive functioning, wellbeing and brain correlates in HIV-1 infected patients on long-term combination antiretroviral therapy.

Objective: The objective of the current study is to integrate results from extensive neuropsychological assessment, subjective wellbeing reports and structural neuroimaging findings in successfully treated HIV-infected patients in comparison with a HIV-negative control group.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: Neuropsychological functioning and self-reported wellbeing were assessed in a group of 102 virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) and 56 controls.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the carotid artery in long-term head and neck cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy.

Background: In head and neck cancer (HNC) patients, long-term treatment-related complications include radiotherapy (RT)-induced carotid vasculopathy and stroke. The current study investigated the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics of the carotid wall in long-term HNC survivors treated with RT.

Methods: MRI of the carotid arteries was performed within a prospective cohort of 42 HNC patients on average 7 years after RT.

[Burn injuries during MR scanning: a case report].

In this paper we report one case of skin burns in MRI caused by induced electrical currents. Two second degree skin burns occurred during imaging, while operating within all current safety guidelines. The currents are induced by the magnetic-gradient field, as well as the radiofrequency pulses.

Long term cerebral and vascular complications after irradiation of the neck in head and neck cancer patients: a prospective cohort study: study rationale and protocol.

Background: Successful treatment options for cancer result in more young long-term survivors prone for long-term complications. Carotid artery vasculopathy is a potential long-term complication after radiotherapy of the neck, resulting in cerebrovascular events and probably deficits in cognitive and motor functioning. Better insight into the underlying pathofysiology of radiotherapy induced carotid artery vasculopathy is needed for prognostic purposes and to develop preventive strategies.

Neuropsychiatric manifestations in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: epidemiology and radiology pointing to an immune-mediated cause.

Background: Different pathogenetic pathways have been proposed for neuropsychiatric (NP) manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Objective: To describe the patient characteristics of a large cohort of patients with SLE with NP manifestations (NPSLE) in a single centre and to review whether these and other data are compatible with immune-mediated mechanisms.

Methods: A total of 212 patients were identified from MRI scans of the brain ordered for suspected NPSLE.

Two immigrants with tuberculosis of the ear, nose, and throat region with skull base and cranial nerve involvement.

We report two immigrants with tuberculosis of the skull base and a review of the literature. A Somalian man presented with bilateral otitis media, hearing loss, and facial and abducens palsy. Imaging showed involvement of both mastoid and petrous bones, extending via the skull base to the nasopharynx, suggesting tuberculosis which was confirmed by characteristic histology and positive auramine staining, while Ziehl-Neelsen staining and PCR were negative.

Obstetric brachial plexus lesions: CT myelography.

Purpose: To evaluate the value of computed tomographic (CT) myelography in the detection of root damage and differentiation of root avulsions from neurotmesis in a large cohort of patients with an obstetric brachial plexus lesion (OBPL).

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained. Informed consent was waived by the medical ethics committee.

Perfusion MRI in neuro-psychiatric systemic lupus erthemathosus.

Purpose: To use perfusion weighted MR to quantify any perfusion abnormalities and to determine their contribution to neuropsychiatric (NP) involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Materials And Methods: We applied dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion MRI in 15 active NPSLE, 26 inactive NPSLE patients, and 11 control subjects. Cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV), and mean transit time (MTT) maps were reconstructed and regions of interest were compared between groups.

Brain involvement in rheumatoid arthritis: a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Objective: Tumor necrosis factor alpha was recently implicated as an important mediator of communication between the peripheral and cerebral immune systems in an animal model of chronic inflammation. The purpose of this study was to examine by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) the influence of inflammation on cerebral metabolism in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Single-voxel (1)H-MRS of the centrum semiovale was performed on 35 RA patients (6 men and 29 women; mean +/- SD age 51.

Detection of change in CNS involvement in neuropsychiatric SLE: a magnetization transfer study.

Purpose: To assess whether magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) parameters change in correspondence with clinical changes in NPSLE patients.

Materials And Methods: Nineteen female patients (mean age=37.5 years, range=19-64) underwent MTI on at least two separate occasions (mean time between scans=25.

Persistent portal venous gas.

This case report describes a patient diagnosed with ongoing portal venous gas, initiated by a rather common Campylobacter enterocolitis and maintained by septic thrombophlebitis and possibly by chronic cholecystitis. Cholecystectomy attenuated the patient's septic condition. The etiology of portal venous gas determines both the patient's prognosis and the choice for either conservative or surgical treatment.

Association between microscopic brain damage as indicated by magnetization transfer imaging and anticardiolipin antibodies in neuropsychiatric lupus.

The pathogenetic role of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCLs) in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) without cerebral infarcts remains elusive. Magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) has proved to be a sensitive tool for detecting diffuse microscopic brain damage in NPSLE patients. In this study we examined the correlation between grey and white matter magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) parameters and the presence of IgM and IgG aCLs and lupus anticoagulant in 18 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and a history of NPSLE but without cerebral infarcts on conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

The effect of corticosteroid medication on quantitative MR parameters of the brain.

Background And Purpose: Quantitative MR imaging techniques such as magnetization transfer imaging (MTI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and MR spectroscopy are promising diagnostic tools for use with patients with diffuse brain diseases such as neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). Such patients are often on corticosteroid (CS) treatment. Presently, it is unknown whether CSs per se influence quantitative MR imaging measurements.

Reproducibility of brain ADC histograms.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of differences in acquisition technique on whole-brain apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram parameters, as well as to assess scan-rescan reproducibility. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was performed in 7 healthy subjects with b-values 0-800, 0-1000, and 0-1500 s/mm(2) and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) DWI with b-values 0-1000 s/mm(2). All sequences were repeated with and without repositioning.

Voxel-based morphometry in hypocretin-deficient narcolepsy.

Study Objectives: Recent studies suggest that narcolepsy is caused by degeneration of hypocretin (orexin) producing neurons. To find evidence for this hypothesis, we aimed to detect structural changes in the hypothalamus and/or hypocretin projection areas of patients with narcolepsy.

Design: We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM), an unbiased MRI morphometric method with a high sensitivity for subtle changes in gray and white matter volumes.