Prediction of motor function outcome after intracerebral hemorrhage using fractional anisotropy calculated from diffusion tensor imaging.

Background: The efficacy of surgical evacuation in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) remains unclear for recovery of motor function. The relationship between improvement of motor function outcome and sequential change of fractional anisotropy (FA) values was investigated in patients with ICH, to explore whether motor function outcome can be predicted in the early phase. Indication of the surgical hematoma evacuation was also considered.

Improved geometric distortion in coronal diffusion-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging using a whole-brain isotropic-voxel acquisition technique at 3 Tesla.

Purpose: We used a whole-brain, isotropic-voxel acquisition technique to improve the geometric distortion in diffusion-weighted (DWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in coronal directions, which is remarkable at high magnetic fields.

Materials And Methods: We performed magnetic resonance imaging of 17 healthy volunteers using a 3T scanner and obtained coronal DWI/DTI as well as coronal images that were reformatted from isotropic volume data acquired by 1.6-mm-thick axial DWI/DTI.

Feasibility of 1.6-mm isotropic voxel diffusion tensor tractography in depicting limbic fibers.

Introduction: We attempted to assess the feasibility of a 1.6-mm isotropic voxel diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography at 3T in visualizing nerve bundles in the limbic system.

Methods: We examined 20 healthy volunteers by conventional DTI with a voxel size of 1.

Prediction of meningioma consistency using fractional anisotropy value measured by magnetic resonance imaging.

Object: Preoperative planning for meningiomas requires information about tumor consistency as well as location and size. In the present study the authors aimed to determine whether the fractional anisotropy (FA) value calculated on the basis of preoperative magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion tensor (DT) imaging could predict meningioma consistency.

Methods: In 29 patients with intracranial meningiomas, MR DT imaging was performed preoperatively, and the FA values of the tumors were calculated.

Age-related changes in locus ceruleus on neuromelanin magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla.

Purpose: To investigate age-related changes in the locus ceruleus (LC) in healthy subjects using neuromelanin magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 3 Tesla.

Methods: We examined 64 healthy volunteers (aged 23 to 80 years) using neuromelanin-sensitive T1-weighted images and measured the contrast of areas of high signal intensity corresponding to the LC.

Results: A pair of punctate areas of high signal intensity that represented neuromelanin within the noradrenergic neurons of the LC was easily recognized in all subjects.

Three-dimensional anisotropy contrast imaging of pontine gliomas: 2 case reports.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging can provide a preoperative diagnosis of pontine glioma, but the findings sometimes do not correspond with the clinical symptoms. We describe 2 cases of pontine gliomas who did not present with motor and sensory disturbance.

Case Report: Three-dimensional anisotropy contrast (3DAC) imaging was used to assess the neuronal tracts in 2 patients with pontine gliomas.

Chronic polyarthritis caused by mammalian DNA that escapes from degradation in macrophages.

A large amount of chromosomal DNA is degraded during programmed cell death and definitive erythropoiesis. DNase II is an enzyme that digests the chromosomal DNA of apoptotic cells and nuclei expelled from erythroid precursor cells after macrophages have engulfed them. Here we show that DNase II-/-IFN-IR-/- mice and mice with an induced deletion of the DNase II gene develop a chronic polyarthritis resembling human rheumatoid arthritis.

Enhancement effects and relaxivities of gadolinium-DTPA at 1.5 versus 3 Tesla: a phantom study.

Purpose: To investigate the difference in enhancement effects and relaxivities of the gadolinium chelate at 1.5 and 3 Tesla (T) and to elucidate the contribution of the high magnetic field to contrast enhancement in spin-echo (SE) and gradient-echo (GRE) images.

Methods: Phantoms containing water with or without gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) at different concentrations were scanned using 1.

Quantitative assessment of cerebral hemodynamics using perfusion-weighted MRI in patients with major cerebral artery occlusive disease: comparison with positron emission tomography.

Background And Purpose: Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to acetazolamide is a key parameter in determining the severity of hemodynamic impairment in patients with major cerebral artery occlusive disease. Perfusion-weighted MRI (PW MRI) can measure the cerebral blood volume (CBV) as an indicator of hemodynamic impairment. CBV measured by PW MRI was compared with CVR measured by positron emission tomography (PET).

Noninvasive measurement of temperature and fractional dissociation of imidazole in human lower leg muscles using 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

The temperature change of the fractional dissociation of imidazole (alpha-imidazole) in resting human lower leg muscles was measured noninvasively using (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3.0 and 1.5 T on five normal male volunteers aged 30.