Thrombus migration is a well-known clinical condition that occurs before mechanical thrombectomy and after intravenous thrombolysis in patients with anterior circulation strokes. Although thrombus migration from the vertebral artery (VA) can result in life-threatening basilar artery (BA) occlusion, its occurrence in the posterior circulation has rarely been discussed. Two patients with secondary BA occlusion caused by spontaneous thrombus migration from the VA are presented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Revascularization surgery is recommended for all pediatric patients with moyamoya disease (MMD) with ischemic symptoms because the brains of such patients are still developing. By contrast, no clear guidelines for selective revascularization surgery in adult patients (30 years or more) with ischemic presentation have been established. Regarding the age of initial onset of ischemic MMD, patients in their 20s are at the bottom of the distribution and this age group may share features with both adult and pediatric patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In 10% of patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA), the cognitive function declines postoperatively, primarily in association with postoperative cerebral hyperperfusion. In contrast, in the majority of patients undergoing CEA, long-term cognitive outcomes remain unclear. Furthermore, it is not known whether the decline in cognition due to cerebral hyperperfusion recovers on a long-term basis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Quantitative susceptibility mapping has been proposed to assess intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) in the carotid artery. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of preoperative quantitative susceptibility mapping with that of the conventional T1-weighed 3D-FSE sequence for detecting IPH in cervical ICA stenosis in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy by using histology as the reference standard.
Materials And Methods: Carotid T1-weighted 3D-FSE and QSM images were obtained from 16 patients with cervical ICA stenosis before carotid endarterectomy.
Rheumatoid meningitis (RM) is a rare but serious extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis. Due to the absence of specific biomarkers, imaging findings, or guidelines for its detection, the diagnosis of RM is difficult. This report describes a patient of RM diagnosed with an open biopsy and discusses the utility of anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) levels in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and contrast-enhanced (CE) fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images for screening and monitoring RM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In microvascular decompression (MVD) for vein-related trigeminal neuralgia (TN), determining whether transection of the offending vein is safe can be challenging. Here, the authors present a case of vein-related TN successfully treated by sacrificing the offending vein on the basis of findings from indocyanine green (ICG) video angiography and a temporary venous occlusion test to assess the collateral flow of the offending vessel.
Observations: A 43-year-old man presented with TN, which had failed to respond to previous medical therapy.
A 56-year-old healthy woman presented with subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by ruptured vertebral artery dissecting aneurysm and was treated with internal trapping of the affected site including the aneurysm. She suffered rebleeding due to recanalization of the aneurysm 5 days after the first treatment. Because of the close proximity of the coil mass to the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) origin at first treatment, additional coil embolization by tight packing of the coil mass was planned.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The authors describe a rare case of acute large-vessel occlusion due to an infected thrombus formation that was induced by invasive sphenoid sinus aspergillosis.
Observations: An 82-year-old man with a history of immunoglobulin G4-related disease and long-term use of steroids and immunosuppressants was admitted to the authors' hospital with severe right hemiparesis. Cerebral angiography revealed occlusion of the left internal carotid artery (ICA).
Although cognitive decline after carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is mainly related to postoperative cerebral hyperperfusion, approximately 30% of patients with cognitive decline do not have postoperative cerebral hyperperfusion. In patients with acute ischemic events, the development of cognitive decline after such events is associated with the presence of chronic cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). The present prospective observational study aimed to determine whether preoperative WMHs and postoperative new ischemic lesions (PNILs) are associated with cognitive decline after CEA in patients without cerebral hyperperfusion after CEA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors present a patient with carotid dissection in a tortuous arterial segment who successfully underwent carotid artery stenting (CAS) by straightening the tortuosity using an inflated balloon guiding catheter (BGC) and a stent retriever (SR). A 56-year-old man was transferred to our institute with right hemiparesis and a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 9. Magnetic resonance imaging showed left internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion and ischemic change in the parietal lobe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: While patients who experience improved cognition following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) typically demonstrate restored brain perfusion after the procedure, it is worth noting that less than 50% of patients in whom postoperative cerebral blood flow (CBF) restoration is achieved actually show improved cognition after postoperatively. This suggests that factors beyond the mere restoration of CBF may play a role in postoperative cognitive improvement. Increased iron deposition in the cerebral cortex may cause neural damage, and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) obtained using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quantifies magnetic susceptibility in the cerebral cortex, allowing for the assessment of iron deposition in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Temporal changes in the volume of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) following middle meningeal artery (MMA) embolization vary. We aimed to determine whether CSDH density on computed tomography is related to hematoma resolution following particle MMA embolization.
Methods: Patients who underwent MMA embolization for CSDH were enrolled.
Background And Objectives: Arteriovenous fistulas involving the deep venous system have often been treated with microsurgery or transarterial embolization. Increasing familiarity with transvenous navigation and improved endovascular access systems may facilitate transvenous embolization (TVE) for these rare and challenging lesions.
Methods: We performed a retrospective study of neurointerventional databases of 6 high-volume centers.
Background: Although the blink reflex (BR) is effective in objectively evaluating trigeminal neuropathy, few studies have demonstrated its effect on trigeminal neuralgia (TN). The authors report a patient with TN due to contralateral vestibular schwannoma (VS) functionally diagnosed by delayed R1 latency of the BR.
Case Description: A 36-year-old man presented with left-sided deafness and paroxysmal facial pain in the right V1-3 area.
Objective: This study aimed to determine the influence of atherosclerotic risk factors on initial and further cerebrovascular events in adult patients with moyamoya disease (MMD) by combined analysis of two prospective cohorts in which patients received pharmacotherapy alone and were prospectively followed-up for 5 years.
Methods: In 71 patients, smoking status, home blood pressure, hemoglobin (Hb)A1c and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-chol) were checked at inclusion and at further cerebrovascular event or at the end of 5-year follow-up. When a patient had daily smoking, increased HbA1c, increased LDL-chol, increased systolic blood pressure, or increased diastolic blood pressure, the patient was categorized as showing atherosclerotic burden.
Purpose: Pipeline embolization device (PED) is thought to induce aneurysmal occlusion through diversion of flow away from the aneurysmal sac with subsequent thrombosis and endothelialization. The impact of different factors especially hypertension (HTN)-a known predisposing factor to hypercoagulability and altered endothelial function-on aneurysmal occlusion after flow diversion has not been studied. We sought to determine predictors of aneurysmal occlusion following PED treatment focusing on impact of blood pressure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Dural arteriovenous fistula (AVF) without cortical venous reflux (CVR) has a relatively benign course. Here, the authors describe a patient presenting with subdural hematoma due to a middle meningeal AVF without CVR.
Observations: A 17-year-old male was admitted to the emergency department with acute headache without an episode of head trauma.
Background: Thrombosed intracranial aneurysms can lead to large vessel occlusion as a result of spontaneous thrombosis. Although mechanical thrombectomy is likely effective, recurrent thromboembolism can occur if the thrombotic source remains untreated. The authors describe a case of recurrent vertebrobasilar artery occlusion due to thrombus migration from a large thrombosed vertebral artery (VA) aneurysm that was successfully treated with mechanical thrombectomy followed by stenting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The present prospective study aimed to determine whether the addition of I-iomazenil (IMZ) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to brain perfusion SPECT could improve the detection accuracy of misery perfusion on positron emission tomography (PET) in adult patients with ischemic moyamoya disease (MMD).
Methods: Oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) and brain perfusion were assessed using O gas PET and N-isopropyl-p-[I]-iodoamphetamine (IMP) SPECT, respectively, in 137 patients. IMZ SPECT was also performed.
Objective: Subdural hemorrhage (SDH) has been reported to be the most frequent intracranial hemorrhagic complication following open heart surgery; however, its clinical features and pathophysiology remain unclear. The aim of this retrospective study was to elucidate the incidence, clinical course, and factors associated with the development of symptomatic SDH following heart valve surgery.
Methods: A retrospective review of medical records on the development of symptomatic SDH after heart valve surgery involving cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) from April 2011 to March 2016 was performed.
Background: In cases of neurofibromatosis in which the bleeding source is considered strongly related to a neurofibroma, an open surgical approach could risk uncontrollable bleeding from the vascular wall infiltration by neurofibroma. The case of a neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-associated arteriovenous fistula presenting with a life-threatening cervical hematoma that was successfully treated with alternative treatment is described.
Observations: A 68-year-old woman diagnosed with NF1 presented with sudden onset of a spontaneous right cervical mass.
Objectives: One of the risk factors for cerebral hyperperfusion following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a chronic reduction in cerebral perfusion pressure due to internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis, which is clinically detected as increased cerebral blood volume (CBV). The perfusion fraction (f) is one of the intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters obtained using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging that theoretically reflects CBV. The present study aimed to determine whether preoperative IVIM-f on MR imaging predicts development of cerebral hyperperfusion following CEA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: When performing transvenous liquid embolization for scalp arteriovenous fistulas, multiple networks of venous drainage could limit effective retrograde penetration of embolic agents into feeding arteries, resulting in incomplete obliteration. A salvage technique to achieve effective Onyx penetration with manual venous compression during transvenous embolization is demonstrated.
Observations: A 43-year-old man presented with a progressively enlarging mass on his left temporal scalp that was first noticed approximately 20 years earlier.