Evolution of radiation-induced brain injury: MR imaging-based study.

Purpose: To evaluate the temporal lobes in patients previously treated for nasopharyngeal carcinoma to provide a better understanding of delayed radiation-induced injury in the brain unaffected by the underlying tumor.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective analysis of the patient data was approved by the local ethics committee. Informed consent was waived.

Neurologic and radiologic manifestations of three girls surviving acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

We report the neurologic and radiologic manifestations of three adolescent girls with acute carbon monoxide poisoning. The girls were found collapsed and unconscious in a bathroom where liquid petroleum gas was being used as heating fuel. As hyperbaric oxygen therapy was not available locally, they only received oxygen supplementation via nasal cannula (4 L/minute) as treatment in the first 2 days.

Language lateralization of Chinese-English bilingual patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: a functional MRI study.

Functional MRI was used to examine language lateralization of Chinese characters and English words associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in Chinese-English bilinguals with left or right TLE. The results suggest that the neural basis of processing Chinese and English seems to be different, as normal controls demonstrated left hemispheric lateralization in reading English words but bi-hemispheric lateralization in reading Chinese characters. This difference in the neural bases of Chinese and English processing was found to affect the patterns in change-of-language processing associated with TLE.

Effects of illness duration on memory processing of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Purpose: To examine the effects of illness duration on the neural processing of memory in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) by using functional MRI.

Methods: Twenty-three TLE patients (16 left, seven right) performed a complex visual scene-encoding task during functional MRI. Region-of-interest (ROI) analyses were used to quantity functional activation in the mesial temporal and frontal lobes.

Bilateral frontal activation associated with cutaneous stimulation of elixir field: an FMRI study.

Elixir Field, or Dan Tian, is the area where energy is stored and nourished in the body according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Although Dan Tian stimulation is a major concept in Qigong healing and has been practiced for thousands of years, and while there are some recent empirical evidence of its effect, its neurophysiological basis remains unknown. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activations associated with external stimulation of the lower Elixir Field in ten normal subjects, and compared the results with the stimulation of their right hands.

Mesenteric fat thickness is an independent determinant of metabolic syndrome and identifies subjects with increased carotid intima-media thickness.

Objective: Mesenteric fat, a reflection of visceral adiposity, may play an important role in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In this study, we examined the independent relationship between mesenteric fat thickness and metabolic syndrome and defined its optimal cutoff value to identify high-risk subjects for metabolic syndrome and CVD.

Research Design And Methods: A total of 290 Chinese subjects had an ultrasound examination for measurements of thickness of mesenteric, preperitoneal, and subcutaneous fat as well as carotid intima-media thickness (IMT).

Relative shortening and functional tethering of spinal cord in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis?: study with multiplanar reformat magnetic resonance imaging and somatosensory evoked potential.

Study Design: MR imaging and multiplanar reconstruction were used to evaluate relative length of the spinal cord to the vertebral column in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS).

Objectives: Ratio of spinal cord length to vertebral column length and position of the cerebellar tonsils were evaluated and correlated with somatosensory cortical evoked potentials (SSEP).

Summary Of Background Data: Tonsillar herniation, abnormal anthropometric growth, relative spinal overgrowth, and abnormal somatosensory function have been reported in AIS.

Liver volume in thalassaemia major: relationship with body weight, serum ferritin, and liver function.

Background: It is not known whether body weight alone can adjust for the volume of liver in the calculation of the chelating dose in beta-thalassaemia major patients, who frequently have iron overload and hepatitis.

Objective: The hypothesis is that liver volume in children and adolescents suffering from beta-thalassaemia major is affected by ferritin level and liver function.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-five beta-thalassaemia major patients aged 7-18 years and 35 age- and sex-matched controls had liver volume measured by MRI.

Contrast enhancement of the spinal cord in a patient with cervical spondylotic myelopathy.

We wish to report a patient with cervical spondylotic myelopathy that demonstrated contranst enhancement on MRI which resolved following a decompressive procedure.

White matter and cerebral metabolite changes in children undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia: longitudinal study with MR imaging and 1H MR spectroscopy.

Purpose: To assess the development of white matter and cerebral metabolite changes during and after treatment in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-three children (10 boys, mean age of 6.3 years; 13 girls, mean age of 6.

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in radiation-induced cerebral necrosis. Apparent diffusion coefficient in lesion components.

Objective: The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate the diffusivity of different components of radiation-induced cerebral necrosis with the hypothesis that the diffusivity of the various components is elevated to different degrees.

Methods: Twenty-two patients (18 men, 4 women, aged 34-72 years) with radiation injury to the temporal lobes after radiation therapy (RT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma with diagnosis confirmed on serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were studied with coronal T2-weighted, diffusion-weighted, and gadolinium-enhanced MRI. Using three diffusion directions for diffusion-weighted MRI, the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) of the enhanced component, the cystic or liquefied component, and the edema component were measured.

Diffusion-weighted MRI in shaken baby syndrome.

We present the characteristic CT and MRI findings of a 2-month-old girl with shaken baby syndrome. Diffusion-weighted MR imaging performed 8 days after the insult established the presence of injury to the white matter in the corpus callosum and subcortical white matter in the temporo-occipito-parietal region. Diffusion-weighted MR imaging is valuable in the diagnostic work-up of suspected shaken baby syndrome, as injury to the white matter can be demonstrated days after the injury.

Redefining the magnetic resonance imaging reference level for the cerebellar tonsil: a study of 170 adolescents with normal versus idiopathic scoliosis.

Study Design: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to compare quantitatively the position of the cerebellar tonsil in neurologically normal adolescents with that in idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients and age-matched healthy controls.

Objectives: To redefine the normal reference level of the cerebellar tonsil in healthy adolescents and to compare the differences in tonsillar level with AIS of different severities.

Summary Of Background Data: Asymptomatic Chiari I malformation has been reported not infrequently in children and adolescents with AIS.

Neurocutaneous melanomatosis with a rapidly deteriorating course.

Neurocutaneous melanosis is a rare congenital syndrome characterized by large or multiple congenital melanocytic nevi and benign or malignant pigment cell tumors of the leptomeninges. The prognosis is extremely poor for symptomatic patients, even in the absence of malignant melanoma. We present serial MR imaging findings in the brain and spine of a child with congenital giant hairy nevi who developed progressive leptomeningeal melanomatosis and whose neurologic condition rapidly deteriorated.

Optimal values of flow velocity on transcranial Doppler in grading middle cerebral artery stenosis in comparison with magnetic resonance angiography.

Background And Purpose: To investigate the optimal values of flow velocity on transcranial Doppler (TCD) in grading the severity of middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis in comparison with magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).

Methods: Both TCD and MRA examinations were performed on 148 asymptomatic patients. The peak flow velocities of each MCA were recorded.

Mechanisms of acute cerebral infarctions in patients with middle cerebral artery stenosis: a diffusion-weighted imaging and microemboli monitoring study.

Although most therapeutic efforts and experimental stroke models focus on the concept of complete occlusion of the middle cerebral artery as a result of embolism from the carotid artery or cardiac chamber, relatively little is known about the stroke mechanism of intrinsic middle cerebral artery stenosis. Differences in stroke pathophysiology may require different strategies for prevention and treatment. We prospectively studied 30 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients with middle cerebral artery stenosis detected by transcranial Doppler and magnetic resonance angiography.

Patterns of bone diseases in transfusion-dependent homozygous thalassaemia major: predominance of osteoporosis and desferrioxamine-induced bone dysplasia.

Objective: To study the radiographic skeletal changes in transfusion-dependent homozygous beta-thalassaemia.

Materials And Methods: This was a retrospective review of radiographs of 41 homozygous beta-thalassaemic patients over 3 years. These included 55 left hand radiographs for bone age, 37 chest radiographs, 7 scanograms of lower limbs, 8 knee radiographs and 3 skull radiographs.

Blood flow volume quantification of cerebral ischemia: comparison of three noninvasive imaging techniques of carotid and vertebral arteries.

Objective: Determination of blood flow volume is useful in assessing ischemic cerebrovascular disease. We compared the blood flow volume measurement of three noninvasive imaging techniques, namely color velocity imaging quantification, spectral Doppler imaging quantification, and MR phase-contrast flow quantification, to see how well the flow values determined by each technique agreed with one another.

Subjects And Methods: Flow volume quantification was tested experimentally using a flow simulator and by the three techniques in the vertebral and internal carotid arteries of 40 patients with histories of cerebral ischemia.

Progression of middle cerebral artery occlusive disease and its relationship with further vascular events after stroke.

Background: Serial changes of flow velocities of transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) in symptomatic middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusive disease may be related to the occurrence of further vascular events, but prospective data are lacking.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study on patients with cerebral ischemia who were hospitalized with symptomatic MCA stenosis or occlusion. We repeated TCD examinations 6 months after the initial examinations and recorded any stroke or coronary events during this period.

New approach in diagnosis of bile duct disease with ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging.

Advances in technology have made possible the clinical application of magnetic resonance cholangiography, endoscopic, intra-operative and laparoscopic ultrasound in the study of the biliary tree, in addition to conventional magnetic resonance imaging and transabdominal ultrasound. The role of the conventional, as well as the newer techniques, in the diagnosis of bile duct disease and the limitations and pros and cons of each technique, will be the subject of the present discussion.