Background: Due to complexities of cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), formalin-fixed specimens are used to investigate cardiac remodeling in diseases, and reported results have shown conflicting trends. This study investigates the impact of formalin-fixation on diffusion properties and optimizes tracking parameters based on controls to understand remodeling in myocardial-infarction (MI).
Methods: DTI was performed on 4 healthy (controls) and 4 MI induced formalin-fixed (PoMI) porcine hearts. Controls were scanned pre-fixation (PrCtrl) and re-scanned (PoCtrl) after formalin-fixation. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were estimated in all hearts. Tracking parameters (FA, tract termination angle (TTA), fiber-length) were optimized in controls and then used to investigate structural remodeling in PoMI hearts.
Results: Fixation increased ADC and decreased FA. PoMI showed increased ADC but decreased FA in infarcted zone compared to remote zone. TTA showed sharp increase in slope from 5°-10°, which flattened after 25° in all groups. Mean fiber-length for different tracking length range showed that PoCtrl had shorter fibers compared to PrCtrl. Fibers around infarction were shorter in length and disarrayed compared to PoCtrl group.
Conclusion: Formalin-fixation affects diffusion properties and hence DTI parametric trends observed in pathology may be influenced by the fixation process which can cause contradictory findings.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2015.10.007 | DOI Listing |
Neuroimage Clin
January 2025
Neuroscience Research Center, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Magna Graecia University, 88100, Catanzaro, Italy.
Essential Tremor (ET) is characterized by action tremor often associated with resting tremor (rET). Although previous studies have identified widespread brain white matter (WM) alterations in ET patients, differences between ET and rET have been less explored. In this study we employed differential tractography to investigate WM microstructural alterations in these tremor disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Department of Neurology and National Center for Neurological Disorders, Huashan Hospital, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Brain glymphatic activity, as indicated by diffusion-tensor imaging analysis along the perivascular space (ALPS) index, is involved in developmental neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, but its genetic architecture is poorly understood. Here, we identified 17 unique genome-wide significant loci and 161 candidate genes linked to the ALPS-indexes in a discovery sample of 31,021 individuals from the UK Biobank. Seven loci were replicated in two independent datasets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurology
January 2025
Department of Neurosurgery, Lenox Hill Hospital, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New York, NY; and.
Background And Objectives: This systematic review aims to synthesize the current literature on the association between chemotherapy (CTX) and chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) with functional and structural brain alterations in patients with noncentral nervous system cancers.
Methods: A comprehensive search of the PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Embase databases was conducted, and results were reported following preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses guidelines. Data on study design, comparison cohort characteristics, patient demographics, cancer type, CTX agents, neuroimaging methods, structural and functional connectivity (FC) changes, and cognitive/psychological assessments in adult patients were extracted and reported.
Eur Spine J
January 2025
Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
Background: Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is the main cause of neck pain. Although conventional magnetic resonance imaging can detect morphological changes in intervertebral disc degeneration, it cannot provide accurate and objective evaluations. Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) reflects the microstructural changes in tissues by describing the diffusion of water molecules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Imaging Behav
January 2025
Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Physical exercise is a promising intervention to improve brain white matter integrity. In the PAM study, exercise intervention effects on white matter integrity were investigated in breast cancer patients. Chemotherapy-treated breast cancer patients with cognitive problems were randomized 2-4 years post-diagnosis to an exercise (n = 91) or control group (n = 90).
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