Applications of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the kidney.

Incidental discovery of renal lesions on cross-sectional imaging studies performed for other indications is not uncommon. With the increased reliance on medical imaging, the number of incidentally detected renal lesions has also grown over time. While simple cysts account for the majority of these lesions, the presence of complex features within a cystic lesion, such as septations and solid components, can present a confusing picture.

Corrosion and Tribology of Materials Used in a Novel Reverse Hip Replacement.

Total hip arthroplasty has been utilized for the past 50 years as an effective treatment for degenerative, inflammatory and traumatic disorders of the hip. The design of these implants has generally followed the anatomy of the hip as a ball and socket joint with the femoral head representing the ball and the acetabulum representing the socket. We describe a novel hip arthroplasty design in which the "ball" is located on the acetabular side and the "socket" is located on the femoral side.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database: 2017 Update on Research.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS CHSD) is the largest congenital and pediatric cardiac surgical clinical data registry in the world. It contains data pertaining to more than 435,000 total operations. The most recent biannual feedback report to participants (Spring 2017, Report of the Twenty-Sixth Harvest) included analysis of data submitted from 127 hospitals in North America.

Presymptomatic atrophy in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease: A serial magnetic resonance imaging study.

Introduction: Identifying at what point atrophy rates first change in Alzheimer's disease is important for informing design of presymptomatic trials.

Methods: Serial T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans of 94 participants (28 noncarriers, 66 carriers) from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network were used to measure brain, ventricular, and hippocampal atrophy rates. For each structure, nonlinear mixed-effects models estimated the change-points when atrophy rates deviate from normal and the rates of change before and after this point.

Improving data availability for brain image biobanking in healthy subjects: Practice-based suggestions from an international multidisciplinary working group.

Brain imaging is now ubiquitous in clinical practice and research. The case for bringing together large amounts of image data from well-characterised healthy subjects and those with a range of common brain diseases across the life course is now compelling. This report follows a meeting of international experts from multiple disciplines, all interested in brain image biobanking.

The recommendations of a consensus panel for the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of neurogenic orthostatic hypotension and associated supine hypertension.

Neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (nOH) is common in patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy, pure autonomic failure, dementia with Lewy bodies, and peripheral neuropathies including amyloid or diabetic neuropathy. Due to the frequency of nOH in the aging population, clinicians need to be well informed about its diagnosis and management. To date, studies of nOH have used different outcome measures and various methods of diagnosis, thereby preventing the generation of evidence-based guidelines to direct clinicians towards 'best practices' when treating patients with nOH and associated supine hypertension.

Relationship of a common OXTR gene variant to brain structure and default mode network function in healthy humans.

A large body of research suggests that oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene polymorphisms may influence both social behaviors and psychiatric conditions related to social deficits, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), schizophrenia, and mood and anxiety disorders. However, the neural mechanism underlying these associations is still unclear. Relative to controls, patients with these psychiatric conditions show differences in brain structure, and in resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) signal synchronicity among default mode network (DMN) regions (also known as functional connectivity).

Commentary on Almassalha et al., "The Greater Genomic Landscape: The Heterogeneous Evolution of Cancer".

In this issue of Cancer Research, Almassalha and colleagues have proposed a new concept of the development of malignancy, that of the greater genomic landscape. They propose a stressor-related exploration of intracellular genomic sites as a response mechanism. This process can express sites with beneficial or deleterious effects, among them those that promote cell proliferation.

Bi-directional changes in fractional anisotropy after experiment TBI: Disorganization and reorganization?

The current dogma to explain the extent of injury-related changes following rodent controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury is a focal injury with limited axonal pathology. However, there is in fact good, published histologic evidence to suggest that axonal injury is far more widespread in this model than generally thought. One possibility that might help to explain this is the often-used region-of-interest data analysis approach taken by experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or histologic studies that might miss more widespread damage, when compared to the whole brain, statistically robust method of tract-based analysis used more routinely in clinical research.

Disconnection and hyper-connectivity underlie reorganization after TBI: A rodent functional connectomic analysis.

While past neuroimaging methods have contributed greatly to our understanding of brain function after traumatic brain injury (TBI), resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI) connectivity methods have more recently provided a far more unbiased approach with which to monitor brain circuitry compared to task-based approaches. However, current knowledge on the physiologic underpinnings of the correlated blood oxygen level dependent signal, and how changes in functional connectivity relate to reorganizational processes that occur following injury is limited. The degree and extent of this relationship remain to be determined in order that rsfMRI methods can be fully adapted for determining the optimal timing and type of rehabilitative interventions that can be used post-TBI to achieve the best outcome.

Bile acid receptors and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

With the high prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and other features of the metabolic syndrome in United States, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has inevitably become a very prevalent chronic liver disease and is now emerging as one of the leading indications for liver transplantation. Insulin resistance and derangement of lipid metabolism, accompanied by activation of the pro-inflammatory response and fibrogenesis, are essential pathways in the development of the more clinically significant form of NAFLD, known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Recent advances in the functional characterization of bile acid receptors, such as farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and transmembrane G protein-coupled receptor (TGR) 5, have provided further insight in the pathophysiology of NASH and have led to the development of potential therapeutic targets for NAFLD and NASH.

Media perceptions of Tommy John surgery.

Objectives: The prevalence of medial ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction is increasing in professional athletes and the delivery of baseball news by the media exerts a powerful influence on public opinion of the injury and surgery. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the media's perception regarding the causes of UCL injury as well as the indications, risks, benefits, and rehabilitation related to UCL reconstruction.

Study Design: Cross-sectional survey study, Level 3.

Quantitative assessment of solid renal masses by contrast-enhanced ultrasound with time-intensity curves: how we do it.

Purpose: To discuss the evaluation of the enhancement curve over time of the major renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtypes, oncocytoma, and lipid-poor angiomyolipoma, to aid in the preoperative differentiation of these entities. Differentiation of these lesions is important, given the different prognoses of the subtypes, as well as the desire to avoid resecting benign lesions.

Methods: We discuss findings from CT, MR, and US, but with a special emphasis on contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS).

Voxel Level Survival Analysis of Grey Matter Volume and Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment or Alzheimer's Disease.

The purpose of this study was to identify, at the voxel level, brain regions associated with the time to develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) from normal cognition. We analyzed incident MCI (n = 58) or AD (n = 151) in 292 cognitively normal participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study-Cognition Study (mean age = 79.2 ± 3.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) of cystic and solid renal lesions: a review.

Incidentally detected renal lesions have traditionally undergone imaging characterization by contrast-enhanced computer tomography (CECT) or magnetic resonance imaging. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) of renal lesions is a relatively novel, but increasingly utilized, diagnostic modality. CEUS has advantages over CECT and MRI including unmatched temporal resolution due to continuous real-time imaging, lack of nephrotoxicity, and potential cost savings.

Stereotactic radiosurgery to the resection cavity for brain metastases: prognostic factors and outcomes.

Background: Adjuvant stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone after surgical resection is increasingly being used to provide excellent local control while avoiding the side effects of whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT). We report our ten year experience using this treatment scheme.

Purpose/objectives: To determine the rates and any correlates of local control, distant brain failure, and overall survival using SRS alone to the resection cavity.

Carriers of a common variant in the dopamine transporter gene have greater dementia risk, cognitive decline, and faster ventricular expansion.

Introduction: Genetic variants in DAT1, the gene encoding the dopamine transporter (DAT) protein, have been implicated in many brain disorders. In a recent case-control study of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a regulatory polymorphism in DAT1 showed a significant association with the clinical stages of dementia.

Methods: We tested whether this variant was associated with increased AD risk, and with measures of cognitive decline and longitudinal ventricular expansion, in a large sample of elderly participants with genetic, neurocognitive, and neuroimaging data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

The Personal Impact of Epilepsy Scale (PIES).

Objective: The impact of epilepsy is manifest by effects related to seizures and side effects of therapy and comorbidities such as depression. This report describes the development of a brief patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument, the Personal Impact of Epilepsy Scale (PIES), to measure the influence of epilepsy overall and in each of these domains.

Methods: Instrument development followed standard procedures and an FDA Guidance.

Physical activity, body mass index, and brain atrophy in Alzheimer's disease.

The purpose of this study was to use a novel imaging biomarker to assess associations between physical activity (PA), body mass index (BMI), and brain structure in normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's dementia. We studied 963 participants (mean age: 74.1 ± 4.

Complement the hemostatic system: an intimate relationship.

The complement system is important part of our innate immune system and interacts directly with the hemostatic system. Disorders of complement activation or dysregulation resulting in excess complement generation, such as Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH), atypical Hemolytic uremic Syndrome (aHUS) and antiphospholipid syndrome (APLS) have been associated with significant thrombophilia. Terminal Complement (C5b-9) deposition on endothelial and tumor cell membranes has also been reported in a variety of cancer.

Physical activity, inflammation, and volume of the aging brain.

Physical activity influences inflammation, and both affect brain structure and Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. We hypothesized that older adults with greater reported physical activity intensity and lower serum levels of the inflammatory marker tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) would have larger regional brain volumes on subsequent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. In 43 cognitively intact older adults (79.