Delivering the diluted contrast agent with saline via a spiral flow tube improves arterial enhancement for contrast enhancement of magnetic resonance angiography of the neck: A retrospective study.

A contrast agent can be pushed by a saline solution more effectively through a spiral flow tube than through a conventional T-shaped tube in contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CEMRA). To compare the degree of contrast enhancement and signal stability in the carotid artery by using CEMRA between a spiral flow tube and a T-shaped tube.A total of 100 patients were analyzed in this retrospective study.

Improvement of the diagnostic accuracy of MRA with subtraction technique in cerebral vasospasm.

Purpose: Vasospasm has been considered the most severe acute complication after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). MRA is not considered ideal for detecting cerebral vasospasm because of background including the hemorrhage. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of Subtraction MRA (SMRA) by comparing it to that of conventional MRA (CMRA) for diagnosis of cerebral vasospasm.

[Non-invasive quantitative EMG: invention of the "Clustering Index (CI)" method].

There have been few previous studies trying to evaluate neuromuscular disorders using surface electro myography (SEMG). The greatest obstacle to such an approach must be the difficulty in identifying individual motor unit potentials (MUPs) on the SEMG signal under voluntary contraction because of their dense overlap. We tried to solve this problem by reducing the overlap of MUPs using appropriate electrode setting, as well as by developing a new method of interference pattern analysis.