Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Imaging biomarkers of disease progression are desirable in inherited ataxias. MRI has demonstrated brain damage in Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) in form of regional atrophy of the medulla, peridentate cerebellar white matter (WM) and superior cerebellar peduncles (visible in T1-weighted images) and of change of microstructural characteristics of WM tracts of the brainstem, cerebellar peduncles, cerebellum, and supratentorial structures (visible through diffusion-weighted imaging). We explored the potential of brain MR morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to track the progression of neurodegeneration in FRDA. ⋯ DTI can track brain microstructural changes in FRDA and can be considered a potential biomarker of disease progression.
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Fetal anterior, middle, and posterior cerebral arteries have been studied using transabdominal Doppler ultrasound. We performed a feasibility study to determine whether basilar artery can be identified and blood flow velocities measured using transabdominal fetal Doppler ultrasound. ⋯ We demonstrate the feasibility of fetal basilar artery insonation using directional color Doppler ultrasound via transabdominal approach.
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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by extensive corticospinal damage, but extrapyramidal involvement is suggested in pathological studies. Texture analysis (TA) is an image processing technique that evaluates the distribution of gray levels between pixels in a given region of interest (ROI). It provides quantitative data and has been employed in several neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we used TA to investigate possible deep gray nuclei (DGN) abnormalities in a cohort of ALS patients. ⋯ TA of T1 weighted images revealed DGN alterations in patients with ALS, namely in the thalami and caudate nuclei.
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The vertical-occipital fasciculus (VOF), historically named as "the fasciculus occipitalis verticalis of Wernicke," has been recently brought to the attention of the neuroscience community. In this study, we delineated and quantified this tract with deterministic diffusion tensor imaging protocol. ⋯ We believe that our work will pave the way for future imaging studies investigating VOF in different conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and multiple sclerosis.
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To assess the diagnostic value of parenchymal hyperdense lesions visualized on the flat-panel CT scan in detecting/excluding intraparenchymal hemorrhage (IPH) after the endovascular treatment of acute stroke patients. ⋯ The absence of hyperdense lesions on immediate postprocedural flat-panel CT scan of ischemic stroke patients can exclude IPH with a high sensitivity and negative predictive value. The hyperdense parenchymal lesions visualized on flat-panel versus multidetector CT studies may have comparable sensitivity and negative predictive value for the detection of IPH.