Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Ischemic stroke can occur in 20-55% of patients with infective endocarditis (IE) with 75% occurring during the first 2 weeks of treatment. CT or MRI brain can diagnose the sequelae of stroke but transcranial Doppler (TCD) can document active embolization. We undertook a retrospective review of our patient cohort and a systematic review of literature to assess the role of TCD in early diagnosis and management of ischemic stroke in IE. ⋯ Presence of embolization in the form of high-intensity transient signals (HITS) detected on TCDs can be used for early diagnosis of IE, assessing efficacy of antibiotic therapy, and stratification of stroke risk in IE. This can aid further research into testing preventative interventions for reducing stroke burden in IE such as earlier valvular surgery or vacuum-assisted vegetation extraction.
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This study aims to investigate whether radiomic quantitative image features (IFs) from perfusion dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) retain sufficient strength to predict O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase promoter methylation (MGMT_pm) in newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GB) patients. ⋯ rIFs from perfusion DSC-MRI are potential biomarkers in GBs with a ≥30% MGMT_pm. Otherwise, unmethylated and intermediate-methylated GBs lack of rIFs. Five of 14 rIFs show sufficient strength to build an accurate prediction model of MGMT_pm.
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Use of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) scans to quantify multiple sclerosis (MS) lesion volume on 7 Tesla (7T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has many downsides, including poor image homogeneity. There are little data about the relative benefit of alternative modalities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if magnetization-prepared 2 rapid acquisition gradient echo (MP2RAGE) is a viable alternative to FLAIR for robust lesion volume measurement and disability correlations. ⋯ 7T MPFLAIR and MP2RAGE T1 map-based WML volumes are highly intercorrelated and both correlate with disability. Thus, MP2RAGE may be a viable alternative to FLAIR-based methods for WML measurement on 7T MRI in MS research.
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Hemoglobin (Hbg) is often thought to impact cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV). This study was performed to investigate the relationship between Hbg value and CBFV in African children with malaria. ⋯ In a large sample of African children with malaria, Hbg did not correlate with CBFVs as measured by TCD. Future work that includes baseline TCD measurements and Hbg values as well as other physiological parameters known to influence CBFVs is necessary to confirm these findings.
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Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a promising approach to detect the underlying brain pathology. These alterations can be seen in several diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) is an easy to use and robust way for analyzing diffusion data. The effect of acquisition parameters of DTI on TBSS has not been evaluated, especially the number of diffusion encoding directions (NDED), which is directly proportional with scan time. ⋯ Our results suggested that results of TBSS depended on the NDED, which should be considered when comparing DTI data with varying protocols.