Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Multicenter Study
Novel robotic TCD ultrasound with bubbles versus standard care to detect right to left shunt: Study methods.
Right to left shunt (RLS), from patent foramen ovale (PFO) or elsewhere, is a recognized risk factor for stroke. Current standard of care for RLS diagnosis includes transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) which is insensitive, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) which is invasive, and transcranial Doppler (TCD) which has excellent sensitivity and specificity for RLS but is heavily operator dependent and expertise is scarce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the RLS detection rate of a novel robotic-assisted TCD (ra-TCD) to standard of care diagnostic techniques, including TTE, TEE, and TCD. ⋯ This is the first multicenter, prospective study evaluating the accuracy, feasibility, and safety of novel ra-TCD for the diagnosis of RLS as compared to standard of care diagnostics.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between arterial morphological parameters and the rupture risk of anterior communicating artery (AComA) aneurysms. ⋯ AComA aneurysm rupture is more likely to occur in aneurysms with smaller i-A1 segment diameter, smaller aneurysm neck diameter, irregular aneurysm shape, and higher AR. Aneurysm neck diameter may be a more important determinant for rupture prediction.
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Cerebral vessel recanalization therapy, either intravenous thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy, is the main treatment that can significantly improve clinical outcomes after acute ischemic stroke. The degree of recanalization and cerebral reperfusion of the ischemic penumbra are dependent on cerebral hemodynamics. Currently, the main imaging modalities to assess reperfusion are MRI and CT perfusion. ⋯ This review summarizes the most relevant literature on the role of TCD in evaluating patients after reperfusion therapy. We also discuss the importance of performing TCD in the first few hours following thrombolytic therapy in identifying hyperperfusion syndrome and embolic signals, predicting recurrent stroke, and detecting reocclusions, all of which may help improve patient prognosis. We recommend TCD during the hyperacute phase of stroke in comprehensive stroke centers.
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Review
Optic nerve sheath diameter assessment by neurosonology: A review of methodologic discrepancies.
Reported cutoff values of the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) for the diagnosis of elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) are inconsistent. This hampers ONSD as a possible noninvasive bedside monitoring tool for ICP. Because the influence of methodological differences on variations in cutoff values is unknown, we performed a narrative review to identify discrepancies in ONSD assessment methodologies and to investigate their effect on reported ONSD values. ⋯ Based on our observations, we recommend to place ultrasound markers at the outer edges of the hyperechoic striped bands or at the transitions from the single dark region to the hyperechoic retrobulbar fat because these locations yielded the highest sensitivity of ONSD measurements for increased ICP.
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Glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GAD-Ab) are sometimes associated with chronic drug-resistant focal epilepsy. Clinically, it may manifest as mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE), with GAD-Ab patients difficult to distinguish. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare brain metabolism of patients with mTLE and high serum titers of GAD-Ab (>2000 UI/ml) to those with mTLE and hippocampal sclerosis (HS) and confirmed GAD-ab negativity. ⋯ Hypometabolism in mesial temporal lobe areas together with hypometabolism in insulae and medial inferior frontal-hypothalamus may be characteristic of patients with epilepsy and GAD-ab. This PET pattern could be a useful diagnostic tool to identify GAD-Ab patients.