Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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To perform a volumetric evaluation of the brain in fetuses with right or left congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), and to compare brain growth trajectories to normal fetuses. ⋯ Left and right CDH are associated with lower fetal brain volumes.
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Diffuse cortical diffusion changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are characteristically ascribed to global cerebral anoxia, typically after cardiac arrest. Far from being pathognomonic, however, this neuroimaging finding is relatively nonspecific, and can manifest in a myriad of disease states including hypoxia, metabolic derangements, infections, seizure, toxic exposures, and neuroinflammation. While these various conditions can all produce a neuroimaging pattern of widespread cortical diffusion restriction, many of these underlying causes do have subtly unique imaging features that are appreciable on MRI and can be of clinical and diagnostic utility. ⋯ In this narrative review, we discuss a number of distinct etiologies of diffuse cortical diffusion restriction on MRI, the unique pathophysiologies responsible for tissue injury, and the resulting neuroimaging characteristics that can be of assistance in differentiating them. As widespread cortical injury from any cause often presents with altered mental status or coma, the differential diagnosis can be enhanced with rapid acquisition of MRI when clinical history or detailed physical examination is limited. In such settings, the distinct imaging features discussed in this article are of interest to both the clinician and the radiologist.
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When head and neck infection is suspected, appropriate imaging contributes to treatment decisions and prognosis. While contrast-enhanced CT is the standard imaging modality for evaluating head and neck infections, MRI can better characterize the skull base, intracranial involvement, and osteomyelitis, implying that these are complementary techniques for a comprehensive assessment. Both CT and MRI are useful in the evaluation of abscesses and thrombophlebitis, while MRI is especially useful in the evaluation of intracranial inflammatory spread/abscess formation, differentiation of abscess from other conditions, evaluation of the presence and activity of inflammation and osteomyelitis, evaluation of mastoid extension in middle ear cholesteatoma, and evaluation of facial neuritis and labyrinthitis. ⋯ Dual-energy CT is helpful in reducing metal artifacts, evaluating deep neck abscess, and detecting salivary stones. Subtraction CT techniques are used to detect progressive bone-destructive changes and to reduce dental amalgam artifacts. This article provides a region-based approach to the imaging evaluation of head and neck infections, using both conventional and advanced imaging techniques.
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Volumetric and densitometric biomarkers have been proposed to better quantify cerebral edema after stroke, but their relative performance has not been rigorously evaluated. ⋯ CSF volumetric biomarkers can be automatically measured from almost all routine CTs and correlate better with standard edema endpoints than net water uptake.
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Conventional MRI sequences in neuro-oncology are insufficient for glioma grading. However, newly developed diffusion-weighted imaging techniques have been shown to have a great potential for glioma grading. This study examined the diagnostic performance of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), and their combinations in glioma grading. ⋯ DTI, DKI, and NODDI approaches can differentiate between HGG and LGG; however, kurtosis parameters perform better and adding NODDI parameters does not improve diagnostic performance. Using multishell b-value has not led to an increase in diagnostic performance.