Neuroimaging clinics of North America
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Spinal cord infections can present with a wide variety of imaging findings, depending on the pathogen and the host's immune status. Infectious myelitis can have a characteristic distribution of lesions within the spinal cord, which refine the differential disease. ⋯ Infectious arachnoiditis and meningitis must be differentiated from neoplasms. Spondylitis has many mimickers and requires careful interpretations of images, clinical findings, and follow-up information.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · Feb 2023
ReviewNeuroimaging Patterns of Intracranial Infections: Meningitis, Cerebritis, and Their Complications.
Neuroimaging provides rapid, noninvasive visualization of central nervous system infections for optimal diagnosis and management. Generalizable and characteristic imaging patterns help radiologists distinguish different types of intracranial infections including meningitis and cerebritis from a variety of bacterial, viral, fungal, and/or parasitic causes. ⋯ We discuss various imaging modalities and recent diagnostic advances such as deep learning through a survey of intracranial pathogens and their radiographic findings. Moreover, we explore critical complications and differential diagnoses of intracranial infections.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · Feb 2023
ReviewBeyond Pattern Recognition: Radiology-Pathology-Clinical Correlation.
Radiology-pathology correlation is essential for multidisciplinary collaboration in diagnosis and understanding the mechanism of CNS damage in infectious processes. The microscopic acute inflammatory processes are well established and are supplemented by a variety of less-invasive microbial and immunohistochemical investigations. Understanding the pathogenesis of pathogen spread and neuroinvasion, vascular and immune-mediated brain, and spinal cord damage are essential for interpreting radiological images.
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Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. · Feb 2023
ReviewThe Changing Epidemiology of Central Nervous System Infection: Can Radiologists Keep Up?
Diagnostic radiologists can increase their clinical value by supplementing image pattern recognition with knowledge of epidemiology and geographic distribution of central nervous system (CNS) infections and their causative organisms. This article reviews the changing global disease patterns, as well as zoonotic outbreaks of henipaviruses, coronaviruses, and other emerging, reemerging, and vector-borne organisms; case examples highlight typical imaging features of CNS infections and their mimics. Technical advances in neuroimaging help to enhance the value of radiologists to the multidisciplinary team and the responses to future pandemic preparation.
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MR imaging is essential in diagnosing viral encephalitis. Clinical features, cerebrospinal fluid analysis and pathogen confirmation by polymerase chain reaction can be supported by assessing imaging features. ⋯ In this article, we have reviewed representative viral encephalitis and its MR imaging patterns. In addition, we also presented acute viral encephalitis without typical MR imaging patterns, such as dengue and varicella-zoster virus encephalitis.