Radiology
-
To measure the cerebral autoregulatory status of the brain tissue supplied by the individual brain-feeding arteries in patients with symptomatic stenosis of the internal carotid artery (ICA) by using arterial spin-labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to compare this status with that in healthy controls. ⋯ In patients with symptomatic stenosis of the ICA, vasodilatory capacity in the flow territories of the major cerebral arteries can be visualized and quantified at the brain tissue level with ASL MR imaging.
-
To investigate the clinical outcome in patients with a diagnosis of appendicitis at computed tomography (CT) in whom treatment is deemed unnecessary after clinical evaluation. ⋯ Five of 13 patients with CT findings of appendicitis and reassuring clinical evaluation results in whom immediate treatment was deferred ultimately returned with appendicitis. In patients with CT results positive for appendicitis and benign or atypical clinical findings, a diagnosis of chronic or recurrent appendicitis may be considered.
-
To investigate in vivo severity and topographic distribution of brain white matter (WM) fiber bundle atrophy in patients with Friedreich ataxia, a condition characterized by an uneven involvement of brain WM, and to correlate such findings with the clinical status of the patients. ⋯ Findings of this study show that it is feasible to obtain in vivo atrophy estimates of specific brain WM fiber bundles in patients with Friedreich ataxia and that such estimates correlate with patients' clinical status. This approach has the potential to provide new information that is likely to improve the understanding of the pathophysiology of inherited ataxias.