More articles from Adult Brain
- Tentorial Venous Anatomy: Variation in the Healthy Population
The authors retrospectively reviewed tentorial venous anatomy of the head using CTA/CTV performed for routine care or research purposes in 238 patients. Tentorial vein development was related to the ring configuration of the tentorial sinuses. There were 3 configurations: Groups 1A and 1B had ring configuration, while group 2 did not. Group 1A had a medialized ring configuration, and group 1B had a lateralized ring configuration. Measurements of skull base development were predictive of these groups. The ring configuration of group 1 was related to the presence of a split confluens, which correlated with a decreased internal auditory canal-petroclival fissure angle. Configuration 1A was related to the degree of petrous apex pneumatization.
- Myelin and Axonal Damage in Normal-Appearing White Matter in Patients with Moyamoya Disease
Eighteen patients with Moyamoya disease (16–55 years of age) and 18 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were evaluated with myelin-sensitive MR imaging based on magnetization transfer saturation imaging and 2-shell diffusion MR imaging. The myelin volume fraction, which reflects the amount of myelin sheath; the g-ratio, which represents the ratio of the inner (axon) to the outer (axon plus myelin) diameter of the fiber; and the axon volume fraction, which reflects axonal components, were calculated and compared between the patients and controls. Compared with the healthy controls, the patients with Moyamoya disease showed a significant decrease in the myelin and axon volume fractions in many WM regions, while the increases in the g-ratio values were not statistically significant. Correlations with cognitive performance were most frequently observed with the axon volume fraction. The authors conclude that the relationship with cognitive performance might be stronger with axonal damage than with myelin damage.
- Manganese-Enhanced MRI in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Mangafodipir is a manganese chelate that was clinically approved for MR imaging of liver lesions. The authors present a case series of 6 adults with multiple sclerosis who were scanned at baseline with gadolinium, then injected with mangafodipir, and followed at variable time points. Fourteen new lesions formed during or shortly before the study, of which 10 demonstrated manganese enhancement of varying intensity, timing, and spatial pattern. One gadolinium-enhancing extra-axial mass, presumably a meningioma, also demonstrated enhancement with manganese. Manganese enhancement was detected in lesions that formed in the days after mangafodipir injection, and this enhancement persisted for several weeks. They conclude that multiple sclerosis lesions were enhanced with a temporal and spatial profile distinct from that of gadolinium.