Table of Contents
Perspectives
Review Article
General Contents
- Lateral Asymmetry and Spatial Difference of Iron Deposition in the Substantia Nigra of Patients with Parkinson Disease Measured with Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping
The authors evaluated 24 patients with Parkinson disease and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy controls who underwent 3T MR imaging with a 3D multiecho gradient-echo sequence. On reconstructed quantitative susceptibility maps they measured the susceptibility values in the anterior, middle, and posterior parts of the substantia nigra, the whole substantia nigra, and other deep gray matter structures in both cerebral hemispheres. Susceptibility in the middle part, the posterior part, and the whole substantia nigra was significantly higher in the more and the less affected hemibrains of patients with Parkinson disease than in the healthy controls. Also, susceptibility was significantly higher in the posterior substantia nigra of the more affected hemibrain.
- Mitotic Activity in Glioblastoma Correlates with Estimated Extravascular Extracellular Space Derived from Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MR Imaging
Twenty-eight patients with newly presenting glioblastoma multiforme underwent preoperative conventional imaging and T1 dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Parametric maps of the initial area under the contrast agent concentration curve, contrast transfer coefficient, estimate of volume of the extravascular extracellular space, and estimate of blood plasma volume were generated, and the enhancing fraction was calculated. High values of the estimate of volume of the extravascular extracellular space were associated with a fibrillary histologic pattern and increased mitotic activity. This finding is counterintuitive to the standard concept that more proliferative tumors would be more densely packed with cells and have less extracellular space. As the authors point out, this surprising finding requires more investigation to understand whether this relationship will hold, and what the underlying mechanism might be.
- Brain Structural and Vascular Anatomy Is Altered in Offspring of Pre-Eclamptic Pregnancies: A Pilot Study
The authors assessed the brain structural and vascular anatomy in 7- to 10-year-old offspring of pre-eclamptic pregnancies compared with matched controls (n=10 per group). TOF-MRA and a high-resolution anatomic T1-weighted MPRAGE sequence were acquired for each participant. Offspring of pre-eclamptic pregnancies exhibited enlarged brain regional volumes of the cerebellum, temporal lobe, brain stem, and right and left amygdalae. These offspring displayed reduced cerebral vessel radii in the occipital and parietal lobes. The authors conclude that these structural and vascular anomalies may underlie the cognitive deficits reported in the pre-eclamptic offspring population.
