Neurology MRI

Assuming you can do the math, your brain may operate more efficiently if you have first taken Ritalin (methylphenidate), a drug intended to help patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

A new study from the University of Michigan featuring proton MR spectroscopy has found a key linkage between the widespread muscle pain, tenderness, and fatigue associated with fibromyalgia and brain glutamate. Findings could lead to new drugs to treat the condition, researchers said.

To the listener, jazz improvisation is an aural flight of fancy, borne aloft by a musician's on-the-spot skill and imagination. But functional MRI results show the brain actually follows a grounded process of activation and deactivation during these spontaneous musical riffs, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University.

Neuroimaging with MRI at 3T is superior for nearly every application in the brain and spine, and it is certainly inferior for none. The technique has unique strengths for performing vascular work and functional brain imaging, but there is nothing that a 3T MR scanner can't do better than a 1.5T machine.

The number of brain MR scans obtained in the clinical and research setting increases each year, as scanner equipment and scanning protocols become ever more sensitive to subtle abnormalities

The number of brain MR scans obtained in the clinical and research setting increases each year, as scanner equipment and scanning protocols become ever more sensitive to subtle abnormalities. Many of these incidental findings are low risk and do not need rigorous imaging follow-up. Researchers therefore suggest revising management guidelines with an eye toward less radiological intervention.

Profound improvements in perfusion and diffusion tensor imaging over the past few decades are changing the ways in which radiologists understand disease processes, especially those involving small blood vessels in the brain.

The wide area detector onboard Toshiba's 256-slice CT records subtle changes in blood flow and minute blockages in single acquisitions of the brain and heart with substantially reduced risk of motion artifact and at less radiation dose to the patient.

MRI has helped researchers identify structural and functional abnormalities in the brains of people experiencing schizophrenic auditory hallucinations. The defects clustered in areas of the brain responsible for processing voices.

Profound improvements in perfusion and diffusion tensor imaging over the past few decades are changing the ways in which radiologists understand disease processes, especially those involving small blood vessels in the brain.

The intraoperative combination of functional MRI and diffusion-tensor tractography can improve the functional abilities of patients who undergo brain surgery, according to researchers who used a brain navigation system to apply the data during surgery.

Using PET with carbon-11-labeled monoamine oxidase A inhibitor clorgyline, researchers from the Brookhaven National Laboratory have found an association between MAO-A brain activity and violent behavior. Their study was selected as Image of the Year at the 2007 Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting in Washington, DC.

The wide area detector onboard Toshiba's 256-slice CT records subtle changes in blood flow and minute blockages in single acquisitions of the brain (top, middle) and heart (bottom) with substantially reduced risk of motion artifact and at less radiation dose to the patient.

PET imaging to diagnose brain tumor and monitor recurrence after treatment is an evolving field of research. Investigators at the Radiological Society of North America meeting presented studies revolving around five tracers, as well as various permutations of imaging combinations such as FDG-PET with MR spectroscopy.

Functional MRI is increasingly being used preoperatively to improve the safety of surgery that will remove brain tumors or locate epileptogenic foci by mapping motor, somatosensory, and language functions, at least in larger teaching and university hospitals.

Profound improvements in perfusion and diffusion tensor imaging over the past few decades are changing the ways in which radiologists understand disease processes, especially those involving small blood vessels in the brain, according to Dr. Jonathan Gillard of Cambridge University Hospital in the U.K.

PET imaging to diagnose brain tumor and monitor recurrence after treatment is an evolving field of research. Investigators at the RSNA meeting presented studies revolving around five tracers, as well as various permutations of imaging combinations such as FDG-PET with MR spectroscopy.

People may permanently store memories even if they cannot consciously recall them, according to a study by Duke researchers.

Neuroradiologists understand that high-grade tumors interrupt the blood-brain barrier, which presents as contrast enhancement on CT and MRI. Renewed interest in the phenomenon of permeability, however, has researchers looking beyond simple contrast enhancement and toward molecular mechanisms involved in permeability that may help them treat brain tumors more effectively.

Neuroradiologists understand that high-grade tumors interrupt the blood-brain barrier, which presents as contrast enhancement on CT and MRI. Renewed interest in the phenomenon of permeability, however, has researchers looking beyond simple contrast enhancement and toward molecular mechanisms involved in permeability that may help them treat brain tumors more effectively.

Traditional polygraph tests to determine whether someone is lying may take a back seat to fMRI, according to a study in the February issue of Radiology. Researchers from Temple University Hospital used fMRI to show how specific areas of the brain light up when a person tells a lie.

Vascular disease in the brain may dictate the onset of dementia in the elderly, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

Diagnosing nasal lesions on the basis of CT and MR appearance alone can be difficult because many such lesions have nonspecific imaging characteristics. To resolve this problem, a group of radiologists led by Dr. Alla Godelman of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, have devised 10 principles of nasal imaging.