The objective of this study is to find out whether gadolinium accumulation in the dentate nucleus (DN) after repeated gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) administration in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients is related to tissue alteration detectable on transcranial ultrasound. In this case–control study, 34 patients (17 with, and 17 age-, sex-, MS severity-, and duration-matched participants without visually rated DN T1-hyperintensity) who had received 2–28 (mean, 11 ± 7) consecutive 1.5-Tesla MRI examinations with application of linear GBCA were included. Real-time MRI-ultrasound fusion imaging was applied, exactly superimposing the DN identified on MRI to calculate its corresponding echo-intensity on digitized ultrasound image analysis. In addition, cerebellar ataxia and cognitive performance were assessed. Correlation analyses were adjusted for age, MS duration, MS severity, and time between MRI scans. DN-to-pons T1-signal intensity-ratios (DPSIR) were larger in patients with visually rated DN T1-hyperintensity compared to those without (1.16 ± 0.10 vs 1.09 ± 0.06; p = 0.01). In the combined group, DPSIR correlated with the cumulative linear-GBCA dose (r = 0.49, p = 0.003), as did the DPSIR change on last versus first MRI (r = 0.59, p = 0.003). Neither DPSIR nor globus pallidus internus-to-thalamus T1-signal intensity-ratios were related to echo-intensity of corresponding ROI’s. DPSIR correlated with the dysarthria (r = 0.57, p = 0.001), but no other, subscore of the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale, and no other clinical score. DN gadolinium accumulation is not associated with trace metal accumulation, calcification, or other tissue alteration detectable on ultrasound. A possible mild effect of DN gadolinium accumulation on cerebellar speech function in MS patients, suggested by present data, needs to be validated in larger study samples.

Background: Cognitive rehabilitation (CR) is a cognitive intervention for patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that aims to maintain everyday competences. The analysis of functional connectivity (FC) in resting-state functional MRI has been used to investigate the effects of cognitive interventions. Objectives: We evaluated the effect of CR on the default mode network FC in a group of patients with mild AD, compared to an active control group. Methods: We performed a three-month interventional study including 16 patients with a diagnosis of AD. The intervention group (IG) consisted of eight patients, performing twelve sessions of CR. The active control group (CG) performed a standardized cognitive training. We used a seed region placed in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) for FC analysis, comparing scans acquired before and after the intervention. Effects were thresholded at a significance of p < 0.001 (uncorrected) and a minimal cluster size of 50 voxels. Results: The interaction of group by time showed a higher increase of PCC connectivity in IG compared to CG in the bilateral cerebellar cortex. CG revealed widespread, smaller clusters of higher FC increase compared with IG. Across all participants, an increase in quality of life was associated with connectivity increase over time in the bilateral precuneus. Conclusions: CR showed an effect on the FC of the DMN in the IG. These effects need further study in larger samples to confirm if FC analysis may suit as a surrogate marker for the effect of cognitive interventions in AD.

The European DTI Study on Dementia (EDSD) is a multicenter framework created to study the diagnostic accuracy and inter-site variability of DTI-derived markers in patients with manifest and prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD). The dynamically growing database presently includes 493 DTI, 512 T1-weighted MRI, and 300 FLAIR scans from patients with AD dementia, patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and matched Healthy Controls, acquired on 13 different scanner platforms. The imaging data is publicly available, along with the subjects' demographic and clinical characterization. Detailed neuropsychological information, cerebrospinal fluid information on biomarkers and clinical follow-up diagnoses are included for a subset of subjects. This paper describes the rationale and structure of the EDSD, summarizes the available data, and explains how to gain access to the database. The EDSD is a useful database for researchers seeking to investigate the contribution of DTI to dementia diagnostics.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEWorking memory impairment is among the earliest signs of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We aimed to study the functional and structural substrate of working memory impairment in early AD dementia and MCI.METHODSWe studied a group of 12 MCI and AD subjects compared to 12 age- and gender-matched healthy elderly controls using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a 2-back versus 1-back letter recognition task. We performed a three-way image fusion analysis with joint independent component analysis of cortical activation during working memory, and DTI derived measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) and the mode of anisotropy.RESULTSWe found significant hypoactivation in posterior brain areas and relative hyperactivation in anterior brain areas during working memory in AD/MCI subjects compared to controls. Corresponding independent components from DTI data revealed reduced FA and reduced mode of anisotropy in intracortical projecting fiber tracts with posterior predominance and increased FA and increased mode along the corticospinal tract in AD/MCI compared to controls.CONCLUSIONSOur findings suggest that impairments of structural fiber tract integrity accompany breakdown of posterior and relatively preserved anterior cortical activation during working memory performance in MCI/AD subjects.

BACKGROUND:Hippocampal grey matter (GM) atrophy predicts conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Pilot data suggests that mean diffusivity (MD) in the hippocampus, as measured with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), may be a more accurate predictor of conversion than hippocampus volume. In addition, previous studies suggest that volume of the cholinergic basal forebrain may reach a diagnostic accuracy superior to hippocampal volume in MCI. OBJECTIVE:The present study investigated whether increased MD and decreased volume of the hippocampus, the basal forebrain and other AD-typical regions predicted time to conversion from MCI to AD dementia. METHODS:79 MCI patients with DTI and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were retrospectively included from the European DTI Study in Dementia (EDSD) dataset. Of these participants, 35 converted to AD dementia after 6-46 months (mean: 21 months). We used Cox regression to estimate the relative conversion risk predicted by MD values and GM volumes, controlling for age, gender, education and center. RESULTS:Decreased GM volume in all investigated regions predicted an increased risk for conversion. Additionally, increased MD in the right basal forebrain predicted increased conversion risk. Reduced volume of the right hippocampus was the only significant predictor in a stepwise model combining all predictor variables. CONCLUSION:Volume reduction of the hippocampus, the basal forebrain and other AD-related regions was predictive of increased risk for conversion from MCI to AD. In this study, volume was superior to MD in predicting conversion.

Background: Research suggests generally impaired cognitive control functions in working memory (WM) processes in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and incipient Alzheimer's disease ( AD). Little is known how emotional salience of task-irrelevant stimuli may modulate cognitive control of WM performance and neurofunctional activation in MCI and AD individuals.Objective: We investigated the impact of emotional task-irrelevant visual stimuli on cortical activation during verbal WM.Methods: Twelve AD/MCI individuals and 12 age-matched healthy individuals performed a verbal WM (nback-) task with task-irrelevant emotionally neutral and emotionally negative background pictures during fMRI measurement.Results: AD/MCI individuals showed decreased WM performance compared with controls; both AD/MCI and control groups reacted slower during presentation of negative pictures, regardless of WM difficulty. The AD/MCI group showed increased activation in the left hemispheric prefrontal network, higher amygdala and less cerebellar activation with increasing WM task difficulty compared to healthy controls. Correlation analysis between neurofunctional activation and WM performance revealed a negative correlation between task sensitivity and activation in the dorsal anterior cingulum for the healthy controls but not for the AD/MCI group.Conclusion: Our data suggest compensatory activation in prefrontal cortex and amygdala, but also dysfunctional inhibition of distracting information in the AD/MCI group during higher WM task difficulty. Additionally, attentional processes affecting the correlation between WM performance and neurofunctional activation seem to be different between incipient AD and healthy aging.

BACKGROUND:Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients show early changes in white matter (WM) structural integrity. We studied the use of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in assessing WM alterations in the predementia stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS:We applied a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier to DTI and volumetric magnetic resonance imaging data from 35 amyloid-β42 negative MCI subjects (MCI-Aβ42-), 35 positive MCI subjects (MCI-Aβ42+), and 25 healthy controls (HC) retrieved from the European DTI Study on Dementia. The SVM was applied to DTI-derived fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity (MD), and mode of anisotropy (MO) maps. For comparison, we studied classification based on gray matter (GM) and WM volume. RESULTS:We obtained accuracies of up to 68% for MO and 63% for GM volume when it came to distinguishing between MCI-Aβ42- and MCI-Aβ42+. When it came to separating MCI-Aβ42+ from HC we achieved an accuracy of up to 77% for MD and a significantly lower accuracy of 68% for GM volume. The accuracy of multimodal classification was not higher than the accuracy of the best single modality. CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest that DTI data provide better prediction accuracy than GM volume in predementia AD.

Background: Cross-sectional imaging modalities are fundamental in the management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from the first diagnosis and throughout the entire course of the disease. Over the past few years, the use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (MRI) has considerably increased, and no other imaging modality has experienced as advanced a development as MRI. Methods: A comprehensive literature search (PubMed/Medline) using keywords such as ‘MR enterography', ‘imaging modalities', ‘IBD', and ‘Crohn's disease' was performed. 48 articles published between 1999 and 2015 were systematically reviewed. In this article, besides the current standard MRI techniques, we review novel and implementable for routine use MR techniques. The use of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and hybrid imaging such as PET/MRI with enormous potential will also be briefly discussed. Results: New imaging techniques such as diffusion-weighted imaging, dynamic contrast-enhanced MR perfusion, and MR motility imaging yield advanced findings about changes in the microenvironment and alterations in motility of the affected bowel segment, and are proven to improve the diagnostic accuracy in assessing the scale, activity level, and severity of the IBD. Novel magnetization transfer imaging allows direct visualization of fibrosis in the bowel wall. Conclusion: Diffusion-weighted imaging can be easily implemented in standard MRI for routine use to further enhance the diagnostic accuracy in disease assessment. For validation of magnetization transfer imaging, larger studies are warranted.

The Bronze Age site in the Tollense valley, Germany, has yielded thousands of human and animal bones and a number of archaeological artifacts. Several of the human bones exhibit blunt and sharp force lesions, and the assemblage has been interpreted as representing victims of a large scale conflict. One of the earliest finds is a human humerus with an embedded flint arrowhead. Alleged signs of healing initially reported for this humerus based on clinical CT imaging were interpreted as evidence of an antemortem lesion. The present study, using micro-CT imaging, revealed that the arrowhead lesion in the humerus, contrary to the previous interpretation, shows no signs of healing. The structure previously assumed to represent a sclerotic margin around the wound canal was shown to actually represent compacted trabecular debris. Thus, our re-analysis of the specimen led to a re-classification of the arrow wound as a perimortem lesion. The findings of the present study demonstrate the value of micro-CT imaging as a non-destructive method for obtaining information on the nature of bone lesions and healing reactions critical for the reconstruction of interpersonal conflict scenarios in the past.

This study aimed to evaluate the embolic properties, time to reperfusion, and histologic changes in temporary embolization of liver tissue with degradable starch microspheres (DSM) in a swine model.

Background: In contrast to an acute occlusion of the visceral arteries, which is the most important differential diagnosis for an occlusion of the portal venous system and which poses a highly dangerous situation ending in gangrene of the bowel wall, the symptoms of an acute occlusion of the portal venous system are quite unspecific. To rule out an acute arterial occlusion, diagnostic evaluation has to be carried out quickly in order to decide on the necessity of therapeutic steps concerning a recanalization of the occluded vessels. Only few therapeutic options are available to recanalize and remodel the portal venous system, depending on the underlying disease, the age of the occlusion, its extension, and the effect on the bowel wall, stomach, spleen, and abdominal wall. Moreover, the efficacy of recanalization procedures mainly depends on the formation and number of collateral venous blood supply, its degree, and the anatomic structure. Possible complications of portal hypertension like varices, gastrointestinal vasculopathy, ascites, and splenomegaly also influence the success of recanalization procedures. Only in cases of acute thrombotic occlusion systemic lytic therapy promises to be successful. Therefore, other options such as transjugular intrahepatic recanalization, e.g. by means of the TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt) procedure, have to be evaluated. Methods: Review of the literature. Results: Noninvasive methods such as ultrasound (US), computed tomography, and especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow the evaluation of therapeutic options as well as their success, the feasibility of technical procedures, the detection of possible risks, and a calculation of risks and benefits. Conclusion: In order to arrive at the correct therapeutic decision, a combination of MRI and US methods combined with color Doppler guarantee the most efficient diagnostic results in cases with acute or chronic occlusions of the portal venous system.

Previous studies showed highly significant changes of cortical thickness and volumetric measurements of the basal forebrain cholinergic system (BFCS) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to cognitive healthy controls (HC). In this study we analysed structural parameters in participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) - a risk state of AD. The aim of the study was to identify possible associations of cerebro-spinal-fluid (CSF) markers on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in these patients group. We used 169 high-resolution 3-D structural MRI datasets from four centers of the European DTI Study on Dementia (EDSD) including 103 participants with MCI following the Petersen criteria and 66 HC. 67 participants had additional CSF analysis, 51 of this group had positive tau, phospho-tau or amyloid 1-42 levels. We used a subregional specific map of the BFCS (following Mesulam's nomenclature) which is based on post mortem MRI in cranio data for the voxel-based morphometry. Cortical thickness was analysed using FreeSurfer software. Comparing the CSF positive MCI group (MCIp) with the CSF negative MCI (MCIn), three subregions of the BFCS showed significant differences: Ch4p (p=0.018), Nucleus subputaminalis (p=0.024) and the Ch3 (p=0.024) had significant less volume in the MCIp group than in the MCIn group. Cortical thickness of areas projecting from Ch4p (e.g. temporal pole (p=0.009) and medial temporal lobe (p=0.015)) was significantly reduced in MCIp compared to MCIn. The parahippocampal cortex (p=0.03) - which cholinergic source Ch2 did not show any significant differences between the MCIn and MCIp groups - showed a significant thinning in the MCIp group compared to the MCIn. Structural changes in the BFCS and the cortical thickness are significantly pronounced in patients with MCI and positive CSF marker compared to MCI patients without positive CSF marker. Our data supports the notion of a corticotopy of BFCS subnuclei (Ch4p) as proposed by post mortem findings in non human primates, but the influence of CSF marker of neurodestruction on the BFCS still needs further investigation. In a further step, we will compare BFCS and cortical thickness changes in MCI with cognitively healthy controls.

AimsIn this study, we present and discuss our institutionalized and standardized computed tomography (CT) morphological criteria for the treatment of patients with a parachute device.Methods and ResultsAfter clinical and echocardiographic screening of 79 patients with ischemic heart failure, 28 were examined using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) to assess their suitability for treatment with a parachute implant. From the 28 examined patients, nine were suitable for parachute implantation. Within the group of excluded patients, the cardiac diameters of one-third of the patients were too large, whereas for another third they were too small. Approximately 20% of the patients were rejected because of a deep insertion of the papillary muscles. Further reasons included left ventricular bands as well as mismatches between CT and echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).ConclusionsTo ensure a safe parachute device implantation in patients with ischemic heart failure, only the CT at present offers the capability to obtain complete and dynamic three-dimensional (3D) measurements of the cardiac dimensions.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows the simultaneous measurement of several diffusion indices that provide complementary information on the substrate of white matter alterations in neurodegenerative diseases. These indices include fractional anisotropy (FA) as measure of fiber tract integrity, and the mode of anisotropy (Mode) reflecting differences in the shape of the diffusion tensor. We used a multivariate approach based on joint independent component analysis of FA and Mode in a large sample of 138 subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, 37 subjects with cerebrospinal fluid biomarker positive mild cognitive impairment (MCI-AD), and 153 healthy elderly controls from the European DTI Study on Dementia to comprehensively study alterations of microstructural white matter integrity in AD dementia and predementia AD. We found a parallel decrease of FA and Mode in intracortically projecting fiber tracts, and a parallel increase of FA and Mode in the corticospinal tract in AD patients compared to controls. Subjects with MCI-AD showed a similar, but spatially more restricted pattern of diffusion changes. Our findings suggest an early axonal degeneration in intracortical projecting fiber tracts in dementia and predementia stages of AD. An increase of Mode, parallel to an increase of FA, in the corticospinal tract suggests a more linear shape of diffusion due to loss of crossing fibers along relatively preserved cortico-petal and cortico-fugal fiber tracts in AD. Supporting this interpretation, we found three populations of fiber tracts, namely cortico-petal and cortico-fugal, commissural, and intrahemispherically projecting fiber tracts, in the peak area of parallel FA and Mode increase.