Optimal focused ultrasound lesion location in essential tremor.

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy is an effective treatment for medically refractory essential tremor. We investigate ablation sites and potential tracts associated with optimal tremor control and side effects based on the analysis of 351 cases from three international hospitals. Lesions were segmented on day 1 thin-cut T2 axial images, mapped to standard Montreal Neurological Institute space, and used to derive probabilistic maps and tracts associated with tremor improvement and side effects.

Sex differences in progressive multiple sclerosis brain gene expression in oligodendrocytes and OPCs.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurological autoimmune disease with sex-imbalanced incidence; in the USA, the disease is more likely to effect females at a ratio of 3:1. In addition, males are more likely to have a more severe disease course at time of diagnosis. Questions about both causes and downstream effects of this disparity remain.

Diagnostic performance of computed tomography features in detecting oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma extranodal extension.

Objectives: Accurate pre-treatment imaging determination of extranodal extension (ENE) could facilitate the selection of appropriate initial therapy for HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV + OPSCC). Small studies have associated 7 CT features with ENE with varied results and agreement. This article seeks to determine the replicable diagnostic performance of these CT features for ENE.

Microstructural Changes in the Left Mesocorticolimbic Pathway are Associated with the Comorbid Development of Fatigue and Depression in Multiple Sclerosis.

Background And Purpose: Lower reward responsiveness has been associated with fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, association of MS-related fatigue with damage to the mesocorticolimbic reward pathway (superolateral medial forebrain bundle [slMFB]) has not been assessed. We investigated the association of fatigue and depression with slMFB damage in MS patients stratified based on longitudinal fatigue patterns.

Identification and Characterization of Leptomeningeal Metastases Using SPINE, A Web-Based Collaborative Platform.

Background And Purpose: Leptomeningeal metastases (LMs) carry a poor prognosis. Existing LM scoring systems show limited reproducibility. We assessed the contribution of education level on the reproducibility of LM scoring using structured planning and implementation of new experiments (SPINE), a novel web-based platform.

Voxel-wise assessment of lung aeration changes on CT images using image registration: application to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Purpose: (1) To improve the accuracy of global and regional alveolar-recruitment quantification in CT scan pairs by accounting for lung-tissue displacements and deformation, (2) To propose a method for local-recruitment calculation.

Methods: Recruitment was calculated by subtracting the quantity of non-aerated lung tissues between expiration and inspiration. To assess global recruitment, lung boundaries were first interactively delineated at inspiration, and then they were warped based on automatic image registration to define the boundaries at expiration.

A tree-matching algorithm: Application to airways in CT images of subjects with the acute respiratory distress syndrome.

To match anatomical trees such as airways, we propose a graph-based strategy combined with an appropriate distance function. The strategy was devised to cope with topological and geometrical differences that may arise between trees corresponding to the same subject, but extracted from images acquired in different conditions. The proposed distance function, called father/family distance, combines topological and geometrical information in a single measure, by calculating a sum of path-to-path distances between sub-trees of limited extent.

Reliability of the nitrogen washin-washout technique to assess end-expiratory lung volume at variable PEEP and tidal volumes.

Background: End-expiratory lung volume measurement by the nitrogen washin-washout technique (EELVWI-WO) may help titrating positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) during acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Validation of this technique has been previously performed using computed tomography (EELVCT), but at mild PEEP levels, and relatively low fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2), which may have insufficiently challenged the validity of this technique. The aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the reliability of EELVWI-WO measurements at different PEEP and V T during experimental ARDS and (2) to evaluate trending ability of EELVWI-WO to detect EELV changes over time.

A semi-automatic method to extract canal pathways in 3D micro-CT images of Octocorals.

The long-term goal of our study is to understand the internal organization of the octocoral stem canals, as well as their physiological and functional role in the growth of the colonies, and finally to assess the influence of climatic changes on this species. Here we focus on imaging tools, namely acquisition and processing of three-dimensional high-resolution images, with emphasis on automated extraction of canal pathways. Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility of the whole process, to point out and solve - if possible - technical problems related to the specimen conditioning, to determine the best acquisition parameters and to develop necessary image-processing algorithms.