Author Archives: Jeffrey Ross

1. Brouwers, H. B., Biffi, A., McNamara, K. A., Ayres, A. M., Valant, V., Schwab, K., Romero, J. M., et al. (2012). Apolipoprotein E Genotype Is Associated With CT Angiography Spot Sign in Lobar Intracerebral Hemorrhage. Stroke, 43(8), 2120–5. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.112.659094

Extravasation of contrast into a parenchymal hematoma on CTA is termed the “spot sign.”   This sign is frequently seen in patients with ICH and is an independent predictor of both hematoma expansion and poor outcome.   The authors looked at the relationship of the spot sign to patient’s genetics, with either the ε2 or ε4 allele (apolipoprotein E, i.e., … Continue reading >>

1. Abou Zeid, N., Pirko, I., Erickson, B., Weigand, S. D., Thomsen, K. M., Scheithauer, B., Parisi, J. E., et al. (2012). Diffusion-weighted imaging characteristics of biopsy-proven demyelinating brain lesions. Neurology, 78(21), 1655–62. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182574f66

One-third of inflammatory demyelinating disease (IDD) lesions in the study demonstrated restricted diffusion, most commonly as an ADC dark arc or ring at the lesion edge.  Ten of 13 lesions in the abscess cohort displayed restricted ADC center and bright periphery.  This pattern of central restriction was never observed among patients with IDD.  A dark ring on ADC was significantly more common in the … Continue reading >>

1. Donahue MJ, Strother MK, Hendrikse J. Novel MRI Approaches for Assessing Cerebral Hemodynamics in Ischemic Cerebrovascular Disease. Stroke. 2012;43(3):903-915. Available at: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.635995.

The authors outline the current state-of-the-art MRI methods for measuring cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen and provide practical tips to avoid imaging pitfalls.  CBF-weighted ASL approaches have undergone the most advanced clinical testing and have been cross- validated with Gd-DSC, PET and SPECT and applied in cerebrovascular disease (126 references).

2. Haidar R, Mhaidli H, Musallam KM, Taher AT. The Spine in β-Thalassemia Syndromes. Spine. 2012;37(4):334-9. Available at: … Continue reading >>

1. Cavalcanti, D. D., Kalani, M. Y. S., Martirosyan, N. L., Eales, J., Spetzler, R. F., & Preul, M. C.  Cerebral cavernous malformations: from genes to proteins to disease. Journal of Neurosurgery, 2012; 116(January), 122-132. doi:10.3171/2011.8.JNS101241

Nice (excruciatingly complete) reference for the genetic basis of cavernous malformations.  Read the first page, and the conclusion.

2 A.  Ciccarelli, O., & Chen, J. T.  Editorial – MS cortical lesions on double inversion recovery MRI: Few but true. Neurology, 2012;78:296–297. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e318245296f

2 B.  Seewann, a, Kooi, E.-J., Roosendaal, S. D., Pouwels, P. J. W., Wattjes, … Continue reading >>

1. Greenberg BM. Treatment of Acute Transverse Myelitis and Its Early Complications. Continuum 2011;17(4):733-43.

Succinct review of ATM which helps to put this confusing topic into proper clinical prespective.  In the end, the treatment revolves around corticosteroids, plasma exchange, IV immunoglobulin, and chemotherapeutic agents such as cyclophosphamide.  There are no MR images in the review, so if you are looking for more examples of nonspecific cord T2 hyperintensity, stay away.

2. Teitelbaum J, Shemi SD. Neurologic Determination of Death. Neurologic Clinics 2011;29(4):787-99. doi:10.1016/j.ncl.2011.08.003.

Very useful summary of the difficulties of defining brain death.  Test commonly performed in Radiology are … Continue reading >>

Infuse controversy:

If you have missed the blowup in the popular press about this topic, I have included a sampling of links for you to peruse.  You can also just Google “spine journal” related to “news” and get many of the same links.  This makes fascinating reading at multiple levels…FDA approval process, editorial process, conflict of interest management… to name a few.  After the popular press hyperlinks, I have included the salient articles from the special issue of the Spine Journal.  Do not miss the letter from Dr. Zdeblick and the accompanying response from the Editors of the Spine Journal. … Continue reading >>

1.  Fiorella, D. J., Turk, A. S., Levy, E. I., Pride, G. L., Woo, H. H., Albuquerque, F. C., et al. (2011). US Wingspan Registry: 12-Month Follow-Up Results. Stroke, 42, 1976-1981. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.613877.

158 patients with 168 intracranial atherostenotic lesions (50% to 99%) were treated with the Gateway-Wingspan system with the average follow-up duration of 14.2 months.  13 ipsilateral strokes occurred after 30 days of which 3 resulted in death. Of these strokes, 76.9% (10 of 13) occurred within the first 6 months.  In-stent restenosis was associated with almost 40% of postprocedural stroke events. 40% of delayed strokes … Continue reading >>

I have been negligent in my posting for annotated bibliographies, but I had too many things juggling in the air, and something had to give.  Part of my tardiness relates to my lack of organization of all my PDF files.  You might find it useful for me to describe the workflow I use for finding and referencing new articles:

I have multiple RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) of journal Tables of Contents (TOC) into Google Reader for the journals I am interested in.  I find this is the most efficient way to keep track of current articles, and I would highly … Continue reading >>