AJNR Blog » Case of the Week

Case of the Week

Girish Fatterpekar — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:32:24 +0000

I would like to thank Dr Castillo for providing me the opportunity to be the section editor for the AJNR Case-of-the-Week (COW). It has been about 4 months since I assumed this responsibility and, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues from all over the world toward their contribution to the COW.

It has been about 2 – 3 years since COW was introduced by Dr Castillo. It has grown to be a tremendously popular site (sometimes receiving up to 10,000 views per month). With the hope of adding to the educational content of COW, Dr. Castillo and I have been thinking of introducing some changes to this popular site. These changes include:

1. Consider COW submissions from other faculty members (in addition to the Fellows). This would include submissions from residents (only when supported with an attending), and a junior attending (up to 3 years in practice).

2. Include Figure Legends.

3. Include 2 to 3 key diagnostic features in the discussion.

4. Include a list of relevant differential diagnosis. A discussion of the differential diagnosis will not be required.

5. Include all cases presented during that particular year as part of an electronic scientific exhibit for ASNR. In fact, such an electronic scientific exhibit was already presented at the recently concluded ASNR 2010 conference, where cases submitted during the year 2009 were compiled as an electronic scientific exhibit. This compilation is performed by me and Jason Gantenberg, Editorial/Web Assistant, AJNR and does not require any additional input from the contributing authors.

I do hope that the above mentioned changes will only add to the diagnostic armamentarium of us neuroradiologists. Do expect to see these changes taking effect from mid July/early August.

For those who are new to the submission process:

You can submit your cases directly to me at Girish.Fatterpekar@mssm.edu Cases need to be interesting and educational. They need not be rare. Case acceptance is entirely upon the discretion of the reviewer board. Upon receiving the case, a decision letter will be sent to you, usually within 2 -3 business days. If accepted, the acceptance letter will be followed by an email from Jason informing you about the possible publication date.

Case submission entails 3 power point slides:

Slide 1. Brief history, one to six high quality (color acceptable) illustrations. Name of the author (one per case) and institution.

Slide 2: With added Figure legends and appropriate annotations for the images (arrows, etc.).

Slide 3. Diagnosis, Succinct up-to-date discussion (1 to 2 lines each): background, relevant clinical information, key diagnostic features, list of differential diagnosis, treatment options, and up to 2 – 3 relevant current references (cite AJNR when possible, so as to allow link to the appropriate article).

I look forward to working with you all.

Neonatal pituitary gland

Alfonso CERASE — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:11:44 +0000

This is a one month-old female with congenital hypothyroidism, hypoplasia of the thyroid gland, elevated TSH (eight times normal value), elevated FSH and LH (four times normal values), normal GH, without diabetes insipid. She is now being treated for the hypothyroidism, and we are waiting for hormonal follow-up; MRI follow-up in three to six month follow-up.

Has anyone an explanation for the focal bright spot on T1-weighted images in the cranial portion of the pituitary stalk, just down the median eminence, in the presence of a normal neurohypophysis?

Is it an “ectopic” adenohypophysis?

Is this a thin pituitary stalk in pituitary gland hypoplasia?

What will happen at follow-up?

It is the start of an infiltrative disease?

…It is simply that I do not know the normal and physiological behavior of the pituitary gland?…

Best regards to all of You!

Why can’t ASNR come up with better CME’s?

Aaron Kaplan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:06:49 +0000

Great journals and case of the day…

but, compared to Radiographics or ACR’s Case of the Day… would love to see the Neuro cases of the week or some other case base format provided for online CME… esp with higher end neurocases… (eg showing cases with CTP and MRS etc…

I know the cases are out there and the manpower im sure is there…

C’mon AJNR/ASNR… give us all a little bone….

amkrad1

RE: DWI for head and neck lesions – acute ischemic optic neuropathy

jennykh — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:27:55 +0000

Here’s another case for the value of DWI for head and neck lesions.

This patient had left central retinal artery occlusion and acute ischemic optic neuropathy. There is restricted diffusion in the anterior left optic nerve which is much more obvious than the mild perineural enhancement on coronal postcontrast images.

Cases of the Week.

MCastillo — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:28:19 +0000

The case of the week feature is very popular. We now have over 18 months of cases accumulated. Every week, more than 5000 individuals (at times as close to 8000!) look at them. The database can be searched by diagnosis and or blindly by date of posting. The cases are illustrative and their degree of difficulty varies making them interesting for individuals with all levels of knowledge in neuroradiology. It is my desire, that residents and fellows will used them to study. Submissions are open only to fellows in Neuroradiology. Since AJNR and other journals accept very few case reports, this is a way for fellows to show their most illustrative and/or difficult cases. A new case is posted every Monday. Cases should be sent directly to me via email.