Category Archives: Journal Scan

Annotated Bibliography #15

1. Al-Holou, W. N., Terman, S. W., Kilburg, C., Garton, H. J. L., Muraszko, K. M., Chandler, W. F., Ibrahim, M., et al. (2011). Prevalence and natural history of pineal cysts in adults. J Neurosurg 2011;6:1106-14. doi:10.3171/2011.6.JNS11506

Pineal cysts measuring 5 mm or larger in greatest dimension were found in 478/48,417 patients (1.0%).  Follow up imaging was present in 151 patients for greater than 3 years. The authors conclude that follow-up imaging and neurosurgical evaluation are not mandatory for adults with asymptomatic pineal cysts.

2. Albuquerque, F. C., Hu, Y. C., Dashti, S. R., Abla, A. a, Clark, J. Continue reading >>

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Annotated Bibliography #14

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 >>

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Annotated Bibliography – Special Edition

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 >>

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Annotated Bibliography #12

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 >>

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Annotated Bibliography #11 – How I Do It

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 >>

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Interventional Neuroradiology

This year, Interventional Neuroradiology will be published in the traditional printed hard copy format and also in a digital edition available on the Internet. This move will allow our readers to exploit the myriad opportunities digital medium has to offer, especially for a journal with an international readership. The subscription price will be lower in view of cost savings resulting from the digital format. The digital subscription will offer readers the leaf through format on-line, the PDF to download and print, and bibliography search with access to a dynamic articles archive. We are convinced that the digital format will further … Continue reading >>

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Annotated Bibliography #10

1. Marawar S, Girardi FP et al.  National Trends in Anterior Cervical Fusion Procedures. Spine 2010;35:1454–1459. An 8-fold increase in prevalence and a similar increase in utilization of ACDF in the study population over a 15-year period (771, 932 discharges following ACDF were found).  Not exciting reading, but a nice update on the tremendous utilization of cervical ACDF.

2. U-King-Im JM, Fox AJ et al.    Characterization of Carotid Plaque Hemorrhage: A CT Angiography and MR Intraplaque Hemorrhage Study. Stroke 2010;41:1623-1629.  The authors did not find mean plaque density to be a useful factor for prediction of MR … Continue reading >>

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Annotated Bibliography #9

1. Zhang Q, Raoof M, et al. Circulating mitochondrial DAMPs cause inflammatory responses to injuryNature (letters) Vol 464,4 March 2010.  You will need a glossary for this paper: DAMP = ‘damage’-associated molecular pattern.  Cellular disruption by trauma will release mitochondrial DAMPs with evolutionarily conserved similarities to bacterial ‘pathogen-associated molecular patterns’ into the circulation which signal through innate immune pathways (identical to those activated in sepsis) to create a sepsis-like state. Or just read #2 paper below for a translation of the findings to something understandable by mortals.

2. Manfredi AA, Rovere-Querini P. The Mitochondrion — A Trojan Horse Continue reading >>

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Annotated Bibliography #8

1. Suk I, Tamargo RJ.  Concealed Neuroanatomy in Michelangelo’s Separation of Light From Darkness in the Sistine Chapel. Neurosurgery 66:851-861, 2010.  First of all, you need to see this as a pdf or printed as color.  Black and white will not do.  I’m not sure I buy the optic nerve thing at the end of the paper, but I am totally convinced about the brainstem/throat connection (read the paper and that sentence will make sense).

2. Columbano L et al. Anatomic Study of the Quadrigeminal Cistern in Patients With 3-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Cisternography. Neurosurgery 66:991-998, 2010.  Seems like … Continue reading >>

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Annotated Bibliography #7

1. Samartzis D et al. Atlantoaxial Rotatory Fixation in the Setting of Associated Congenital Malformations. Spine 2010;35:E119–E127. New subtypes to the Fielding and Hawkins classification scheme for atlantoaxial rotatory fixation should exist to account for variations in anatomy and the existence of congenital anomalies/malformations.

2. Kim KH et al.  Adjacent Segment Disease After Interbody Fusion and Pedicle Screw Fixations for Isolated L4–L5 Spondylolisthesis. Spine 2010;35:625–634. A low postoperative segmental lordotic angle, especially less than 20°, at index level was related with development of clinical ASD in both isthmic and degenerative spondylolisthesis patients.

3. Ribas GC .The cerebral Continue reading >>

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