More articles from Brain
- Cognitive Impairment in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Diffusional Kurtosis and Perfusion Imaging Study
DTI, diffusional kurtosis, and arterial spin-labeling were used in an attempt to detect abnormalities in 20 patients shortly after mild traumatic brain injury. These patients were also evaluated for attention, concentration, executive functioning, memory, learning, and information processing. At 1 and 9 months after injury, all patients showed significant abnormalities in gray and white matter by using all techniques and thus these methods may be useful in investigating cognitive impairment after brain injury.
- Postoperative Changes in Cerebral Metabolites Associated with Cognitive Improvement and Impairment after Carotid Endarterectomy: A 3T Proton MR Spectroscopy Study
This study assessed the use of metabolites seen on MRS as markers of change in cognitive status after carotid artery surgery. MRS and neurocognitive testing were obtained before and after surgery in 100 patients. The results showed that cognition remained unchanged in 80%, improved in 10%, and was impaired in 10% of patients postoperatively and that in these last 2 groups, NAA/Cr correlated well the clinical status. Thus, NAA/Cr may serve as a marker of neurologic status after carotid artery surgery (see accompanying editorial by Lövblad and Pereira).
- Diagnostic Accuracy of PET for Recurrent Glioma Diagnosis: A Meta-Analysis
These authors compared the diagnostic accuracy of PET with that of CT and MRI in the diagnosis of recurrent glioma in 26 previously published articles. PET studies with either FDG or carbon methionine were obtained once glioma recurrence was suspected on CT and/or MRI. Diagnostic accuracies were heterogeneous and studies did not compare PET with other imaging modalities. Despite these limitations, PET with both tracers appears to have a moderately good accuracy as an add-on test for diagnosing recurrent glioma.