Analysis of frequency of deep white matter metastasis on cerebral MRI.

Supratentorial white matter is an important part of the brain and a major site of detrimental effects after whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT). It is not known if prevalence of metastases in white matter justifies standard inclusion of white matter in whole brain treatment. In this retrospective analysis we examined the frequency of metastasis in supratentorial deep cerebral white matter with cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Deep white matter (DWM) was defined as white matter in corpus callosum with forceps anterior and posterior and centrum semiovale. Lesions extending from grey matter, gyrus or ventricles into white matter were not classified as DWM metastases. Brain MRI of 198 patients from two centres were analyzed. In total 1330 metastases were counted and only 4.6% were located in DWM. Metastases in DWM were small (median diameter 6 mm). Only 1/41 patients (2%) with a singular metastasis had a DWM metastasis, 2/35 patients (6%) with 2 metastases had a DWM metastasis, 14/79 patients (18%) with 3-9 metastases and 12/43 patients (28%) with >9 metastases had a single or more DWM metastases (p = 0.003). There appeared to be tumor related differences with renal cell carcinoma showing significantly more DWM metastasis (6/17, 35%), than NSCLC (11/85, 13%, p = 0.024), breast cancer (1/20, 5%, p = 0.019) or colorectal cancer (0/10, 0%, p = 0.033). Overall, relevant preservation of DWM from metastases, especially in oligometastatic disease, was shown. This implies that DWM in patients with only few brain metastases is unnecessarily damaged by conventional WBRT.

Activity profile in elite Italian soccer team.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the activity profile of players in a top-class team in the Italian national football league over the course of a season (n=388). The effect of playing position and the two halves on the number and duration of short, intense bursts of effort and recovery phases was studied. The main results show that midfielders cover significantly more distance than players in other positions (p<0.001). For midfielders, the number of displacements of 2-40 m and the number of sprints covering between 2 and 9 m and between 30 and 40 m are considerably greater than for other positions (p<0.05). The distances covered in the second half compared to the first half are significantly lower for all categories of run (p<0.05). In the second half, the distance covered at very high intensity is significantly lower (p<0.01), whilst the number of recovery times greater than 120 s increases significantly compared to the first half (p<0.01). This study provides data which could be used as a basis for the work of scientists as well as football professionals.