Advances in imaging of vertebral and spinal cord injury.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Imaging technology is an important part of the diagnosis and management of spinal trauma. Indications and findings in post-traumatic imaging of the vertebral column and spinal cord are reviewed. METHODS: An extensive literature review was performed on the imaging of vertebral and spinal cord injury. Relevant images from a Level I trauma center were included as examples. RESULTS: Imaging plays an important role in the evaluation of acute and chronic spinal injury. Spinal cord and soft-tissue injuries are best evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), whereas spinal fractures are better characterized by computed tomography (CT). Vascular injuries can be evaluated using CT or MR angiography. CONCLUSIONS: Imaging using CT and MRI is essential in the management of spinal cord injuries, both in the acute and in the chronic settings. MRI shows the status of ligamentous integrity and visualizes internal derangement of the spinal cord. Vascular compromise can be diagnosed by MR and CT angiography. Plain radiography now has a more limited, adjunctive role, and the need for higher risk myelography has been minimized.

Comparison of standardized uptake values in normal structures between PET/CT and PET/MRI in an oncology patient population.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare and correlate standardized uptake values (SUV) derived from magnetic resonance attenuation correction (MRAC) with those derived from computed tomography attenuation correction (CTAC) in an oncology patient population. PROCEDURES: The HIPAA-compliant study was approved by the Internal Review Board and all subjects gave written informed consent prior to inclusion in the study. Forty patients (mean age 61 ± 15.1; 20 male) referred for clinically indicated 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans also underwent a PET/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. MRAC was performed using an automatic three-segment model. Regions of interest were drawn over eight normal structures in order to obtain SUVmax and SUVmean values. Spearman rank correlation coefficients (r) were calculated and two-tailed paired t tests were performed to compare the SUVmax and SUVmean values obtained from CTAC with those from MRAC. RESULTS: The mean time after FDG injection was 66 ± 7 min for PET/CT and 117 ± 15 min for PET/MRI examination. MRAC SUV values were significantly lower than the CTAC SUV values in mediastinal blood pool (p < 0.001 for both SUVmax and SUVmean) and liver (p = 0.01 for SUVmean). The MRAC SUV values were significantly higher in bone marrow (p < 0.001 for both SUVmax and SUVmean), psoas major muscle (p < 0.001 for SUVmax), and left ventricular myocardium (p < 0.001 for SUVmax and p = 0.01 for SUVmean). For the other normal structures, no significant difference was observed. When comparing SUV values generated from CTAC versus MRAC, high correlations between CTAC and MRAC were observed in myocardium (r = 0.96/0.97 for SUVmax/mean), liver (r = 0.68 for SUVmax), bone marrow (r = 0.80/0.83 for SUVmax/mean), lung tissue (r = 0.70 for SUVmax), and mediastinal blood pool (r = 0.0.68/.069 for SUVmax/mean). Moderate correlations were found in lung tissue (r = 0.67 for SUV mean), liver (r = 0.66 for SUVmean), fat (r = 0.48/0.53 for SUVmax/mean), psoas major muscle (r = 0.54/0.58 for SUVmax/mean), and iliacus muscle (r = 0.41 for SUVmax). Low correlation was found in iliacus muscle (r = 0.32 for SUVmean). CONCLUSIONS: Using the automatic three-segment model, our study showed high correlation for measurement of SUV values obtained from MRAC compared to those from CTAC, as the reference standard. Differences observed between MRAC and CTAC derived SUV values may be attributed to the time-delay between the PET/CT and PET/MRI scans or biologic clearance of radiotracer. Further studies are required to assess SUV measurements when performing different MR attenuation correction techniques.

Expression of estrogen receptor coregulators in normal and malignant human endometrium.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the expression of nuclear receptor coregulators in normal and malignant human endometrium and to identify any relationship to grade, stage, age, depth of myometrial invasion, estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha), or progesterone receptor (PR) expression. METHODS: Gene expression of SRC-1, SRC-2, SRC-3, N-CoR, SMRT, ERalpha, and PR was measured in 26 samples of normal endometrium and 30 primary endometrial carcinomas using real-time RT-PCR. ERalpha protein expression of each tissue was also measured by Western blot. RESULTS: . All coregulators showed significantly increased mRNA expression in endometrial carcinoma as compared to normal endometrium. The mRNA expression of each coregulator showed a high correlation with ERalpha mRNA, PR mRNA, and with the other coregulators in both normal and malignant endometrium. In the normal endometrium, SRC-1 mRNA expression was positively correlated with ERalpha protein expression and SRC-3 mRNA expression was positively correlated with patient age. No relationship was found between coregulator mRNA expression and grade, stage, or depth of myometrial invasion. CONCLUSION: The nuclear receptor coregulators SRC-1, SRC-2, SRC-3, N-CoR, and SMRT were found to be up-regulated in malignant endometrium. Our findings suggest that these proteins may have a role in the development of endometrial carcinoma.