Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty and Stenting for Progressive Intracranial Carotid Artery Stenosis Secondary to Invasive Sphenoid Sinus Aspergillosis: A Case Report.

We report a case of invasive sphenoid sinus aspergillosis with progressive internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and contralateral carotid occlusion that was successfully treated with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting (PTAS). A 70-year-old man presented with right-sided visual disturbance, ptosis, and left hemiparesis. Magnetic resonance imaging of the head revealed a space-occupying lesion within the sphenoid sinus with infiltration of the bilateral cavernous sinuses, right ICA occlusion, and multiple watershed cerebral infarcts involving the right cerebral hemisphere. The patient was diagnosed with invasive sinus aspergillosis based on transnasal biopsy findings. Despite intensive antifungal therapy using voriconazole, rapidly progressive aspergillosis led to a new stenotic lesion in the left ICA, which increased the risk of bilateral cerebral hypoperfusion. We performed successful PTAS to prevent critical ischemic events. Finally, aspergillosis was controlled with voriconazole treatment, and the patient was discharged. He showed a favorable outcome, with a patent left ICA observed at a 3-year follow-up. PTAS may be feasible in patients with ICA stenosis and invasive sinus aspergillosis.

Dysbiosis of Gut Microbiome Is Associated With Rupture of Cerebral Aneurysms.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Environmental factors are important with respect to the rupture of cerebral aneurysms. However, the relationship between the gut microbiome, an environmental factor, and aneurysm rupture is unclear. Therefore, we compared the gut microbiome in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) and ruptured aneurysms (RAs) to identify the specific bacteria causing the rupture of cerebral aneurysms. METHODS: A multicenter, prospective case-control study was conducted over one year from 2019 to 2020. The fecal samples of patients with stable UIAs and RAs immediately after onset were collected. Their gut microbiomes were analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing. Subsequently, a phylogenetic tree was constructed, and polymerase chain reaction was performed to identify the specific species. RESULTS: A total of 28 RAs and 33 UIAs were included in this study. There was no difference in patient characteristics between RAs and UIAs: age, sex, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes status, body mass index, and smoking. No difference was observed in alpha diversity; however, beta diversity was significantly different in the unweighted UniFrac distances. At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Campylobacter in the RA group was larger than that in the UIA group. Furthermore, the gut microbiome in the RA and UIA groups exhibited significantly different taxonomies. However, Campylobacter was focused on because it is widely known as pathogenic among these bacteria. Then, a phylogenetic tree of operational taxonomic units related to Campylobacter was constructed and 4 species were identified. Polymerase chain reaction for these species identified that the abundance of the genus Campylobacter and Campylobacter ureolyticus was significantly higher in the RA group. CONCLUSIONS: The gut microbiome profile of patients with stable UIAs and RAs were significantly different. The genus Campylobacter and Campylobacter ureolyticus may be associated with the rupture of cerebral aneurysms.

Utility of a novel exoscope, ORBEYE, in gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery for midline lesions of the brain.

BACKGROUND: Midline brain lesions, such as falx meningioma, arteriovenous malformations, and cavernous malformations, are usually approached from the ipsilateral interhemispheric fissure. To this end, patients are positioned laterally with the ipsilateral side up. However, some studies have reported the usefulness of gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery, in which patients are placed laterally with the ipsilateral side down or up, enabling surgeons to approach the lesions through the ipsilateral side or through a contralateral interhemispheric fissure, respectively. This surgery requires less brain retraction. However, when using an operative microscope, performing this surgery requires the surgeon to operate in an awkward position. A recently developed high-definition (4K-HD) 3-D exoscope system, ORBEYE, can improve the surgeon's posture while performing gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery. METHODS: We report five cases with midline brain tumors managed by resectioning with gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery using ORBEYE. We also performed an ergonomic analysis of gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery with a craniotomy model and a neuronavigation system. RESULTS: Gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery to the midline brain tumors was successfully performed for all five patients, using ORBEYE, without any postoperative neurological deficit. CONCLUSION: Gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery to the midline brain lesions using ORBEYE is feasible, and ORBEYE is ergonomically more favorable than a microscope. ORBEYE has the potential to generalize neurosurgical approaches considered difficult due to the surgeon's awkward position, such as gravity-assisted brain retraction surgery.

Efficacy of endovascular intratumoral embolization for meningioma: assessment using dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced perfusion-weighted imaging.

BACKGROUND: In preoperative embolization for intracranial meningioma, endovascular intratumoral embolization is considered to be more effective for the reduction of tumorous vascularity than proximal feeder occlusion. In this study, we aimed to reveal different efficacies for reducing tumor blood flow in meningiomas by comparing endovascular intratumoral embolization and proximal feeder occlusion using dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced perfusion-weighted imaging (DSC-PWI). METHODS: 28 consecutive patients were included. DSC-PWI was performed before and after embolization for intracranial meningiomas. Normalized tumor blood volume (nTBV) of voxels of interest of whole tumors were measured from the DSC-PWI data before and after embolization. ΔnTBV% was compared between the cases that received intratumoral embolization and proximal feeder occlusion. RESULTS: ΔnTBV% in the intratumoral embolization group (42.4±29.8%) was higher than that of the proximal feeder occlusion group (15.3±14.3%, p=0.0039). We used three types of embolic materials and ΔnTBV% did not differ between treatments with or without the use of each material: 42.8±42.4% vs 28.7±20.1% for microspheres (p=0.12), 36.1±20.6% vs 28.1±41.1% for n-butyl cyanoacrylate (p=0.33), and 32.3±37.3% vs 34.1±19.0% for bare platinum coils (p=0.77). CONCLUSIONS: The flow reduction effect of intratumoral embolization was superior to that of proximal feeder occlusion in preoperative embolization for intracranial meningioma in an assessment using DSC-PWI.

A case of meningolacrimal artery aneurysm associated with meningioma.

BACKGROUND: Intraorbital aneurysms are rare, and most of them originate from the ophthalmic arteries. Herein, we report a case of meningolacrimal artery aneurysm associated with a meningioma. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 55-year-old woman had a frontal convexity meningioma identified by brain magnetic resonance imaging during a checkup. Cerebral angiography revealed the middle meningeal artery as a feeding artery as well as the presence of an aneurysm associated with the meningolacrimal artery. Embolization of the feeding artery was performed before the removal of the meningioma. The meningioma was resected, and the aneurysm was removed with a bone flap. The patient was discharged without any complications. CONCLUSION: We report a meningolacrimal artery aneurysm associated with a meningioma. Embolizing the feeding artery of the aneurysm was helpful in safely resecting the meningioma.

Endovascular treatment for large vessel occlusion stroke in patients with ventricular assist devices.

BACKGROUND: Embolic stroke with large vessel occlusion (LVO) is a major adverse event during ventricular assist device (VAD) support. In this study we aimed to clarify the efficacy of, and problems associated with, endovascular treatment (EVT) of LVO in patients with VAD support. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed EVT for LVO in patients with VAD support between 2006 and 2017 at our institute and evaluated baseline characteristics, treatment variables, outcomes, and complications. RESULTS: The study cohort comprised 12 consecutive patients (age 35.4±20.4 years), with 15 LVO events involving 20 arterial occlusions, who had undergone EVT. The median Alberta Stroke Program Early CT score was 10 and good collaterals were observed in 10 of 17 occluded middle cerebral artery areas. No study patients had received intravenous thrombolysis therapy. EVT was performed on 18 of the 20 occluded arteries and mechanical thrombectomy on 13 vessels. The successful reperfusion (modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction grade ≥2 b) rate was 67% in all EVTs and 85% with mechanical thrombectomy. Histological analysis showed fibrin-rich thrombi in four of five samples. Seven of 12 patients (58%) maintained their neurological function (modified Rankin Scale score ≤2 or equal to pre-stroke score) at 90 days. Periprocedural complications comprised two symptomatic intracranial hemorrhages and the 90-day mortality rate was 13%. Seven of 10 cardiac transplant candidates (70%) returned to the waiting list and three of them received transplants. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular therapy for acute LVO stroke is feasible even in patients with VAD support.

Prediction of IDH and TERT promoter mutations in low-grade glioma from magnetic resonance images using a convolutional neural network.

Identification of genotypes is crucial for treatment of glioma. Here, we developed a method to predict tumor genotypes using a pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN) from magnetic resonance (MR) images and compared the accuracy to that of a diagnosis based on conventional radiomic features and patient age. Multisite preoperative MR images of 164 patients with grade II/III glioma were grouped by IDH and TERT promoter (pTERT) mutations as follows: (1) IDH wild type, (2) IDH and pTERT co-mutations, (3) IDH mutant and pTERT wild type. We applied a CNN (AlexNet) to four types of MR sequence and obtained the CNN texture features to classify the groups with a linear support vector machine. The classification was also performed using conventional radiomic features and/or patient age. Using all features, we succeeded in classifying patients with an accuracy of 63.1%, which was significantly higher than the accuracy obtained from using either the radiomic features or patient age alone. In particular, prediction of the pTERT mutation was significantly improved by the CNN texture features. In conclusion, the pretrained CNN texture features capture the information of IDH and TERT genotypes in grade II/III gliomas better than the conventional radiomic features.

Lesion location implemented magnetic resonance imaging radiomics for predicting IDH and TERT promoter mutations in grade II/III gliomas.

Molecular biological characterization of tumors has become a pivotal procedure for glioma patient care. The aim of this study is to build conventional MRI-based radiomics model to predict genetic alterations within grade II/III gliomas attempting to implement lesion location information in the model to improve diagnostic accuracy. One-hundred and ninety-nine grade II/III gliomas patients were enrolled. Three molecular subtypes were identified: IDH1/2-mutant, IDH1/2-mutant with TERT promoter mutation, and IDH-wild type. A total of 109 radiomics features from 169 MRI datasets and location information from 199 datasets were extracted. Prediction modeling for genetic alteration was trained via LASSO regression for 111 datasets and validated by the remaining 58 datasets. IDH mutation was detected with an accuracy of 0.82 for the training set and 0.83 for the validation set without lesion location information. Diagnostic accuracy improved to 0.85 for the training set and 0.87 for the validation set when lesion location information was implemented. Diagnostic accuracy for predicting 3 molecular subtypes of grade II/III gliomas was 0.74 for the training set and 0.56 for the validation set with lesion location information implemented. Conventional MRI-based radiomics is one of the most promising strategies that may lead to a non-invasive diagnostic technique for molecular characterization of grade II/III gliomas.

A nationwide multi-institutional retrospective study to identify prognostic factors and develop a graded prognostic assessment system for patients with brain metastases from uterine corpus and cervical cancer.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of brain metastases (BM) from uterine cancer has recently increased because of the improvement of overall survival (OS) of patients with uterine cancer due to its early detection and improved local control as a result of new effective treatments. However, little information is available regarding their clinical characteristics and prognosis, because oncologists have encountered BM from uterine cancer on rare occasions. METHODS: Records from 81 patients with uterine BM were collected from 10 institutes in Japan. These were used in a multi-institutional study to identify prognostic factors and develop a graded prognostic assessment (GPA) for patients with BM from uterine cancer. RESULTS: Median OS after the development of BM was 7 months (95% confidence interval, 4 to 10 months). Multivariate analysis revealed that there were survival differences according to the existence of extracranial metastases and number of BM. In the present uterine-GPA, a score of 0 was assigned to those patients with ≥5 BM and extracranial metastasis, a score of 2 was assigned to those patients with one to four BM or without extracranial metastasis, and a score of 4 was assigned to those patients with one to four BM and without extracranial metastasis. The median OS for patients with a uterine-GPA scores of 0, 2, and 4 was 3, 7, and 22 months, respectively. A survival analysis confirmed the presence of statistically significant differences between these groups (p < 0.05). The results were validated by data obtained from the National Report of Brain Tumor Registry of Japan. CONCLUSION: Uterine GPA incorporates two simple clinical parameters of high prognostic significance and can be used to predict the expected survival times in patients with BM from uterine cancer. Its use may help in determining an appropriate treatment for individual patients with BM.

Downregulation of EGFR in a metastatic brain lesion of EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer using a tyrosine kinase inhibitor: A case report.

Brain metastasis is a common complication in patients with cancer, with lung cancer being the most frequent origin of brain metastases. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have begun to serve a pivotal role in lung cancer treatment and have been reported to demonstrate anticancer activity against brain metastases by penetrating the blood-brain barrier. The present study reports, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) brain metastasis that was surgically resected while the lesion was responding to the EGFR-TKI erlotinib. The results of the present study demonstrated that EGFR-mutated NSCLC cells were able to evade the cytotoxic effect of EGFR-TKI by downregulating EGFR expression, without exhibiting the T790M EGFR mutation.

Voxel-Based Lesion Mapping of Cryptogenic Stroke in Patients with Advanced Cancer: A Detailed Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis of Distribution Pattern.

BACKGROUND: Ischemic stroke is one form of cancer-associated thrombosis that can greatly worsen a patient's performance status. The present investigation aimed to elucidate the characteristic distribution pattern(s) of cryptogenic stroke lesions using a voxel-based lesion-mapping technique and examine the differences in clinical manifestations between cryptogenic and conventional strokes in patients with advanced cancer. METHODS: Data from 43 patients with advanced cancer who developed acute ischemic stroke were retrospectively collected. Stroke etiology was grouped into either cryptogenic or conventional stroke etiology according to the ASCO stroke score. Clinical data were reviewed, and voxel-based lesion mapping using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was performed to visualize the cross-patient spatial distribution of the lesions. RESULTS: Of the 43 patients, 25 were classified as having cryptogenic stroke etiology and 18 were classified as having conventional stroke etiology. Median survival time of patients from stroke onset was 96 days for cryptogenic stroke etiology and 570 days for conventional stroke etiology (P = .01). D-dimer of patients was significantly higher in cryptogenic stoke etiology than in conventional stroke etiology (P = .006). Voxel-based lesion mapping showed that DWI hyperintense lesions accumulated at cortical and internal watershed areas of the cerebrum and at the vascular border zone of the superior cerebellar and posterior inferior cerebellar arteries at the cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS: Voxel-based lesion mapping for cryptogenic stroke in patients with advanced cancer showed that lesions accumulated at vascular border zones within the brain both at the cerebrum and at the cerebellum, but not at perforating arterial territories.

Different spatial distributions of brain metastases from lung cancer by histological subtype and mutation status of epidermal growth factor receptor.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the genetic backgrounds of lung cancers could affect the spatial distribution of brain metastases. METHODS: CT or MR images of 200 patients with a total of 1033 treatment-naive brain metastases from lung cancer were retrospectively reviewed (23 by CT and 177 by MRI). All images were standardized to the human brain MRI atlas provided by the Montreal Neurological Institute 152 database. Locations, depths from the brain surface, and sizes of the lesions after image standardization were analyzed. RESULTS: The posterior fossa, the anatomic "watershed areas," and the gray-white matter junction were confirmed to be more commonly affected by lung cancer brain metastases, and brain metastases with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) L858R mutation occurred more often in the caudate, cerebellum, and temporal lobe than those with exon 19 deletion of EGFR. Median depths of the lesions from the brain surface were 13.7 mm (range, 8.6-21.9) for exon 19 deleted EGFR, 11.5 mm (6.6-16.8) for L858R mutated, and 15.0 mm (10.0-20.7) for wild-type EGFR. Lesions with L858R mutated EGFR were located significantly closer to the brain surface than lesions with exon 19 deleted or wild-type EGFR (P = .0032 and P < .0001, respectively). Furthermore, brain metastases of adenocarcinoma lung cancer patients with a history of chemotherapy but not molecular targeted therapy were located significantly deeper from the brain surface (P = .0002). CONCLUSION: This analysis is the first to reveal the relationship between EGFR mutation status and the spatial distribution of brain metastases of lung cancer.