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PURPOSE: This article aims to analyze pediatric meningioma's imaging characteristics, especially those in unusual locations. METHODS: Pediatric patients with pathologically confirmed meningiomas at our hospital from January 2010 to January 2024 were enrolled. Meningiomas located in the cerebral convexity, parasagittal falcine region, anterior skull base, middle skull base, sphenoid ridge, cerebellopontine angle (CPA), olfactory groove, or juxtasella were considered in usual locations. Meningiomas found in other areas were considered in unusual locations. Clinical information, pathology results, and imaging features of pediatric meningiomas in usual and usual locations were analyzed and compared. RESULTS: A total of 18 patients (19 meningiomas) were enrolled, including 14 males and 4 females, with an average age of 14 years (ranging from 6 to 18 years). A total of 12 (63.2%) meningiomas were in the unusual location, including four (33.3%) were intraparenchymal, four (33.3%) were intraventricular, two (16.7%) were intraosseous, one (8.3%) case was in the paranasal sinus, and one (8.3%) was intraspinal. The meningiomas in unusual locations usually lacked the meningeal tail sign, and the misdiagnosis rate on preoperative imaging was significantly higher than that of meningiomas in usual locations. CONCLUSION: Pediatric meningiomas are prone to occur in unusual locations. When they occur in usual locations, they often lack typical radiographic features of meningiomas, leading to potential misdiagnosis before surgery. Recognition of the imaging characteristics of meningiomas in unusual locations in children may facilitate accurate preoperative imaging diagnosis.
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OBJECTIVE: Benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) affects brain network hierarchy and cognitive function; however, itremainsunclearhowhierarchical changeaffectscognition in patients with BECTS. A major aim of this study was to examine changes in the macro-network function hierarchy in BECTS and its potential contribution to cognitive function. METHODS: Overall, the study included 50 children with BECTS and 69 healthy controls. Connectome gradient analysis was used to determine the brain network hierarchy of each group. By comparing gradient scores at each voxel level and network between groups, we assessed changes in whole-brain voxel-level and network hierarchy. Functional connectivity was used to detect the functional reorganization of epilepsy caused by these abnormal brain regions based on these aberrant gradients. Lastly, we explored the relationships between the change gradient and functional connectivity values and clinical variables and further predicted the cognitive function associated with BECTS gradient changes. RESULTS: In children with BECTS, the gradient was extended at different network and voxel levels. The gradient scores frontoparietal network was increased in the principal gradient of patients with BECTS. The left precentral gyrus (PCG) and right angular gyrus gradient scores were significantly increased in the principal gradient of children with BECTS. Moreover, in regions of the brain with abnormal principal gradients, functional connectivity was disrupted. The left PCG gradient score of children with BECTS was correlated with the verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ), and the disruption of functional connectivity in brain regions with abnormal principal gradients was closely related to cognitive function. VIQ was significantly predicted by the principal gradient map of patients. SIGNIFICANCE: The results indicate connectome gradient disruption in children with BECTS and its relationship to cognitive function, thereby increasing our understanding of the functional connectome hierarchy and providing potential biomarkers for cognitive function of children with BECTS.
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Background and Objectives: The Alberta Stroke Program CT Score (ASPECTS) is a widely used rating system for assessing infarct extent and location. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of ASPECTS subregions' involvement in the long-term functional outcomes of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Materials and Methods: Consecutive patients with AIS and anterior circulation large-vessel stenosis and occlusion between January 2019 and December 2020 were included. The ASPECTS score and subregion involvement for each patient was assessed using posttreatment magnetic resonance diffusion-weighted imaging. Univariate and multivariable regression analyses were conducted to identify subregions related to 3-month poor functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale scores, 3-6) in the reperfusion and medical therapy cohorts, respectively. In addition, prognostic efficiency between the region-based ASPECTS and ASPECTS score methods were compared using receiver operating characteristic curves and DeLong's test. Results: A total of 365 patients (median age, 64 years; 70% men) were included, of whom 169 had poor outcomes. In the reperfusion therapy cohort, multivariable regression analyses revealed that the involvement of the left M4 cortical region in left-hemisphere stroke (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 5.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.53-19.02) and the involvement of the right M3 cortical region in right-hemisphere stroke (aOR 4.21, 95% CI 1.05-16.78) were independently associated with poor functional outcomes. In the medical therapy cohort, left-hemisphere stroke with left M5 cortical region (aOR 2.87, 95% CI 1.08-7.59) and caudate nucleus (aOR 3.14, 95% CI 1.00-9.85) involved and right-hemisphere stroke with right M3 cortical region (aOR 4.15, 95% CI 1.29-8.18) and internal capsule (aOR 3.94, 95% CI 1.22-12.78) affected were related to the increased risks of poststroke disability. In addition, region-based ASPECTS significantly improved the prognostic efficiency compared with the conventional ASPECTS score method. Conclusion: The involvement of specific ASPECTS subregions depending on the affected hemisphere was associated with worse functional outcomes 3 months after stroke, and the critical subregion distribution varied by clinical management. Therefore, region-based ASPECTS could provide additional value in guiding individual decision making and neurological recovery in patients with AIS.
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Objective: The study aimed at investigating functional connectivity strength (FCS) changes in children with MRI-negative intractable epilepsy (ITE) and evaluating correlations between aberrant FCS and both disease duration and intelligence quotient (IQ). Methods: Fifteen children with ITE, 24 children with non-intractable epilepsy (nITE) and 25 matched healthy controls (HCs) were subjected to rs-fMRI. IQ was evaluated by neuropsychological assessment. Voxelwise analysis of covariance was conducted in the whole brain, and then pairwise comparisons were made across three groups using Bonferroni corrections. Results: FCS was significantly different among three groups. Relative to HCs, ITE patients exhibited decreased FCS in right temporal pole of the superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, etc and increased FCS values in left triangular part of the inferior frontal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, supplementary motor area, caudate and right calcarine fissure and surrounding cortex and midbrain. The nITE patients presented decreased FCS in right orbital superior frontal gyrus, precuneus etc and increased FCS in bilateral fusiform gyri, parahippocampal gyri, etc. In comparison to nITE patients, the ITE patients presented decreased FCS in right medial superior frontal gyrus and left inferior temporal gyrus and increased FCS in right middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus and calcarine fissure and surrounding cortex. Correlation analysis indicated that FCS in left caudate demonstrated correlation with verbal IQ (VIQ) and disease duration. Conclusion: ITE patients demonstrated changed FCS values in the temporal and prefrontal cortices relative to nITE patients, which may be related to drug resistance in epilepsy. FCS in the left caudate nucleus associated with VIQ, suggesting the caudate may become a key target for improving cognitive impairment and seizures in children with ITE.
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RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The white matter (WM) functional network changes offers insights into the potential pathological mechanisms of certain diseases, the alterations of WM functional network in idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) remain unclear. We aimed to explore the topological characteristics changes of WM functional network in childhood IGE using resting-state functional Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and T1-weighted images. METHODS: A total of 84 children (42 IGE and 42 matched healthy controls) were included in this study. Functional and structural MRI data were acquired to construct a WM functional network. Group differences in the global and regional topological characteristics were assessed by graph theory and the correlations with clinical and neuropsychological scores were analyzed. A support vector machine algorithm model was employed to classify individuals with IGE using WM functional connectivity as features, and the model's accuracy was evaluated using leave-one-out cross-validation. RESULTS: In IGE group, at the network level, the WM functional network exhibited increased assortativity; at the nodal level, 17 nodes presented nodal disturbances in WM functional network, and nodal disturbances of 11 nodes were correlated with cognitive performance scores, disease duration and age of onset. The classification model achieved the 72.6% accuracy, 0.746 area under the curve, 69.1% sensitivity, 76.2% specificity. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that the WM functional network topological properties changes in childhood IGE, which were associated with cognitive function, and WM functional network may help clinical classification for childhood IGE. These findings provide novel information for understanding the pathogenesis of IGE and suggest that the WM function network might be qualified as potential biomarkers.
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Epilepsia Generalizada , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Sustancia Blanca , Humanos , Epilepsia Generalizada/diagnóstico por imagen , Epilepsia Generalizada/fisiopatología , Femenino , Masculino , Niño , Sustancia Blanca/diagnóstico por imagen , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Adolescente , Sensibilidad y Especificidad , Máquina de Vectores de Soporte , Red Nerviosa/diagnóstico por imagen , Red Nerviosa/fisiopatologíaRESUMEN
The purpose of this study is to observe the changes of cortical morphological characteristics and their potential contribution to cognitive function in ALL survivors by using surface-based morphometry (SBM). Using SBM analysis, we calculated and compared group differences in cortical thickness, sulcal depth, gyrification, and fractal dimension of the cerebral cortex between 18 pediatric ALL survivors treated on chemotherapy-only protocols and off treatment within 2 years, and 18 healthy controls (HCs) with two-sample t-tests [P < 0.05, family-wise error (FWE) corrected]. Relationships between abnormal cortical characteristic values and cognitive function parameters were investigated with partial correlation analysis, taking age as a covariate. We found decreased cortical thickness mainly located in the prefrontal and temporal region, and increased sulcal depth in left rostral middle frontal cortex and left pars orbitalis in the ALL survivors compared to HCs. There were no statistically significant differences in the gyrification and fractal dimension between the two groups. In ALL survivors, cortical thickness and sulcal depth of above areas values revealed no significant correlation with the cognitive function parameters. In conclusion, pediatric ALL survivors show decreased cortical thickness in prefrontal and temporal regions, and increased sulcal depth in prefrontal region. These results suggest that SBM-based approach can be used to assess changes of cortical morphological characteristics in pediatric ALL survivors.
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Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Leucemia-Linfoma Linfoblástico de Células Precursoras , Humanos , Niño , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Corteza Cerebral/diagnóstico por imagen , Corteza Cerebral/anatomía & histología , Lóbulo Frontal , Leucemia-Linfoma Linfoblástico de Células Precursoras/diagnóstico por imagen , Leucemia-Linfoma Linfoblástico de Células Precursoras/tratamiento farmacológico , SobrevivientesRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung is a rare primary malignancy of the lung, accounting for only 0.9% of primary malignancies of the lung. Those associated with cavities are even rarer, with fewer than five cases reported in the English literature. Concurrently, the imaging findings of tumors are usually non-specific, resulting in insufficient understanding of the disease by clinicians, thus leading to misdiagnosis and delayed treatment. CASE PRESENTATION: A 42-year-old female presented with a right lower lung mass with cavities. First identified on chest computed tomography (CT) in 2021, the mass persisted for 1 year and subsequently enlarged on chemotherapy and routine follow-up CT. Right lower lobectomy was then performed. Postoperative pathology confirmed primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma. After 10 months of follow-up, the patient was still alive and no recurrence was observed. CONCLUSIONS: This article aims to describe a rare case of cavitary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung and review it clinical and imaging characteristics reported in previous cases, which will be helpful for clinicians and imaging physicians in diagnosing this disease.
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Carcinoma de Células Grandes , Carcinoma de Células Escamosas , Neoplasias Pulmonares , Femenino , Humanos , Adulto , Pulmón/patología , Neoplasias Pulmonares/patología , Tomografía Computarizada por Rayos XRESUMEN
Undifferentiated carcinoma with osteoclast-like giant cells of the pancreas (UCOGCP) is a rare pancreatic tumor that accounts for <1% of all primary pancreatic malignant tumors. Although the tumor is considered a variant of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, there are substantial differences in the clinicopathological characteristics between UCOGCP and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Imaging examinations are useful in making a correct diagnosis, and providing a reasonable and effective surgical treatment regimen; however, the imaging characteristics of UCOGCP require further investigation. The present report describes a rare case of UCOGCP with rapid progression and poor prognosis. The patient could not undergo surgery and received chemotherapy drugs only. Chemotherapy did not markedly improve the outcome, and a follow-up 6 months after discharge showed that the patient had died. The present report describes this case and summarizes the available imaging findings to increase awareness, and to improve early diagnosis of this rare disease and therapeutic outcomes.
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AIMS: Alterations in neuronal activity and cerebral hemodynamics have been reported in idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) patients, possibly resulting in neurovascular decoupling; however, no neuroimaging evidence confirmed this disruption. This study aimed to investigate the possible presence of neurovascular decoupling and its clinical implications in childhood IGE using resting-state fMRI and arterial spin labeling imaging. METHODS: IGE patients and healthy participants underwent resting-state fMRI and arterial spin labeling imaging to calculate degree centrality (DC) and cerebral blood flow (CBF), respectively. Across-voxel CBF-DC correlations were analyzed to evaluate the neurovascular coupling within the whole gray matter, and the regional coupling of brain region was assessed with the CBF/DC ratio. RESULTS: The study included 26 children with IGE and 35 sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Compared with the HCs, the IGE group presented lower across-voxel CBF-DC correlations, higher CBF/DC ratio in the right posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, middle frontal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus (MFG), and lower ratio in the left inferior frontal gyrus. The increased CBF/DC ratio in the right MFG was correlated with lower performance intelligence quotient scores in the IGE group. CONCLUSION: Children with IGE present altered neurovascular coupling, associated with lower performance intelligence quotient scores. The study shed a new insight into the pathophysiology of epilepsy and provided potential imaging biomarkers of cognitive performances in children with IGE.
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Epilepsia Generalizada , Acoplamiento Neurovascular , Humanos , Niño , Acoplamiento Neurovascular/fisiología , Epilepsia Generalizada/diagnóstico por imagen , Encéfalo/diagnóstico por imagen , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Marcadores de Spin , Inmunoglobulina ERESUMEN
Background: Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is one of the most common pediatric epileptic syndromes. Recent studies have shown that BECTS can lead to significant language dysfunction. Although research supports the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) in BECTS, it is unclear whether the subregions of the LIFG show different change patterns in patients with this syndrome. Methods: Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in a group of 49 BECTS patients and 49 healthy controls, we investigated whether the BECTS patients show abnormal connectivity patterns of the LIFG subregions. Results: Compared with healthy controls, the BECTS patients exhibited higher connectivity between the following: the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS) and the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the ventral area 44 (A44v) region and the left hippocampus/parahippocampus. Also, a decreased connectivity was found between the IFS and the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG). No other significant differences in functional connectivity were found in the other 4 functional subregions of the LIFG in the BECTS. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence for BECTS-related functional connectivity patterns of the LIFG subregions and suggest that different subregions may be involved in different neural circuits associated with language function in the BECTS.
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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.918513.].
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Background: Studies have demonstrated that adults with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) have functional abnormalities; however, the neuropathological pathogenesis differs between adults and children. This study aimed to explore alterations in the cerebral blood flow (CBF) and functional connectivity (FC) to comprehensively elucidate the neuropathological mechanisms of IGE in children. Methods: We obtained arterial spin labeling (ASL) and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 28 children with IGE and 35 matched controls. We used ASL to determine differential CBF regions in children with IGE. A seed-based whole-brain FC analysis was performed for regions with significant CBF changes. The mean CBF and FC of brain areas with significant group differences was extracted, then its correlation with clinical variables in IGE group was analyzed by using Pearson correlation analysis. Results: Compared to controls, children with IGE had CBF abnormalities that were mainly observed in the right middle temporal gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus (MOG), right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and triangular part of the left IFG (IFGtriang). We observed that the FC between the left IFGtriang and calcarine fissure (CAL) and that between the right MOG and bilateral CAL were decreased in children with IGE. The CBF in the right SFG was correlated with the age at IGE onset. FC in the left IFGtriang and left CAL was correlated with the IGE duration. Conclusion: This study found that CBF and FC were altered simultaneously in the left IFGtriang and right MOG of children with IGE. The combination of CBF and FC may provide additional information and insight regarding the pathophysiology of IGE from neuronal and vascular integration perspectives.
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BACKGROUND: Bilateral cerebral palsy (BCP) is the most common type of CP in children and is often accompanied by different degrees of communication impairment. Several studies have attempted to identify children at high risk for communication impairment. However, most prediction factors are qualitative and subjective and may be influenced by rater bias. Individualized objective diagnostic and/or prediction methods are still lacking, and an effective method is urgently needed to guide clinical diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an objective, individual-based model for the prediction of communication impairment in children with BCP by the time they enter school. METHODS: A multicenter prospective cohort study will be conducted in four Chinese hospitals. A total of 178 children with BCP will undergo advanced brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline (corrected age, before the age of 2 years). At school entry, communication performance will be assessed by a communication function classification system (CFCS). Three-quarters of children with BCP will be allocated as a training cohort, whereas the remaining children will be allocated as a test cohort. Multivariate lesion- and connectome-based approaches, which have shown good predictive ability of language performance in stroke patients, will be applied to extract features from MR images for each child with BCP. Multiple machine learning models using extracted features to predict communication impairment for each child with BCP will be constructed using data from the training cohort and externally validated using data from the test cohort. Prediction accuracy across models in the test cohort will be statistically compared. DISCUSSION: The findings of the study may lead to the development of several translational tools that can individually predict communication impairment in children newly diagnosed with BCP to ensure that these children receive early, targeted therapeutic intervention before they begin school. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study has been registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2100049497).
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Cardiac myxoma is a common benign primary intracardiac tumor in the general population, and it is generally characterized as a benign tumor, and the morbidity of biatrial myxoma is low. Cases of biatrial myxoma in young patients are extremely rare. Furthermore, severe complications of cardiac myxoma, such as cerebral embolism, can have fatal consequences. Imaging can effectively assist in making a correct diagnosis and a safe and efficient surgical treatment plan. In this case report, we describe a unique case of a young woman who presented with biatrial myxoma accompanied by pulmonary embolism and cerebral embolism. Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) detected multiple filling defects in the bilateral cardiac and bilateral inferior pulmonary artery basal branches. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) revealed irregular isoechoic masses in the bilateral atrium. Postoperative histopathology confirmed a biatrial myxoma. The patient was discharged on the ninth day after surgery.
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INTRODUCTION: Epilepsy is a serious hazard to human health. Minimally invasive surgery is an extremely effective treatment to refractory epilepsy currently if the location of epileptic foci is given. However, it is challenging to locate the epileptic foci since a multitude of patients are MRI-negative. It is well known that DKI (diffusion kurtosis imaging) can analyze the pathological changes of local tissues and other regions of epileptic foci at the molecular level. In this article, we propose a new localization way for epileptic foci based on machine-learning method with kurtosis tensor in DKI. METHODS: We recruited 59 children with hippocampus epilepsy and 70 age- and sex-matched normal controls; their T1-weighted images and DKI were collected simultaneously. Then, the hippocampus in DKI is segmented based on a mask as a local brain region, and DKE is utilized to estimate the kurtosis tensor of each subject's hippocampus. Finally, the kurtosis tensor is fed into SVM (support vector machine) to identify epilepsy. RESULTS: The classifier produced 95.24% accuracy for patient versus normal controls, which is higher than that obtained with FA (fractional anisotropy) and MK (mean kurtosis). Experimental results show that the kurtosis tensor is a kind of remarkable feature to identify epilepsy, which indicates that DKI images can act as an important biomarker for epilepsy from the view of clinical diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Although the classification task for epileptic patients and normal controls discussed in this article did not directly achieve the location of epileptic foci and only identified epilepsy on certain brain region, the epileptic foci can be located with the results of identifying results on other brain regions.
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Imagen de Difusión Tensora , Epilepsia , Anisotropía , Encéfalo/diagnóstico por imagen , Encéfalo/patología , Niño , Imagen de Difusión por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Imagen de Difusión Tensora/métodos , Epilepsia/diagnóstico por imagen , Epilepsia/patología , Epilepsia/cirugía , Humanos , Aprendizaje AutomáticoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Despite previous reports on cerebral structures and functional connectivity in patients with myofascial pain (MFP), it is not clear whether alterations in neurovascular coupling occur in these patients. OBJECTIVES: We analyzed the coupling between resting-state cerebral blood flow (CBF) and functional connectivity strength (FCS) for observation of neurovascular coupling in patients with chronic MFP. STUDY DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: University hospital. METHODS: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and arterial spin labeling were performed in 23 patients with chronic MFP and 23 healthy controls (HC) for the calculation of FCS and CBF. The whole-brain gray matter CBF-FCS correlations and CBF/FCS ratios of the various voxels of the 2 groups were subsequently compared. RESULTS: Compared with the HC, the patients with MFP experienced a decrease in whole-brain gray matter CBF-FCS coupling. In patients with MFP, a decrease in CBF/FCS was found in the bilateral superior temporal gyri, right parahippocampal gyrus, right hippocampus, caudate nucleus, right medial prefrontal cortex, and the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG), whereas an increase in CBF/FCS was found in the bilateral lingual gyri, posterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral inferior parietal lobules. In addition, the CBF/FCS of the PAG in patients with MFP was significantly negatively correlated with the pain visual analog scale score and pain duration. LIMITATIONS: Alterations in neurovascular coupling in patients with MFP were observed only before treatment. Therefore, there is a lack of data on the alterations that occurred after treatment. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated for the first time that impairment of neurovascular coupling in the brain may be a potential neuropathological mechanism of chronic MFP.