MRI for the detection of calcific features of vertebral haemangioma.

AIM: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of susceptibility-weighted-magnetic-resonance imaging (SW-MRI) for the detection of vertebral haemangiomas (VHs) compared to T1/T2-weighted MRI sequences, radiographs, and computed tomography (CT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was approved by the local ethics review board. An SW-MRI sequence was added to the clinical spine imaging protocol. The image-based diagnosis of 56 VHs in 46 patients was established using T1/T2 MRI in combination with radiography/CT as the reference standard. VHs were assessed based on T1/T2-weighted MRI images alone and in combination with SW-MRI, while radiographs/CT images were excluded from the analysis. RESULTS: Fifty-one of 56 VHs could be identified on T1/T2 MRI images alone, if radiographs/CT images were excluded from analysis. In five cases (9.1%), additional radiographs/CT images were required for the imaging-based diagnosis. If T1/T2 and SW-MRI images were used in combination, all VHs could be diagnosed, without the need for radiography/CT. Size measurements revealed a close correlation between CT and SW-MRI (R2=0.94; p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that SW-MRI enables reliable detection of the typical calcified features of VHs. This is of importance for routine MRI of the spine, as the use of additional CT/radiography can be minimized.

Integrative Science Approach to Resilience: The Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-being (NDHWB).

Although many studies have unequivocally demonstrated the promise of understanding resilience to adversity and characterizing the consequences if stress is unabated, needed are dynamic theories and methods to enhance the rigor and interpretation of these assessments. From a dynamic systems perspective, the focus is not whether an individual possesses some fixed ability or unchangeable trait, but rather to understand the flexibility and responsiveness of stress regulation systems to daily hassles and adverse life events. A renewed interest in individual variability allows researchers to see trajectories of change over both short- and long-time scales to understand the developmental course. As a result, it is possible to answer questions, such as, how does the dysregulation in emotion caused by stress, to both within and between daily affect processes, relate to longitudinal trajectories (over time-scales of years) of dysfunction and disease? The overarching goal of the Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-being is to detail the types and qualities of contextual influences, in conjunction with dynamic psychobiological systems, to assess the precursors, concomitant influences and consequences of stress and resilience in the face of adversity on cognitive, health and well-being outcomes.

Physiological synchrony is associated with cooperative success in real-life interactions.

Cooperation is pivotal for society to flourish. To foster cooperation, humans express and read intentions via explicit signals and subtle reflections of arousal visible in the face. Evidence is accumulating that humans synchronize these nonverbal expressions and the physiological mechanisms underlying them, potentially influencing cooperation. The current study is designed to verify this putative linkage between synchrony and cooperation. To that end, 152 participants played the Prisoner's Dilemma game in a dyadic interaction setting, sometimes facing each other and sometimes not. Results showed that synchrony in both heart rate and skin conductance level emerged during face-to-face contact. However, only synchrony in skin conductance levels predicted cooperative success of dyads. Crucially, this positive linkage was strengthened when participants could see each other. These findings show the strong relationship between our bodily responses and social behavior, and emphasize the importance of studying social processes between rather than within individuals in real-life interactions.

Statistical vector field analysis applied to mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal data.

Combined cross-sectional and longitudinal data often present complex patterns of change. Growth functions representing the change in some measure as a function of chronological age can be a function of initial values of the measurement. Individual differences in developmental age with respect to chronological age tend to distort attempts to fit a single growth curve through combined cross-sectional and longitudinal data. We present a method by which these data can be visualized along with several examples from a data set comprising measurements of intellectual abilities with respect to aging. We call this new method a statistical vector field (svf) plot. An svf plot simultaneously allows the visualization of cross-sectional information summarizing sampling densities and longitudinal information summarizing how individuals at each particular age and ability are likely to change over time. The C source code for the svf software described in this paper may be obtained free from the University of Virginia anonymous ftp archive server (ftp. Virginia.EDU), or from the authors.

A Dynamical Systems Analysis of Adolescent Substance Abuse.

Models from dynamical systems theory were fit to the intraindividual variability In adolescent self-reported cigarette and alcohol use. A dampened linear oscillator model (potentially like a pendulum with friction) and a nonlinear oscillator model with two attractors were compared. The nonlinear oscillator model and two coupled oscillators for cigarette and alcohol use were rejected. Independent dampened linear oscillators for smoking and drinking provided high internal R(2) but were unable to account for a substantial correlation between the acceleration in cigarette usage and alcohol usage; thus evidence was found for an intrinsic self-regulation mechanism in both smoking and drinking behavior, but the hypothesis was rejected that the intrinsic mechanism leading to increases in use in one substance directly predicted increased use in the other substance. Given the hypothesis of independent linear oscillators, the sign of the dampening parameter was found to be positive, indicating a system with dynamic instability; a self-regulation mechanism in which small changes in substance use lead to amplified changes after a short period of time.

Case report 593: Hemangioma of sternum.

A 38-year-old woman presented with an expansile lesion of the sternum. Plain film tomograms and computed tomography showed an expansile lesion of the sternum. Bone scanning revealed increased uptake in the sternum. The neoplasm was surgically excised and proved to be a hemangioma (Fig. 4a) and 4b). The rarity of this neoplasm in the sternum was stressed. An extensive search of the literature failed to reveal a single previous report of a sternal hemangioma. A differential list of other primary benign and malignant sternal tumors was presented.