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A 44-year-old woman with progressive cervical myelopathy and central cord syndrome was noted to have an extensive cervical intramedullary contrast-enhancing lesion on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The lesion resembled a spinal astrocytoma or ependymoma that required surgical intervention. She was subsequently diagnosed to have neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a rare idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating disorder, when the clinical examination revealed left optic atrophy. This was confirmed by a test showing seropositivity for NMO-immunoglobulin (IgG). Disease control was achieved with corticosteroids and immunosuppressive therapy. We report a rare case of a patient with NMO who had MRI features that could have easily led to the condition being misdiagnosed as a spinal cord tumor. The importance of careful history taking, awareness of typical radiological findings and the usefulness of serum NMO-IgG as a diagnostic tool are emphasized.

Background A post-irradiated carotid pseudoaneurysm at the skull base can cause life-threatening blowout syndrome. Conventional treatments include parent vessel occlusion, endovascular coiling or covered stenting. Use of the Pipeline embolization device (PED) for pseudoaneurysm exclusion at the skull base is not well described. Objective To report the clinical and angiographic outcome after using multiple PEDs to treat recently ruptured radiation-induced carotid pseudoaneurysms at the skull base. Methods Retrospective review of the clinical and angiographic records of patients who received PEDs as primary treatment for skull base carotid pseudoaneurysm between April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2013. Results Seven patients (five men, two women) with a mean age of 58 years (range 47-65) were treated in the study period. Primary treatment with the PED alone, with adjunct coil embolization in two patients, achieved immediate hemostasis in all patients, with no pseudoaneurysm rebleeding after a mean follow-up of 15.3 months (range 4-24 months). One patient had periprocedural cerebral infarction. Delayed internal carotid artery occlusion secondary to in-stent thrombosis occurred in three patients, one of whom had lacunar infarct and two remained asymptomatic. Conclusions Endovascular treatment with the PED was effective in excluding skull base post-irradiated carotid pseudoaneurysms and preventing recurrent blowout. However, the risk of ischemic complications in this group of patients was high and our experience did not support the use of flow diverters as a first-line treatment for this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective : Several modalities are available for volumetric measurement of the intracranial aneurysm. We discuss the challenges involved in manual segmentation, and analyze the application of alternative methods using automatic segmentation and geometric formulae in measurement of aneurysm volumes and coil packing density. Methods : The volumes and morphology of 38 aneurysms treated with endovascular coiling at a single center were measured using three-dimensional rotational angiography (3DRA) reconstruction software using automatic segmentation. Aneurysm volumes were also calculated from their height, width, depth, size of neck, and assumed shape in 3DRA images using simple geometric formulae. The aneurysm volumes were dichotomized as "small" or "large" using the median volume of the studied population (54 mm3) measured by automatic segmentation as the cut-off value for further statistical analysis. Results : A greater proportion of aneurysms were categorized as being "small" when geometric formulae were applied. The median aneurysm volumes obtained were 54.5 mm3 by 3DRA software, and 30.6 mm3 using mathematical equations. An underestimation of aneurysm volume with a resultant overestimation in the calculated coil packing density (p = 0.002) was observed. Conclusion : Caution must be exercised in the application of simple geometric formulae in the management of intracranial aneurysms as volumes may potentially be underestimated and packing densities falsely elevated. Future research should focus on validation of automatic segmentation in volumetric measurement and improving its accuracy to enhance its application in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pipeline embolization device (PED) is one of the flow-diverting stents approved for the treatment of unruptured large or wide-necked cerebral aneurysms in 2011 1. Its use has now been extended to the treatment of recently ruptured dissecting cerebral aneurysm, carotid pseudoaneurysm from radiation injury, and blister aneurysms 2,3. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of utilizing the PED as a primary treatment for ruptured dissecting intracranial aneurysms. A single center retrospective review was conducted for all patients primarily treated with PED for acute subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) from ruptured dissecting cerebral aneurysms between December 2010 and February 2013. Patients were followed up with CT angiogram (CTA) or digital subtraction angiogram (DSA). Eight patients with a total of eight dissecting aneurysms were identified. The mean duration from SAH to treatment was 2.5 days. Six of the aneurysms arose from vertebral arteries and two from the basilar artery. Immediate check-DSA confirmed satisfactory contrast stasis in all eight cases, and complete aneurysmal obliteration was achieved at six months. There were two (25%) procedure-related complications, but no major procedure-related complications, such as thromboembolic events or rebleeding from aneurysm were encountered. The PED is a feasible treatment option for ruptured dissecting cerebral aneurysms in acute phase. According to our experience, using PED as flow-diverters in acute SAH does not significantly increase the complication risks or mortality rate if the antiplatelet regime is carefully monitored. Future studies shall evaluate the optimal antiplatelet regimen for using the PED in the acute phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Human placenta is a convenient resource for biomedical research, and has not yet been used for neurointerventional surgery research. Objective Our objective was to explore the feasibility of using human placenta to test various endovascular interventions and for training. Design 18 placentas soon after delivery were prepared for six pilot studies. (1) Study on anatomical similarity to human cerebral vessel. (2) Simulation of stent assisted coiling and flow diversion on an aneurysm model. (3) Simulation of intra-arterial thrombolysis. (4) Simulation of embolization of arteriovenous malformation with glues. (5) Simulation of mechanical thrombolysis and comparison of different devices. (6) Vascular model for training of neurointerventionalists. Results When the chorionic plate vessels were compared with the cerebral cortical vessels, similarities were found in vascular branch patterns, histological cross sections, and angiographic appearances. Due to the semitransparency of its vessel wall, performance of flow diverter and stent assisted coiling of an aneurysm could be visualized under direct microscopic observation. Similarly, timing of clot lysis and glue polymerization could be estimated. Endothelial change after thrombectomy could be assessed by histological methods. From these pilot studies, the placenta model could be adopted to simulate various clinical situations. It is also ideal for interventional radiology training. Conclusions It is feasible to adopt the human placenta as an ex vivo vascular model in neurointerventional surgery research due to the fact that its vessels resemble the brain vasculature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The main diagnostic methods for evaluating repaired menisci include second-look arthroscopy, clinical assessment, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). None of the previous studies applied all 3 methods for each consecutive case nor made any systematic comparison among them.Purpose: This study was undertaken to compare the diagnostic values of the 3 different methods in an attempt to propose suggestions for evaluating meniscal healing results.Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2.Methods: Eighty-one patients (89 menisci), with a mean age of 25.4 years (standard deviation [SD], 7.7; range, 15-50 years), underwent arthroscopic meniscal repair, including 65 medial menisci and 24 lateral menisci. Follow-up evaluation for each meniscus included clinical assessment, second-look arthroscopy, and postoperative MRI, with a mean follow-up time of 25.4 months (SD, 6.0; range, 17.4-48.3 months). Defined criteria for unhealed meniscus were any symptoms such as joint-line tenderness, swelling, locking, or positive McMurray test for clinical assessment; cleft or instability on second-look arthroscopy; and grade 3 signal intensity shown at the repaired site on postoperative MRI.Results: Seventy-seven menisci were confirmed completely healed by second-look arthroscopy, with a total healing rate of 86.5%. Clinical assessment found 63 menisci healed, with a clinical healing rate of 70.8% (sensitivity, 58.3%; specificity, 75.3%; accuracy, 73.0%). By using the second-look arthroscopy as the standard, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, respectively, were calculated for MRI in 5 sequences: sagittal T1: 91.7%, 58.4%, 62.9%; sagittal proton density (PD): 83.3%, 40.3%, 46.1%; sagittal T2: 58.3%, 89.6%, 85.4%; coronal PD: 75.0%, 74.0%, 74.2%; and coronal T2: 41.7%, 98.7%, 91.0%.Conclusion: Second-look arthroscopy was the most dependable way to determine meniscal healing. Clinical assessment had obvious limitations in diagnosing healed menisci. On MRI examination, T2-weighted sequences had obviously higher specificity and accuracy, while PD and T1 had higher sensitivity. The diagnostic value could be improved by a combined application of different sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]