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AIM: To evaluate prospectively the performance of combining morphological and arterial spin labelling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for detecting pseudocapsule defects in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and to predict renal capsule invasion confirmed histopathologically. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty consecutive patients with suspicious renal tumours underwent MRI. Renal ASL imaging was performed and renal blood flow was measured quantitatively. The diagnostic performance of T2-weighted images alone, and a combination of T2-weighted and ASL images for predicting renal capsule invasion were assessed. RESULTS: Twenty renal lesions were evaluated in 20 patients. All lesions were clear cell RCCs (ccRCCs) confirmed at post-surgical histopathology. Fifteen ccRCCs showed pseudocapsule defects on T2-weighted images, of which 12 cases showed existing blood flow in defect areas on perfusion images. To predict renal capsule invasion, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 100%, 71.4%, 86.7%, 100%, respectively, for T2-weighted images alone, and 92.3%, 100%, 100%, 87.5%, respectively, for the combination of T2-weighted and ASL images. CONCLUSION: ASL images can reflect the perfusion of pseudocapsule defects and as such, the combination of T2-weighted and ASL images produces promising diagnostic accuracy for predicting renal capsule invasion.

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This ongoing study investigates the neural correlates of ankle dorsi-plantar flexion in active, passive, and proprioceptive tasks. Specifically, we investigated two proprioceptive matching tasks that required a simple combination of active and passive ankle movements: (1) a memory-based ipsilateral matching task and (2) a contralateral concurrent matching task. As expected, during the passive tasks, subjects recruited the same brain areas involved in the correspondent active movements (primary motor cortex (M1), premotor cortex (PM) supplementary motor cortex (SMA) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1)), but the activations were lower. Instead, in both the proprioceptive matching tasks, subjects recruited more motor and sensory-motor areas of the brain and the activations were greater.

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Recent studies have suggested that intra-axonal sodium accumulation contribute to axonal degeneration in patients with MS. Advances in MRI hardware and software allow acquisition of brain sodium signal in vivo. This review begins with a summary of the experimental evidence for impairment of sodium homeostasis in MS. Then, MRI methods for sodium acquisition are reviewed and the application of the techniques in patients with MS is discussed. Sodium imaging and ultra-high field MRI have the potential to provide tissue-specific markers of neurodegeneration in MS.

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Neuro-axonal degeneration occurs progressively from the onset of multiple sclerosis and is thought to be a significant cause of increasing clinical disability. Several histopathological studies of multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis have shown that the accumulation of sodium in axons can promote reverse action of the sodium/calcium exchanger that, in turn, leads to a lethal overload in intra-axonal calcium. We hypothesized that sodium magnetic resonance imaging would provide an indicator of cellular and metabolic integrity and ion homeostasis in patients with multiple sclerosis. Using a three-dimensional radial gradient-echo sequence with short echo time, we performed sodium magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T in 17 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and in 13 normal subjects. The absolute total tissue sodium concentration was measured in lesions and in several areas of normal-appearing white and grey matter in patients, and corresponding areas of white and grey matter in controls. A mixed model analysis of covariance was performed to compare regional tissue sodium concentration levels in patients and controls. Spearman correlations were used to determine the association of regional tissue sodium concentration levels in T(2)- and T(1)-weighted lesions with measures of normalized whole brain and grey and white matter volumes, and with expanded disability status scale scores. In patients, tissue sodium concentration levels were found to be elevated in acute and chronic lesions compared to areas of normal-appearing white matter (P < 0.0001). The tissue sodium concentration levels in areas of normal-appearing white matter were significantly higher than those in corresponding white matter regions in healthy controls (P < 0.0001). The tissue sodium concentration value averaged over lesions and over regions of normal-appearing white and grey matter was positively associated with T(2)-weighted (P < or = 0.001 for all) and T(1)-weighted (P < or = 0.006 for all) lesion volumes. In patients, only the tissue sodium concentration value averaged over regions of normal-appearing grey matter was negatively associated with the normalized grey matter volume (P = 0.0009). Finally, the expanded disability status scale score showed a mild, positive association with the mean tissue sodium concentration value in chronic lesions (P = 0.002), in regions of normal-appearing white matter (P = 0.004) and normal-appearing grey matter (P = 0.002). This study shows the feasibility of using in vivo sodium magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T in patients with multiple sclerosis. Our findings suggest that the abnormal values of the tissue sodium concentration in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis might reflect changes in cellular composition of the lesions and/or changes in cellular and metabolic integrity. Sodium magnetic resonance imaging has the potential to provide insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms of tissue injury when correlation with histopathology becomes available.

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Functional renal imaging-a fast-growing field of MR-imaging-applies different sequence types to gather information about the kidneys other than morphology and angiography. This update article presents the current status of different functional imaging approaches and presents current and potential clinical applications. Apart from conventional in-phase and opposed-phase imaging, which already yields information about the tissue composition, BOLD (blood-oxygenation level dependent) sequences, DWI (diffusion-weighted imaging) sequences, perfusion measurements, and dedicated contrast agents are used.

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A method for estimating T1 using a single breath-hold, segmented, inversion recovery prepared, true fast imaging with steady-state precession (sIR-TrueFISP) acquisition at low flip angle (FA) was implemented in this study. T1 values measured by sIR-TrueFISP technique in a Gd-DTPA-doped water phantom and the human brain and abdomen of healthy volunteers were compared with the results of the standard IR fast spin echo (FSE) technique. A good correlation between the two methods was observed (R2=0.999 in the phantom, and R2=0.943 in the brain and abdominal tissues). The T1 values of the tissues agreed well with published results. sIR-TrueFISP enables fast measurements of T1 to be obtained within a single breath-hold with good accuracy, which is particularly important for chest and abdominal imaging.

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PURPOSE: To demonstrate the usefulness of cine-MRI for the evaluation of apical left ventricular aneurysms (ALVA) and for prediction of the surgical outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated 28 patients with ALVA, 13 of them additionally after aneurysmectomy at 1.5 T; 15 healthy volunteers served as normal controls. For cine-MRI k-space segmented Fl-2D-GE sequences were used. Analysis comprised the calculation of cardiac volume indices, cardiac function, and percentual myocardial thickening (PMT). For prediction of surgical results we divided left ventricle into an aneurysmatic and a non-aneurysmatic part. The non-aneurysmatic part was assumed as the left ventricle after surgical remodelling. RESULTS: Enddiastolic and endsystolic volume indices (EDVIs and LV-ESVIs) were higher in patients with ALVA (123.7 +/- 30.2 ml/m(2), 94.3 +/- 32.5 ml/m(2), respectively) than in volunteers (79.1 +/- 13.9 ml/m(2), 25.5 +/- 5.1 ml/m(2), respectively) (p < 0.001). Stroke volume index (SVIs), cardiac index (CIs) and ejection fraction (EFs) were significantly lower in patients (30.4 +/- 9.1 vs. 54.2 +/- 0.2 ml/beat/m(2); 2.2 +/- 0.8 vs. 3.9 +/- 0.9 l/min/m(2), 26.0 +/- 9.7 vs. 67.9 +/- 4.5 %, respectively) (p < 0.001). There was a significant decrease of LV-EDVIs and LV-ESVIs (102.8 +/- 30.3 ml/m(2), 66.3 +/- 28.0 ml/m(2), respectively) (p = 0,002, p < 0.001, respectively), no change of SVIs (36.4 +/- 6.0 ml/beat/m(2)) (p > 0.05) and a significant increase of CIs and EFs (3.0 +/- 0.6 l/min/m(2), 37.91 +/- 10.15 %, respectively) (p < 0.001) after surgery. We found a good correlation between the preoperatively calculated (32.6 +/- 10.1 %) and the measured EF after surgery (37.9 +/- 9.8 %) (r = 0.70; p = 0.035). PMT was significantly lower in patients than in volunteers (median 11.9 +/- 10.7 vs. 70.2 +/- 13.9 %; p < 0.001), especially in the aneurysmatic parts of left ventricle (median - 6.8 %; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Cine-MRI offers accurate evaluation of ALVA and enables preoperative estimation of left-ventricular volumes after surgery.

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We report our preliminary results using a new magnetic resonance imaging technique for visualization of the urinary tract. Using the paramagnetic contrast medium gadolinium diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA), we were able to obtain images of the urinary tract comparable to those obtained by conventional excretory urography. The major advantage of our technique is that besides good morphologic visualization, the excretion of gadolinium-DTPA can be studied simultaneously. We demonstrate our preliminary results in selected cases.

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PURPOSE: To assess the value of functional magnetic resonance urology for the noninvasive postoperative evaluation of renal transplants. METHODS: A saturation inversion projection sequence allows the selective imaging of strongly T1 weighted signal from the MR contrast agent. A control slab leads to images comparable to conventional urography which can be acquired as a sequence with four images per minute. RESULTS: 15 patients with urologic questionable findings after renal transplantation were studied. FMRU revealed in 6 patients normal findings, in 6 moderate dilatation of the renal pelvis without any urodynamic relevant obstruction. 3 pathologic findings, ureteral leak, ureteropelvic-junction obstruction and ureteral stenosis were diagnosed and consequently surgically treated. The imaging quality in all studies was diagnostic and urologically relevant. CONCLUSION: FMRU can be used as a noninvasive technique for the assessment of renal transplant in cases with suspicion of complication in the excretory system.

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Magnetic resonance urography (MRU) after i.v. injection of gadolinium-DTPA (0.1 mmol/kg bodyweight) was performed in a patient with transplant dysfunction after renal allograft transplantation. Renal replacement therapy was accomplished by means of peritoneal dialysis. Gadolinium-DTPA concentrations in urine and dialysate were measured repeatedly during a 48-h period with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The total 24-h creatinine clearance was 10.8 ml/min on day 1 and 13.7 ml/min on day 2. The corresponding total gadolinium clearance was 12.8 ml/min and 15.8 ml/min respectively. Gadolinium-DTPA was removed from the body through peritoneal dialysis at a mean clearance rate of 5.13 ml/min. Plasma half-life of gadolinium-DTPA was prolonged to 9 h. No side-effects due to gadolinium-DTPA were noted. MRU provided a better visualization of the morphology of the urinary tract than scintigraphic studies. By measuring the changes of signal intensity, the gadolinium excretion could be calculated.

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