Cerebral microbleeds (CMB) are increasingly being recognized as an important biomarker for neurovascular diseases. So far all attempts to count and quantify them have relied on manual methods that are time consuming and can be inconsistent. A technique is presented that semi-automatically identifies CMBs in susceptibility weighted images (SWI). This will both reduce the processing time and increase the consistency over manual methods. This technique relies on a statistical thresholding algorithm to identify hypointensities within the image. A support vector machine (SVM) supervised learning classifier is then used to separate true CMB from other marked hypointensities. The classifier relies on identifying features such as shape and signal intensity to identify true CMBs. The results from the automated section are then subject to manual review to remove false positives. This technique is able to achieve a sensitivity of 81.7% compared to the gold standard of manual review and consensus by multiple reviewers. In subjects with many CMBs this presents a faster alternative to current manual techniques at the cost of some lost sensitivity.

We examined prospectively the relationship between progressive disability in Huntington's disease (HD) and concomitant alterations in neuropsychological functioning and brain imaging indices in a cohort of 60 patients who were enrolled and followed for 30 to 42 months in a controlled clinical trial. Standardized measures of functional capacity and neuropsychological performance were collected, and CT was performed, at regular intervals every 6 to 12 months. Psychomotor skills showed the most significant and consistent decline among the cognitive functions assessed. Memory disturbances were already present at the time of enrollment, but memory did not deteriorate until patients reached advanced stages. Other cognitive operations, such as visual construction and semantic knowledge, manifested small and variable changes over time. CT indices of striatal atrophy correlated only with changes in psychomotor function, while the CT index of frontal atrophy weakly predicted memory and semantic knowledge scores at 42 months. These results confirmed earlier cross-sectional findings and extended our knowledge of the evolution of cognitive dysfunction in HD.

Our purpose of this study was to demonstrate the clinical potential and spatial resolution of a new MRI technique: high-resolution blood oxygen-level dependent venography (HRBV), in well-known intracranial vascular lesions, such as cavernous and venous angiomas, and venous sinus thrombosis. HRBV provides unique high-resolution information on veins without administration of contrast medium. The data are independent of conventional findings on MRI and potentially useful in characterising and demonstrating the architecture of vascular lesions of the brain.

Human spinal arachnoid villi and granulations were studied after distension by a subarachnoid perfusion of Berlin blue and trypan blue. These proliferations were distributed on almost every nerve root in the thoracic and lumbar region. Human spinal arachnoid villi and granulations were divided into those located entirely internal to the dura, those that extended into the dura, and those that penetrated the dura completely. Venous sinuses were closely related to most arachnoid proliferations.

To examine the premise that cognitive impairment in Huntington's disease (HD) is related to striatal degeneration, we determined those cognitive deficits most closely associated with linear CT indices of brain atrophy in HD. We systematically evaluated 60 drug-free HD patients who were judged to be in stages I (n = 34) or II (n = 26) of illness. All subjects underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment covering a broad spectrum of cognitive operations and standardized head CT imaging for determination of frontal horn (FH), intercaudate (CC), and outer-table (OT) distances. We grouped the cognitive test results, based on a principal-component factor analysis, to form factors 1 (complex psychomotor), 2 (verbal memory), 3 (visuospatial), and 4 (general knowledge). Factors 1 and 3 sharply discriminated between subjects in stages I and II of illness. Factors 1, 2, and 3 correlated strongly with CC/OT, an index of caudate atrophy, whereas only factor 2 correlated with FH/OT, an index of frontal atrophy. These data demonstrate that cognitive impairment is a clear-cut characteristic of early HD that is linked closely to the extent of caudate atrophy as measured by CT.