Background-Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) has received considerable attention as an intervention to enhance motor recovery and cortical reorganization after stroke.

PURPOSE. To calculate age-related and per diopter (D) accommodative changes in crystalline lens and ciliary muscle dimensions in vivo in a single cohort of emmetropic human adults ages 30 to 50 years. METHODS.The right eyes of 26 emmetropic adults were examined using ultrasonography, phakometry, anterior segment optical coherence tomography, and high resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Accommodation was measured both subjectively and objectively.RESULTS. In agreement with previous research, older age was linearly correlated with a thicker lens, steeper anterior lens curvature, shallower anterior chamber, and lower lens equivalent refractive index (all P < 0.01). Age was not related to ciliary muscle ring diameter (CMRD) or lens equatorial diameter (LED). With accommodation, lens thickness increased (þ0.064 mm/D, P < 0.001), LED decreased (À0.075 mm/D, P < 0.001), CMRD decreased (À0.105 mm/D, P < 0.001), and the ciliary muscle thickened anteriorly (þ0.013 to þ0.026 mm/D, P < 0.001) and thinned posteriorly (À0.011 to À0.015, P < 0.01). The changes per diopter of accommodation in LED, CMRD, and ciliary muscle thickness were not related to subject age.CONCLUSIONS. The per diopter ciliary muscle contraction is age independent, even as total accommodative amplitude declines. Quantifying normal biometric dimensions of the accommodative structures and changes with age and accommodative effort will further the development of new IOLs designed to harness ciliary muscle forces. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci.

Purpose To assess reproducibility in measuring left ventricular (LV) myocardial stiffness in volunteers throughout the cardiac cycle using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and to determine its correlation with age. Methods Cardiac MRE (CMRE) was performed on 29 normal volunteers, with ages ranging from 21 to 73 years. For assessing reproducibility of CMRE-derived stiffness measurements, scans were repeated per volunteer. Wave images were acquired throughout the LV myocardium, and were analyzed to obtain mean stiffness during the cardiac cycle. CMRE-derived stiffness values were correlated to age. Results Concordance correlation coefficient revealed good inter-scan agreement with rc of 0.77, with p-value<0.0001. Significantly higher myocardial stiffness was observed during end-systole (ES) compared to end-diastole (ED) across all subjects. Additionally, increased deviation between ES and ED stiffness was observed with increased age. Conclusion CMRE-derived stiffness is reproducible, with myocardial stiffness changing cyclically across the cardiac cycle. Stiffness is significantly higher during ES compared to ED. With age, ES myocardial stiffness increases more than ED, giving rise to an increased deviation between the two.

Purpose: To develop a protocol which optimizes contrast, resolution and scan time for three-dimensional (3D) imaging of the human eye in vivo using a 7 Tesla (T) scanner and custom radio frequency (RF) coil. Materials and Methods:Initial testing was conducted to reduce motion and susceptibility artifacts. Three-dimensional FFE and IR-TFE images were obtained with variable flip angles and TI times. T 1 measurements were made and numerical simulations were performed to determine the ideal contrast of certain ocular structures. Studies were performed to optimize resolution and signalto-noise ratio (SNR) with scan times from 20 s to 5 min.Results: Motion and susceptibility artifacts were reduced through careful subject preparation. T 1 values of the ocular structures are in line with previous work at 1.5T. A voxel size of 0.15 Â 0.25 Â 1.0 mm 3 was obtained with a scan time of approximately 35 s for both 3D FFE and IR-TFE sequences. Multiple images were registered in 3D to produce final SNRs over 40. Conclusion:Optimization of pulse sequences and avoidance of susceptibility and motion artifacts led to high quality images with spatial resolution and SNR exceeding prior work. Ocular imaging at 7T with a dedicated coil improves the ability to make measurements of the fine structures of the eye.

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