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Biomedical subjects

C J Herold

Publications and source records attributed to C J Herold.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Evaluation of marrow perfusion in the femoral head by dynamic magnetic resonance imaging. Effect of venous occlusion in a dog model.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: There is a continuing need for a greater sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of avascular necrosis (AVN). Previously, it was demonstrated that a dynamic MRI method, with gadolinium-DTPA (Gd-DTPA) enhancement, can detect acute changes not seen on spin-echo images after arterial occlusion in a dog model. Because venous congestion appears to be a more directly relevant hemodynamic abnormality in a majority of clinical AVN cases, the authors extended the dynamic MRI technique to study changes in venous occlusion. METHODS: Dynamic MRI of the proximal femur was performed in five adult dogs before and after unilateral ligation of common iliac and lateral circumflex veins. Sixteen sequential gradient-recalled pulse sequence (GRASS) images (time resolution = 45 mseconds, echo time = 9 mseconds, flip angle = 65 degrees) were obtained immediately after a bolus intravenous injection of 0.2 mmol/kg of Gd-DTPA. Simultaneous measurements of regional blood flow were made using the radioactive microsphere method. RESULTS: After venous ligation, there was a 25% to 45% decrease in the degree of enhancement compared with preligation values on the ligated side. The decrease in cumulative enhancement (integrated over the entire time course) was statistically significant. The occlusion technique was verified by confirming a statistically significant decrease in blood flow determined by the microsphere method. CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic Gd-DTPA-enhanced fast MRI technique can detect acute changes in bone marrow perfusion due to venous occlusion. This technique may have applications in the early detection of nontraumatic AVN.

Animals

Acute effects of increased intravascular volume and hypoxia on the pulmonary circulation: assessment with high-resolution CT.

High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was used to evaluate acute morphologic changes in the circulation of anesthetized miniature pigs (a) after volume loading and (b) after induction of hypoxia. Before and after each challenge, serial HRCT scans were obtained at a constant position in the caudal lobes of the lung. Scans were digitized and analyzed to determine the extent of changes in the cross-sectional area of vessels greater than 300 microns in diameter. Parenchymal background attenuation in anterior, middle, and posterior lung regions was used to assess volume changes in vessels less than 300 microns in diameter. Volume loading increased cross-sectional area by 25.2% +/- 4.3 in arteries and by 37.8% +/- 6.1 in veins and caused a gravity-dependent increase in parenchymal attenuation. Hypoxia decreased parenchymal attenuation, which was consistent with constriction of vessels smaller than 300 microns. Larger arteries and veins reacted heterogeneously. Vascular dilation during volume loading was predominantly passive, and hypoxia increased vascular tone throughout the circulation. HRCT represents a new in vivo approach to investigate vascular responses to various stimuli.

Acute Disease

Pituitary adenomas: findings of postoperative MR imaging.

Preoperative and postoperative magnetic resonance (MR) images obtained in 25 patients with pituitary macroadenomas (1.1-5.2 cm in diameter) were evaluated to determine normal (physiologic) and abnormal findings after transsphenoidal or subfrontal surgery. With a 1.5-T unit, T1-weighted sagittal and coronal images were obtained before and after administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine. The physiologic changes after surgery included resorption of packing material and sphenoid sinus opacifications, reexpansion of the pituitary gland, and lowering of the optic chiasm. Implanted gelatin foam appeared as an endosellar, circularly enhancing mass that was seen on follow-up studies to have decreased in size. Muscle-and-fat implants appeared as areas of high signal intensity. In 14 patients, residual tumors were found in the suprasellar (n = 4), retrosellar (n = 3), parasellar (n = 8), and/or endosellar (n = 3) space. Residual tumors were differentiated from implant materials by means of location, characteristic signal intensity, and enhancing pattern, which were identical to those of the corresponding preoperative adenoma in 13 cases (93%). Preoperative studies and clinical information are helpful in the evaluation of postoperative MR imaging examinations.

Adenoma

Hypoxic bronchodilation.

Recent advances in computed tomographic imaging provide a unique method to serially and directly visualize acute physiological response in the lung. To directly investigate the airway response to hypoxia, high-resolution computed tomographic scans of the lungs of eight intact anesthetized minipigs were serially repeated before, during, and after ventilation with a hypoxic gas mixture (inspired fraction of O2 congruent to 0.07). This approach demonstrated an acute reversible 56 +/- 8% (SE) dilation in large airways (greater than 2 mm diam) and a 90 +/- 15% dilation in small airways (less than 1.99 mm diam) with decreased inspired O2 tension. Of the airways studied, 70 of 76 dilated. Hypoxic bronchodilation may interact with hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction in the fundamental physiological process of ventilation-perfusion matching in the lung.

Animals

Pulmonary atelectasis: signal patterns with MR imaging.

To assess the signal characteristics of different types of pulmonary atelectasis on magnetic resonance (MR) images, the authors studied obstructive atelectasis (OA) in 17 patients and nonobstructive atelectasis (NOA) in 25 patients. All patients underwent electrocardiographically gated MR imaging studies of the thorax with standard spin-echo sequences. No signal differences were observed between either type of atelectasis on T1-weighted images. Conversely, OA and NOA appeared significantly different on spin-density-weighted images (P less than .001) and on T2-weighted studies (P less than .0001). On T2-weighted images, all 17 cases of OA appeared hyperintense, whereas 22 of 25 cases of NOA demonstrated a very low signal intensity. Differences in the pathophysiology of OA and NOA presumably account for this observation. In OA, alveolar air is totally resorbed and secretions accumulate in the obstructed lung. The resulting increase in free fluid prolongs the T2 relaxation times and leads to high signal intensity on T2-weighted images. In NOA, the short T2 relaxation time of lung tissue in the absence of secretions and potential magnetic susceptibility effects due to residual air are likely to be responsible for the low T2 signal pattern.

Electrocardiography

Bone marrow perfusion evaluated with gadolinium-enhanced dynamic fast MR imaging in a dog model.

The authors studied, in a dog model, the feasibility of using gadolinium-enhanced dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to noninvasively monitor bone marrow perfusion of the proximal femur. With a gradient-recalled acquisition, sequential images of 10 hips in five healthy dogs were obtained for 14 minutes after an intravenous bolus injection of 0.2 mmol of gadopentetate dimeglumine per kilogram. The study was repeated after unilateral arterial embolization of major femoral vessels. Radiolabeled microspheres were injected before and after vessel occlusion. After unilateral embolization, statistically significant differences in enhancement were observed between embolized and control sides (eg, 31% vs 83% average peak enhancement in the femoral neck). There was a high correlation (r = .81 [average]) between the MR data and the microsphere blood flow measurements. The postembolization data indicate that contrast-enhanced fast MR imaging may allow early detection of abnormal bone marrow flow. This technique may be valuable in evaluating patients at risk for avascular necrosis of the femoral head, especially in posttraumatic cases.

Animals

Assessment of pulmonary airway reactivity with high-resolution CT.

The evaluation of airway reactivity plays a central role in the diagnosis of bronchial hyperreactivity and asthma. The authors used high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) to assess airway reactivity and compared the results with simultaneously performed measurements of airway pressure (Paw). Ten anesthetized and ventilated dogs were studied in a control state, after saline aerosol application, and after histamine aerosol challenge. In each condition, Paw was determined and HRCT was performed at functional residual capacity. On the HRCT scans, the cross-sectional areas of airway lumina were measured by using a computer edging process. After histamine challenge, HRCT demonstrated a decrease in airway areas of 43% +/- 2% (mean +/- standard error) from baseline (control) and Paw increased 99% +/- 18%. Surprisingly, saline aerosol challenge also resulted in a significant decrease in airway areas (26% +/- 3%) from control, while Paw measurements did not change significantly. Airway reactivity varied between dogs and within dogs. The authors conclude that HRCT can depict the site and degree of airway reactions and thus represents a new tool to assess airway reactivity in vivo.

Animals

Aortic dissection: atypical patterns seen at MR imaging.

Aortic dissection is typically manifested by an intimal flap separating true and false lumens. Atypical patterns lacking an intimal flap can occur, however, and are less well recognized. In this study, the authors review their experience with atypical patterns at magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. They evaluated the T1-weighted and gradient-echo MR images of the entire aorta in 64 patients with aortic dissection. In nine patients (14%) aortic wall thickening was the only sign of dissection in the thorax. In three of these cases, an intimal flap was found in the abdominal aorta; the other six patients had no flap in any region of the aorta, and this led to false-negative angiographic results in three cases. Aortic wall thickening as an atypical sign of dissection was seen more frequently in acute (29%) than in chronic (7%) dissection and was seen in only patients without Marfan syndrome. Two patients with atypical acute dissection at initial examination developed a clearly identifiable intimal flap at follow-up. Aortic wall thickening may represent the only sign of aortic dissection. In some cases, imaging the entire aorta can enable recognition of dissection in atypical cases.

Acute Disease

In vivo measurements of airway reactivity using high-resolution computed tomography.

Changes in airway resistance are reported to account for only a portion of changes in total lung resistance. The fraction of total lung resistance caused by airway resistance is difficult to quantify in vivo. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) has potential application for directly measuring changes in airway size in vivo. In the present investigation, we studied five anesthetized mongrel dogs using HRCT to locate and measure changes in airway area after aerosol histamine challenge in the absence and presence of deep inspiration. We also related changes in total lung resistance to changes in airway area. We found that in all dogs after histamine aerosol challenge, airway area decreased (range, 23 +/- 7 to 67 +/- 5%, mean +/- SEM), and total lung resistance increased (range, 191 to 378%). After deep inspiration (equal to three times tidal volume), four of the five dogs showed further significant decreases in airway area (range, 13 +/- 6 to 71 +/- 8%), whereas all five dogs showed decreases in RL (range, 3 to 35%). The fact that preconstricted airways constricted further after deep inspiration while the measured RL decreased suggests that RL may not always be a reliable indicator of changes in the size of conducting airways larger than 1 mm.

Airway Resistance

[Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis: radiologic and magnetic resonance tomographic characteristics].

46 patients with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) were investigated by chest radiographs (n = 46), plain film tomograms (n = 16), CT (n = 8) and MRI (n = 13). Radiologic characteristics of early IPA were nodular or patchy infiltrates in the upper lobes of all patients. Enlargement of the infiltrates and/or development of segmental/lobar consolidations were typical for fully developing IPA. Air crescent signs were seen in 40% of patients during or after bone marrow restitution. CT added additional information by visualisation of small pleural based infiltrates, demonstration of air crescents and identification of halo phenomena. MRI revealed the target character of nodular aspergillomas with hypointense centres and rims of higher signal intensity. A gadolinium-DTPA rim enhancement could be observed in almost all nodular lesions. Hyperintense areas in nodular and segmental infiltrates on T1-weighted images were interpreted as aging haemorrhage (methemoglobin) in aspergillus-induced haemorrhagic infarcts or in focal parenchymal bleeding.

Aspergillosis

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis: evaluation with MR imaging.

Eleven patients with suspected invasive pulmonary aspergillosis underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Images were obtained with standard spin-echo sequences and electrocardiographic triggering before and after intravenous administration of gadolinium diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid. Thirty-seven of 48 lesions seen on MR images were nodular infiltrates; 34 of these had a targetlike appearance, with hypointense centers and iso- or hyperintense rims. Twenty-three of 37 nodular lesions contained areas of hyperintensity on T1-weighted images. All 37 had enhanced rims on postcontrast MR images. The remaining 11 lesions were segmental infiltrates, seven of which were predominantly hyperintense on T1-weighted images. In one patient with nodular lesions, MR imaging findings were correlated with those from pathologic analysis of a resected upper lobe. Areas of hyperintensity corresponded to subacute hemorrhage permeated by Aspergillus organisms. The authors believe that the typical targetlike appearance of nodular lesions on MR images and the potential that MR imaging has to reveal hemorrhagic content will prove useful in the early diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis.

Aspergillosis

Skeletal involvement in hairy cell leukemia.

The clinical and radiographic aspects of two patients with destructive bone lesions, complicating the course of hairy cell leukemia are presented. The findings are compared with those of 27 previously published cases. The most prominent features of this rare skeletal disorder are osteolysis and widespread or localized demineralisation with predilection for the femoral head and neck. Localized persisting pain is the leading clinical symptom in all cases. Magnetic resonance imaging is helpful in evaluating the extent of bone marrow infiltration and demonstrates focal areas of decreased signal intensity in sites of radiographically detectable bone destruction as well as in bones that appear normal on plain films.

Bone Neoplasms