Bilateral elastofibroma dorsi: Role of MR imaging in diagnosis

Elastofibroma dorsi is slow growing, solid but ill defined, uncommon soft tissue lesion that appears in elderly individuals as a mass in the chest soft tissues, most commonly found in the periscapular region. The tumor is typically unilateral, although bilateral involvement has been reported. It is a benign chest wall lesion that is not well known to radiologists. This diagnosis is often missed prospectively. To our knowledge, there is a limited number of papers of CT and MRI findings of elastofibroma dorsi in the literature. If the radiologist is aware of this uncommon benign fibrous pseudotumor, radical or unnecessary surgery may possibly be prevent. CT and MRI appearances in a 56-year-old woman with bilateral elastofibroma dorsi are presented to alert physicians to this entity in this paper. © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

MR imaging findings of a large epidermal cyst

An epidermal cyst is a benign cystic tumor arising from epidermis. In this report, we presented computed tomography and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging findings of this entity with a brief review of literature. © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the thalamus in essential tremor patients

PubMed: 16254402Background and Purpose. Although essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders, its pathogenesis remains obscure. The ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus (VIM nucleus) is suggested to play an important role in the occurrence of disease. In this study, the authors investigated the presence of biochemical or metabolic alterations in the thalamus of patients with ET using magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy. Methods. The study group included 14 patients with ET who suffered from tremor predominantly in their right arm and 9 healthy controls. All patients and controls were right handed. Following conventional cranial MR imaging, single voxel proton MR spectroscopy of the thalamus involving the VIM nuclei was performed bilaterally in both the patients with ET and controls. Metabolite peaks of choline (Cho), creatine (Cr), and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) were obtained from each spectroscopic volume of interest. The right and left thalamic NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios were compared first within the patient group and then between the control and patient groups. The differences in age and spectroscopic data between groups were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test, whereas the comparison within groups between left thalamus and right thalamus was done by the Wilcoxon test. Results. In patients with ET, the NAA/Cr ratio of the right thalamus was found to be significantly higher than the NAA/Cr ratio of the left thalamus (P = .02). However, NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios were found to be similar (P > .05) when we compared the control and patient groups for the right thalamus and then the left thalamus. Conclusion. These data present preliminary evidence for metabolic alterations of the contralateral thalamus (namely, low NAA/Cr ratio) in ET patients with predominantly involved right arm. However, the series is small and further data are necessary to clear the subject adequately. Copyright © 2005 by the American Society of Neuroimaging

Erratum: MR spectroscopy of cervical spinal cord in patients with multiple sclerosis (Neuroradiology (2004) (s0023400412707) (10.1007/s00234-004-1231-1)

[No abstract available

MR spectroscopy of cervical spinal cord in patients with clinical and/or electrophysiologic signs of spinal cord compression

We evaluated the efficiency of MR spectroscopy compared with conventional MR imaging in 14 patients with clinical and/or electrophysiologic signs of spinal cord compression. Cervical spinal cord was evaluated for the presence of abnormal signal intensity on T1 and T2 weighted images. MR spectroscopy was performed at the level of spinal cord compression seen on conventional MR images. Clinical and/or electrophysiological studies were also obtained to confirm the presence of a suspected spinal cord compression for these areas. MR spectroscopy was also performed at a normal site of spinal cord without any clinical and/or electrophysiological finding of compression and without any sign of compression on conventional MR images. MR spectroscopy findings of suspected areas were compared with the normal areas for each patient. Twenty levels of cervical spinal cord with both clinical and/or electrophysiological and conventional MR signs of compression were evaluated with MR spectroscopy. MR spectroscopy was also performed at the normal areas of the cervical spinal cord selected adjacent to the level of compression as vascularity and metabolism of cervical spinal cord significantly change between different levels. All patients except one had a decrease in N-acetylaspartate level at the suspected areas compared to the normal areas without any sign or suspicion of compression. Creatine levels were increased in 14 suspected area but decreased in six. Choline levels were decreased in 12 and increased in eight levels. Lactate levels were increased at eight levels and decreased in 12 levels. MR spectroscopy of the spinal cord can yield results supporting both clinical and electrophysiological evaluation. MR spectroscopy of the spinal cord at the level of compression observed on conventional MR images can support neuronal loss and disruption of axonal integrity