Open-access quantitative MRI data of the spinal cord and reproducibility across participants, sites and manufacturers

In a companion paper by Cohen-Adad et al. we introduce the spine generic quantitative MRI protocol that provides valuable metrics for assessing spinal cord macrostructural and microstructural integrity. This protocol was used to acquire a single subject dataset across 19 centers and a multi-subject dataset across 42 centers (for a total of 260 participants), spanning the three main MRI manufacturers: GE, Philips and Siemens. Both datasets are publicly available via git-annex. Data were analysed using the Spinal Cord Toolbox to produce normative values as well as inter/intra-site and inter/intra-manufacturer statistics. Reproducibility for the spine generic protocol was high across sites and manufacturers, with an average inter-site coefficient of variation of less than 5% for all the metrics. Full documentation and results can be found at https://spine-generic.rtfd.io/. The datasets and analysis pipeline will help pave the way towards accessible and reproducible quantitative MRI in the spinal cord

Association of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage with left ventricular hypertrophy on transthoracic echocardiography

Introduction: Arterial hypertension is the most frequent cause for spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) and may also cause left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). We sought to analyze whether hypertensive sICH etiology is associated with LVH. Methods: We analyzed consecutive patients with sICH who were admitted to our tertiary stroke center during a four-year period and underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) as part of the diagnostic work-up. We defined hypertensive sICH as typical localization of hemorrhage in patients with arterial hypertension and no other identified sICH etiology. We defined an increased end-diastolic interventricular septal wall thickness of ≥11 mm on TTE as a surrogate parameter for LVH. Results: Among 395 patients with sICH, 260 patients (65.8%) received TTE as part of their diagnostic work-up. The median age was 71 years (interquartile range (IQR) 17), 160 patients (61.5%) were male, the median baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 8 (IQR 13). Of these, 159 (61.2%) patients had a hypertensive sICH and 156 patients (60%) had LVH. In univariable (113/159 (71.1%) vs. 43/101 (42.6%); odds ratio (OR) 3.31; 95% confidence interval (CI95%) 1.97–5.62); and multivariable (adjusted OR 2.95; CI95% 1.29–6.74) analysis, hypertensive sICH was associated with LVH. Conclusions: In patients with sICH, LVH is associated with hypertensive bleeding etiology. Performing TTE is meaningful for diagnosis of comorbidities and clarification of bleeding etiology in these patients. Future studies should include long-term outcome parameters and assess left ventricular mass as main indicator for LVH. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland