scholarly journals Combined Brain-Heart Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease Patients with Cardiac Symptoms: Hypothesis Generating Insights from a Cross-Sectional Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 447 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Markousis-Mavrogenis ◽  
Dimos D. Mitsikostas ◽  
Loukia Koutsogeorgopoulou ◽  
Theodoros Dimitroulas ◽  
Gikas Katsifis ◽  
...  

Background: Autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) may affect both the heart and the brain. However, little is known about the interaction between these organs in ARD patients. We asked whether brain lesions are more frequent in ARD patients with cardiac symptoms compared with non-ARD patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods: 57 ARD patients with mean age of 48 ± 13 years presenting with shortness of breath, chest pain, and/or palpitations, and 30 age-matched disease-controls with non-autoimmune CVD, were evaluated using combined brain–heart magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a 1.5T system. Results: 52 (91%) ARD patients and 16 (53%) controls had white matter hyperintensities (p < 0.001) in at least one brain area (subcortical/deep/periventricular white matter, basal ganglia, pons, brainstem, or mesial temporal lobe). Only the frequency and number of subcortical and deep white matter lesions were significantly greater in ARD patients (p < 0.001 and 0.014, respectively). ARD vs. control status was the only independent predictor of having any brain lesion. Specifically for deep white matter lesions, each increase in ECV independently predicted a higher number of lesions [odds ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.16 (1.01–1.33), p = 0.031] in ordered logistic regression. Penalized logistic regression selected only ARD vs. control status as the most important feature for predicting whether brain lesions were present on brain MRI (odds ratio: 5.46, marginal false discovery rate = 0.011). Conclusions: Subclinical brain involvement was highly prevalent in this cohort of ARD patients and was mostly independent of the severity of cardiac involvement. However, further research is required to determine the clinical relevance of these findings.

2006 ◽  
Vol 189 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selim M. El-Badri ◽  
David A. Cousins ◽  
Sean Parker ◽  
Heather C. Ashton ◽  
Victor L. McAllister ◽  
...  

SummaryTemporal lobe and limbic structures may be abnormal in bipolar disorder. T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans frequently show deep white matter lesions. MRI was performed on 50 young (19–39 years) euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and 26 controls. Mean temporal lobe volumes were reduced in patients (right, 9.42 cm3; left, 6.33 cm3) but this could not be ascribed to a specific structure. Deep white matter lesions were present in 5 patients but no controls raising questions of their aetiological significance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 1289-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niraj Mistry ◽  
Rasha Abdel-Fahim ◽  
Amal Samaraweera ◽  
Olivier Mougin ◽  
Emma Tallantyre ◽  
...  

Background: White matter lesions are frequently detected using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed for various indications. Most are microangiopathic, but demyelination, including multiple sclerosis (MS), is an important cause; conventional MRI cannot always distinguish between these pathologies. The proportion of lesions with a central vein on 7-T T2*-weighted MRI prospectively distinguishes demyelination from microangiopathic lesions. Objective: To test whether 3-T T2*-weighted MRI can differentiate MS from microangiopathic brain lesions. Methods: A total of 40 patients were studied. Initially, a test cohort of 10 patients with MS and 10 patients with microangiopathic white matter lesions underwent 3-T T2*-weighted brain MRI. Anonymised scans were analysed blind to clinical data, and simple diagnostic rules were devised. These rules were applied to a validation cohort of 20 patients (13 with MS and 7 with microangiopathic lesions) by a blinded observer. Results: Within the test cohort, all patients with MS had central veins visible in >45% of brain lesions, while the rest had central veins visible in <45% of lesions. By applying diagnostic rules to the validation cohort, all remaining patients were correctly categorised. Conclusion: 3-T T2*-weighted brain MRI distinguishes perivenous MS lesions from microangiopathic lesions. Clinical application of this technique could supplement existing diagnostic algorithms.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aiko Tamura ◽  
Nagato Kuriyama ◽  
Kentaro Akazawa ◽  
Etsuko Ozaki ◽  
Isao Watanabe ◽  
...  

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-215
Author(s):  
Yasuo Fukuuchi ◽  
Takahiro Amano ◽  
Hayao Shiga ◽  
Makoto Ichijo ◽  
Yoshiaki Itoh ◽  
...  

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