Comparative effectiveness of frame-based, frameless, and intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging-guided brain biopsy techniques.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the diagnostic yield and safety profiles of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided needle brain biopsy with 2 traditional brain biopsy methods: frame-based and frameless stereotactic brain biopsy. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed of 288 consecutive needle brain biopsies in 277 patients undergoing stereotactic brain biopsy with any of the 3 biopsy methods at Brigham and Women's Hospital from 2000-2008. Variables including age, sex, history of radiation and previous surgery, pathology results, complications, and postoperative length of hospital stay were analyzed. RESULTS: Over the course of 8 years, 288 brain biopsies were performed. Of these, 253 (87.8%) biopsies yielded positive diagnostic tissue. Young age (<40 years old) and history of brain radiation or surgery were significant negative predictors for a positive biopsy diagnostic yield. Excluding patients with prior radiation or surgeries, no significant difference in diagnostic yield was detected among the 3 groups, with frame-based biopsies yielding 96.9%, frameless biopsies yielding 91.8%, and intraoperative MRI-guided needle biopsies yielding 89.9% positive diagnostic yield. Serious adverse events occurred 19 biopsies (6.6%). Intraoperative MRI-guided brain biopsies were associated with less serious adverse events and the shortest postoperative hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Frame-based, frameless stereotactic, and intraoperative MRI-guided brain needle biopsy techniques have comparable diagnostic yield for patients with no prior treatments (either radiation or surgery). Intraoperative MRI-guided brain biopsy is associated with fewer serious adverse events and shorter hospital stay.

Sustained axon regeneration induced by co-deletion of PTEN and SOCS3.

A formidable challenge in neural repair in the adult central nervous system (CNS) is the long distances that regenerating axons often need to travel in order to reconnect with their targets. Thus, a sustained capacity for axon regeneration is critical for achieving functional restoration. Although deletion of either phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN), a negative regulator of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), or suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 (SOCS3), a negative regulator of Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway, in adult retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) individually promoted significant optic nerve regeneration, such regrowth tapered off around 2 weeks after the crush injury. Here we show that, remarkably, simultaneous deletion of both PTEN and SOCS3 enables robust and sustained axon regeneration. We further show that PTEN and SOCS3 regulate two independent pathways that act synergistically to promote enhanced axon regeneration. Gene expression analyses suggest that double deletion not only results in the induction of many growth-related genes, but also allows RGCs to maintain the expression of a repertoire of genes at the physiological level after injury. Our results reveal concurrent activation of mTOR and STAT3 pathways as key for sustaining long-distance axon regeneration in adult CNS, a crucial step towards functional recovery.