Imaging of cerebrovascular complications from blunt skull base trauma.

Cerebrovascular complications from blunt trauma to the skull base, though rare, can lead to potentially devastating outcomes, emphasizing the importance of timely diagnosis and management. Due to the insidious clinical presentation, subtle nature of imaging findings, and complex anatomy of the skull base, diagnosing cerebrovascular injuries and their complications poses considerable challenges. This article offers a comprehensive review of skull base anatomy and pathophysiology pertinent to recognizing cerebrovascular injuries and their complications, up-to-date screening criteria and imaging techniques for assessing these injuries, and a case-based review of the spectrum of cerebrovascular complications arising from skull base trauma. This review will enhance understanding of cerebrovascular injuries and their complications from blunt skull base trauma to facilitate diagnosis and timely treatment.

Hippocampal and Cerebellar Involvement in Opioid-Associated Amnestic Syndrome: A Unique Case Report.

We present a case of opioid-associated amnestic syndrome (OAS) in a 46-year-old female with persistent acute anterograde amnesia and biochemically confirmed with fentanyl use. The brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) examination demonstrated symmetric restricted diffusion and T2/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) hyperintensities in the hippocampi and cerebellum. While cases of cerebellar findings in OAS are rare in the literature, this is a unique case with corresponding images that demonstrate cerebellar involvement in addition to the more common hippocampal finding.

Development of Anterior Cranial Fossa Dural Arteriovenous Fistula and Supraclinoid Internal Carotid Artery Pseudoaneurysm Following Frontobasal Trauma: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Cerebrovascular injuries resulting from frontobasal head trauma represent a range of imaging and clinical presentations. Severe cerebrovascular injuries such as vessel transection commonly present with profound neurological deficits and are often easily identified with routine imaging. However, small intimal injuries and dissections may be challenging to detect and may be clinically silent or masked by additional injuries in the setting of polytrauma. The onset of symptoms and complications from cerebrovascular injuries may be delayed from the time of initial presentation, and failure to recognize and diagnose these injuries may result in devastating outcomes if management is delayed. In this case report, we present a case of frontobasal craniofacial trauma that resulted in an anterior cranial fossa dural arteriovenous fistula (ACF-dAVF) and supraclinioid segment internal carotid artery (ICA) pseudoaneurysm.

Confirmation of Intracranial Neuroendocrine Metastasis Using 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT.

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are rare neoplasms with an exceedingly low incidence of intracranial metastasis. We present a 79-y-old woman with a biopsy-proven pulmonary neuroendocrine tumor who presented with an intracranial mass in the posterior fossa that was avid on 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT, facilitating the rare diagnosis of intracranial NET metastasis. The case highlights the utility of advanced imaging techniques in differentiating intracranial NET metastasis from other etiologies.

Imaging of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression.

Metastatic epidural spinal cord compression develops in 5-10% of patients with cancer and is becoming more common as advancement in cancer treatment prolongs survival in patients with cancer (1-3). It represents an oncological emergency as metastatic epidural compression in adjacent neural structures, including the spinal cord and cauda equina, and exiting nerve roots may result in irreversible neurological deficits, pain, and spinal instability. Although management of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression remains palliative, early diagnosis and intervention may improve outcomes by preserving neurological function, stabilizing the vertebral column, and achieving localized tumor and pain control. Imaging serves an essential role in early diagnosis of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression, evaluation of the degree of spinal cord compression and extent of tumor burden, and preoperative planning. This review focuses on imaging features and techniques for diagnosing metastatic epidural spinal cord compression, differential diagnosis, and management guidelines.

Adult Glioma WHO Classification Update, Genomics, and Imaging: What the Radiologists Need to Know.

Recent advances in the understanding of the genetic makeup of gliomas have led to a paradigm shift in the diagnosis and classification of these tumors. Driven by these changes, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced an update to its classification system of central nervous system (CNS) tumors in 2016. The updated glioma classification system incorporates molecular markers into tumor subgrouping, which has been shown to better correlate with tumor biology and behavior as well as patient prognosis than the previous purely histology-based classification system. Familiarity with this new classification scheme, the individual molecular markers, and corresponding imaging findings is critical for the radiologists who play an important role in diagnostic and surveillance imaging of patients with CNS tumors. The goals of this article are to review these updates to the WHO classification of CNS tumors with a focus on adult gliomas, provide an overview of key genomic markers of gliomas, and review imaging features pertaining to various genomic subgroups of adult gliomas.