[Use of postmortem brain magnetic resonance imaging at autopsy].

The study was undertaken to define the possibilities of using postmortem MRI for examining the brain. A complex study was made to explore 21 neutral formalin-fixed gross brain specimens from patients with neurosurgical pathology. Macroscopic and target histological studies of the changed signal areas detected by MRI were performed using histochemical stains. The significance of the results obtained by MRI in vitro has been defined, which furnish considerable opportunities to use the technique for the postmortem diagnosis of various diseases, to detect macroscopically undetectable changes (perifocal changes, metastases), to make a complex of intractable diagnostic problems, and to study the histological substrate of changed MR signal areas.

[The results of brain MRI in patients with vascular and posttraumatic encephalopathy: a comparative study].

Using clinical, psychological methods and MRI, 199 patients with vascular (VE) and posttraumatic encephalopathy (PE) have been studied. It is shown that atherosclerosis, essential hypertension and their combination become relevant at the age of 40 years. Multiple microfocal white matter lesions, leukoaraiosis, extensive bilateral atrophic changes and dilatation of subarachnoid spaces were characteristic of patients with VE (mean age 67+/-10 years). In patients with PE, mean age 22+/-7 years, the local dilatation of subarachnoid space, unilateral dilatation of lateral ventricle and cystic changes in subarachnoid spaces were detected.

[Postural imbalance in patients with vascular brain pathology]. / Postural'nye narusheniia u patsientov s sosudistoi patologiei golovnogo mozga.

Using MRI survey, 163 patients with various brain pathology of vascular genesis were studied. Vascular dementia according to NINDS-AIREN classification was diagnosed in 15% of patients. Cognitive disturbances in other patients did not reach a level of dementia. A control group comprised 61 subjects without rough structural changes on MRI and cognitive dysfunction. Motor disorders were estimated according to classification of J. Nutt et al. (1993), quantitative static changes were registered using computer stabilography. The results of the study showed that postural instability occurs in 100% of patients with vascular brain pathology. A degree of its expression elevated in direct proportion to the expression of cognitive disturbances, reaching a maximum in patients with dementia.

[Use of US-contrast media in the diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis]. / Primenenie UZ-kontrastnykh veshchestv v diagnostike stenozov sonnykh arterii.

With the advent of ultrasound diagnostic devices that provide a possibility of colored mapping, regimes of energy Doppler regimens, and procedures of second harmonic, conditions for using ultrasound contrast agents occurred. The drug Levovist was used during carotid Doppler study in 16 patients in whom primary vascular scanning was of poor quality. The use of Levovist improved the accuracy of diagnosing the degree of arterial stenosis from 40 to 95%. Thus, the use of ultrasound contrast agents in Doppler ultrasound of carotids makes it possible to specify the degree of stenosis, to differentiate arterial subocclusion and occlusion, to visualize minor vessels with low blood velocity.