Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and its Imaging Features in Patients With Depression, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a type of noninvasive neurostimulation used increasingly often in clinical medicine. While most studies to date have focused on TMS's ability to treat major depressive disorder, it has shown promise in several other conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). As different treatment protocols are often used across studies, the ability to predict patient outcomes and evaluate immediate and long-term changes using imaging becomes increasingly important. Several imaging features, such as thickness, connectedness, and baseline activity of a variety of cortical and subcortical areas, have been found to be correlated with a greater response to TMS therapy. Intrastimulation imaging can reveal in real time how TMS applied to superficial areas activates or inhibits activity in deeper brain regions. Functional imaging performed weeks to months after treatment can offer an understanding of how long-term effects on brain activity relate to clinical improvement. Further work should be done to expand our knowledge of imaging features relevant to TMS therapy and how they vary across patients with different neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Value of acute neurovascular imaging in patients with suspected transient ischemic attack.

PURPOSE: Acute neurovascular imaging including MRA and/or CTA are routinely performed in the emergency departments (ED) for patients who present with suspected transient ischemic attacks (TIA). Given the current emphasis on mitigating the rising cost of health care nationally, and promoting high value practice, we sought to determine 1) the value of acute neurovascular imaging in patients presenting to the ED with TIA-like symptoms, and 2) whether these neurovascular studies led to a difference in management strategies. METHOD: We retrospectively reviewed 398 ED patients who presented with transient neurological deficits and underwent neurovascular imaging from 2015 to 2018. We reviewed diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and neurovascular results by patient demographics, baseline risk factors, final diagnosis, treatment/management dispositions and three-month follow-up. RESULTS: 28.1% (112/398) of patients were diagnosed with true TIA, whereas 71.9% patients were deemed to have a non-vascular etiology. Total rates of positive MRA/CTA for severe intracranial (>50%) and cervical vessel (>70%) stenosis were 10.5% and 1.7%. Patients with positive DWI scans had significantly higher rates of severe vascular stenosis (24.4% versus 7.8% intracranially and 2.4% versus 0.9% in the neck) compared to those with negative DWI scans. All patients were treated with multi-pronged medical therapies with no immediate surgical intervention. A follow-up stroke was equally likely in TIA patients with or without severe vascular stenosis. CONCLUSIONS: In patients presenting with TIA-like symptoms and DWI negative scans, the overall rate of positive neurovascular studies is very low. Triaging with DWI can reduce the frequency of unnecessary neurovascular imaging.

MRI findings of chronic distal tendon biceps reconstruction and associated post-operative findings.

Rupture of the distal biceps tendon is becoming increasingly diagnosed due to an active aging population and an increase in diagnostic imaging opportunities. While physical exam may help in diagnosis, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is particularly useful in evaluating chronic rupture. Although partial tears can be managed conservatively, the gold standard treatment for a chronic distal biceps tear is anatomic reinsertion with additional use of an allograft or autograft. No study has highlighted the normal appearance and postsurgical complications seen on MRI associated with allograft or autograft usage. Clinicians and radiologists may be unaware of the normal and abnormal post-operative imaging findings and their clinical relevance. The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss the epidemiology, clinical presentation, and preoperative MRI findings of distal biceps ruptures necessitating reconstruction, to explain distal biceps tendon surgical reconstruction technique with allograft or autograft usage, to display the normal and abnormal post-operative MRI findings, and to review the clinical outcomes associated with the procedure.

Which vendor is most cited in the hepatic imaging literature?

PURPOSE: When deciding among imaging equipment vendors, one may use a vendor's prevalence in peer-reviewed publications as a measure of their research and development. We sought to determine which vendors, countries, and journals were dominant in hepatic imaging literature of 2018 with respect to magnetic resonance (MR), computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound (US). METHODS: We recorded and analyzed the modality (MR, CT, US), journal, vendor, and authors' country for all original hepatic imaging articles published in 2018 in 29 imaging journals. RESULTS: Of 197 MR articles, investigators used Siemens in 98 (50%), General Electric (GE) in 65 (33%), and Philips in 63 (32%). Of 115 CT articles, investigators mentioned Siemens in 55 (48%), GE in 45 (39%), Philips in 25 (22%) and other vendors in 27 (24%). Of 68 ultrasound articles, Siemens dominated with 27 (40%), versus GE with 19 (28%), Philips with 11 (16%), and other vendors with 42 (62%). We found a significant difference in vendor usage for MR, CT, and all modalities (p < .01). The plurality of articles was written in the United States (73 [23%]) with South Korea (56 [17%]) and China (56 [17%]) following. European Radiology published the most hepatic articles. For American journals, we found a significant difference in MR (p = .02) and CT (p < .01) vendor usage, whereas non-American journals nearly reached significance in MR (p = .06) and CT (p = .06) vendor usage. CONCLUSION: Siemens was the most cited vendor in hepatic imaging literature for all modalities. American institutions and non-American journals published the most hepatic imaging articles.

Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Orthopedic Trauma and Infection in the Emergency Department.

Conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system constitute a significant portion of medical emergencies in the United States, with traumatic injury and infection being two of the most common etiologies. Although physical examination and plain radiographs are often sufficient to guide diagnosis and treatment, there are myriad traumatic and infectious pathologies that are commonly missed or simply not detectable on plain radiographs. Advanced imaging is subsequently warranted for additional workup.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an increasingly used imaging modality for musculoskeletal complaints in the emergency department due to its superior visualization of soft tissues, focal edematous changes, and occult osseous insults often not visible on plain radiographs. Although multiple studies have evaluated its utility in the workup of emergency musculoskeletal complaints, there remains a dearth of literature examining the use of MRI for certain occult diagnoses.Radiologists, emergency clinicians, and orthopedic surgeons must be knowledgeable of the indications for MRI in the emergency setting, as delayed diagnosis may contribute to increased morbidity and possibly mortality. This review summarizes the use of MRI in diagnoses relating to trauma or infection among patients presenting to the emergency department with a musculoskeletal complaint.

Vascular imaging in the initial evaluation of embolic stroke source.

PURPOSE: During acute ischemic stroke evaluations, neurovascular imaging is commonly performed to localize the source of a thromboembolus and to identify vascular stenoses. In this study, we aimed to analyze 1) the usefulness of intracranial and/or cervical CTA and MRA and carotid doppler ultrasound (DUS) for identifying the stroke source and 2) the incidence of vascular stenoses across stroke etiologies. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed intracranial and/or cervical CTA, DUS and MRA studies to identify the source of the acute stroke by Trial of ORG 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) criteria for 200 consecutive patients admitted with a stroke to our tertiary hospital. Stroke etiologies were ascertained and the rates of intracranial and cervical vascular stenoses were stratified by stroke type. RESULTS: Of 200 patients, the most probable sources of stroke were small vessel disease (29%), cardioembolic (26.0%) and atheroembolic (23.5%). Across all groups, 27.5% of patients had ≥70% stenosis on neurovascular imaging. The rate of ≥70% vascular stenosis in the neck was 6.9% and 5.8% in the small vessel and cardioembolic categories, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The TOAST etiologies of strokes were nearly equally distributed. Neurovascular imaging was of high utility for identifying large vessel intracranial stenoses in patients presenting with acute stroke across all etiologies, although neck CTA/MRA had a lower rate of positive studies with cardiogenic and small vessel strokes. These findings have implications on the use of CTA/MRA in acute stroke work-up.

Topical Estrogen Prescription Fill Rates for Women With a History of Breast Cancer Who Are Taking Hormone Therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate how often women with a history of breast cancer who are taking hormone therapy (HT) filled prescriptions for topical estrogens and whether this frequency varied over time and by type of HT used. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study using medical and outpatient drug claims from a large commercial claims database for the years 2010-2015. Women younger than age 65 years taking HT for breast cancer were classified as users of 1) tamoxifen only, 2) aromatase inhibitor(s) only, or 3) any other or multiple HTs. Our outcome variable was filling a prescription for topical estrogen in a given year. We used multivariable logistic regression models estimated with generalized estimating equations to determine whether the fill rate varied over time and by HT category adjusting for age, receipt of surgical or radiation treatment, types of outpatient health care provider visits, and comorbidities. RESULTS: We identified 352,118 records from 176,012 unique patients (mean age 54.3 years, range 18-64 years) who met eligibility criteria. Aromatase inhibitors were used more commonly (56.0% of patient-years) than tamoxifen (38.8%). Overall, 3.0% (range 2.9-3.1%) of women filled any topical estrogen prescription in a given calendar year. More than half of filled topical estrogen prescriptions were for tablets (57.0%) with the remainder for creams (25.8%) and rings (17.3%). In adjusted analyses, the fill rate for women taking tamoxifen was significantly less (2.4%; 95% CI 2.3-2.5%) than for women taking aromatase inhibitors (3.3%; 95% CI 3.2-3.4%). There was a small but statistically significant increase in fill rates across years (odds ratio 1.03, 95% CI 1.02-1.04). CONCLUSION: A small proportion of women with a history of breast cancer who were taking HT filled a topical estrogen prescription, with significant differences by type of HT. More evidence is needed to inform national guidelines regarding safety and appropriate use of topical estrogens in this patient population.

Clinical Evaluation of an Individualized Risk Prediction Tool for Men on Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether providing individualized predictions of health outcomes to men on active surveillance (AS) alleviates cancer-related anxiety and improves risk understanding. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We consecutively recruited men from our large, institutional AS program before (n = 36) and after (n = 31) implementation of a risk prediction tool. Men in both groups were surveyed before and after their regular visits to assess their perceived cancer control, biopsy-specific anxiety, and burden from cancer-related information. We compared pre-/post-visit differences between men who were and were not shown the tool using two-sample t-tests. Satisfaction with and understanding of the predictions were elicited from men in the intervention period. RESULTS: Men reported a relatively high level of cancer control at baseline. Men who were not shown the tool saw a 6.3 point increase (scaled from 0 to 100) in their perceived cancer control from before to after their visit whereas men who were shown the tool saw a 12.8 point increase, indicating a statistically significant difference between groups (p = .04). Biopsy-specific anxiety and burden from cancer information were not significantly different between groups. Men were satisfied with the tool and demonstrated moderate understanding. CONCLUSION: Providing individualized predictions to men on AS helps them better understand their cancer risk and should be considered at other clinical sites.

A scoping review of patient-sharing network studies using administrative data.

There is a robust literature examining social networks and health, which draws on the network traditions in sociology and statistics. However, the application of social network approaches to understand the organization of health care is less well understood. The objective of this work was to examine approaches to conceptualizing, measuring, and analyzing provider patient-sharing networks. These networks are constructed using administrative data in which pairs of physicians are considered connected if they both deliver care to the same patient. A scoping review of English language peer-reviewed articles in PubMed and Embase was conducted from inception to June 2017. Two reviewers evaluated article eligibility based upon inclusion criteria and abstracted relevant data into a database. The literature search identified 10,855 titles, of which 63 full-text articles were examined. Nine additional papers identified by reviewing article references and authors were examined. Of the 49 papers that met criteria for study inclusion, 39 used a cross-sectional study design, 6 used a cohort design, and 4 were longitudinal. We found that studies most commonly theorized that networks reflected aspects of collaboration or coordination. Less commonly, studies drew on the strength of weak ties or diffusion of innovation frameworks. A total of 180 social network measures were used to describe the networks of individual providers, provider pairs and triads, the network as a whole, and patients. The literature on patient-sharing relationships between providers is marked by a diversity of measures and approaches. We highlight key considerations in network identification including the definition of network ties, setting geographic boundaries, and identifying clusters of providers, and discuss gaps for future study.

Opportunities for Targeted Education: Critical Neuroradiologic Findings Missed or Misinterpreted by Residents and Fellows.

OBJECTIVE: We reviewed neuroradiology cases in which a resident or fellow missed a significant finding, to identify potential areas of deficiency that could be strengthened through targeted education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Included in the study were all neuroradiology reports from 2011 through 2013 that were marked with an electronic flag to indicate a significant modification between the preliminary and final versions. The reports were examined to determine whether a critical finding (CF) or a non-CF was missed, with the use of a hospital-approved list of 17 neuroradiology CFs. Results were analyzed for all trainees. RESULTS: A total of 978 modified reports were found among reports from 225,628 neuroradiology examinations. Of these modified reports, 891 (91.1%) contained an addendum that identified the discrepancy: 658 (73.8%) contained a CF,192 (21.7%) contained a non-CF, and 41 (4.6%) were changed from containing a CF to not containing a CF. A total of 725 missed CFs were found in the 658 modified reports. The CF miss rate for all trainees was 6.0% (95% CI, 5.6-6.4%), whereas that for residents was 8.6% and that for fellows was 4.8%. Residents missed hydrocephalus, intracranial pressure or edema, new hemorrhage, and new infarction more frequently than did fellows. The five most frequently missed CFs were congenital variation, infection, misplaced hardware, a new or enlarging mass, and vascular abnormality. CONCLUSION: Our trainees' overall CF miss rate was 6.0%. Five CFs had miss rates of approximately 10% or more, and residents missed four of the CFs more frequently than did fellows. With the use of these data, our curriculum could potentially be strengthened and our trainee error rates decreased, leading to improved patient care.