A rare finding of bilateral facial canal meningoceles involving the tympanic segment in suspected idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Meningoceles are a common radiological feature found in cases of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). Rarely, they can affect the facial canal within the petrous temporal bone, leading to symptoms such as facial nerve palsy, hearing loss or meningitis. This is the first case report that describes bilateral facial canal meningoceles involving the tympanic segment of the canal. Prominent Meckel's caves were also seen on MRI, a feature commonly associated with IIH.

Traumatic dural venous sinus gas predicts a higher likelihood of dural venous sinus thrombosis following blunt head trauma.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the association between intrasinus gas and dural venous sinus thrombosis (DVST) in patients with blunt head trauma. METHODS: One hundred and two consecutive patients with blunt head trauma imaged with non-enhanced CT and CT head venography at our institution between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2016 were included. Image review was performed by two independent reviewers to assess for the presence of intrasinus or perisinus gas and DVST. Skull fractures involving a dural venous sinus, sinus hyperdensity, extraaxial haematoma, and/or extrinsic dural venous sinus compression were also recorded. Univariate and multivariate analyses estimated the associations between the imaging variables and DVST. RESULTS: Thirty-seven cases of DVST were confirmed with CT venography: 10 (27.0%) occlusive, and 27 (73.0%) non-occlusive. We detected 24 cases of intrasinus gas, all occurring with skull fractures. Gas localized to the sinus involved by the fracture in 23 (95.8%) of 24 cases. Additional gas within a contiguous sinus was present in nine (37.5%) cases. The association between intrasinus gas and DVST of the respective sinus was statistically significant (OR: 11.3, CI: 3.9-32.9, P < 0.0001). DVST was also significantly associated with the presence of a skull fracture (P = 0.04), fractures involving the sigmoid sinus (P = 0.0001), and sinus hyperdensity (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Traumatic intrasinus gas is associated with DVST in patients with blunt head trauma. Its detection on non-enhanced CT examinations in the emergency care setting infers a higher risk of DVST and should prompt consideration of CT venography.

Foramen tympanicum with symptomatic temporomandibular joint herniation.

Foramen tympanicum (FT), or foramen of Huschke, describes an uncommon anatomicvariant of a persistent bony defect connecting the external acoustic meatus to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Although rare, it can be associated with significant complications, such as TMJ herniation, salivary gland fistula, infectious or tumoral spread between the external acoustic meatus and the TMJ, or result in inadvertent ear injury during TMJ arthroscopy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of a symptomatic FT with a full description of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings. Surgical exploration confirmed the presence of FT with TMJ herniation with subsequent successful closure of the defect obtained.

A comparison of radiostereometric analysis and computed tomography for the assessment of lumbar spinal fusion in a sheep model.

Study Design Prospective animal study. Objective The aim of this animal study is to evaluate the accuracy of radiostereometric analysis (RSA) compared with computed tomographic (CT) scan in the assessment of spinal fusion after anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) using histology as a gold standard. Methods Three non-adjacent ALIFs (L1-L2, L3-L4, and L5-L6) were performed in nine sheep. The sheep were divided into three groups of three sheep. All the animals were humanely killed immediately after having the last scheduled RSA. The lumbar spine was removed and in vitro fine cut CT and histopathology were performed. Results Using histological assessment as the gold standard for assessing fusion, RSA demonstrated better results (100% sensitivity and 66.7% specificity; positive predictive value [PPV] = 27.3%, negative predictive value [NPV] =100.0%) compared with CT (66.7% sensitivity and 60.0% specificity [PPV = 16.7%, NPV = 93.8%]). Conclusions RSA demonstrated higher sensitivity and specificity when compared with CT. Furthermore, RSA has the advantage of much lower radiation exposure compared with fine cut CT. Further studies are required to see if RSA remains superior to CT scan for the assessment spinal fusion in the clinical setting. [Table: see text].

Assessing potential spinal injury in the intubated multitrauma patient: does MRI add value?

The purpose of the study was to determine the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in intubated multitrauma patients with normal computed tomography (CT) in excluding unstable ligamentous injury to the cervical spine. A retrospective evaluation was done on those multitrauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit of a level 1 trauma centre who had normal single-slice helical CT cervical spine and underwent MRI for cervical spine clearance from 1/1/04 to 30/6/05. Fifty-five patients met the inclusion criteria. Ten of these patients had a discoligamentous injury identified on MRI; however, all these patients had injuries limited to only one of the three columns of the cervical spine. Single-slice helical CT with sagittal reformats had a negative predictive value of 82% for discoligamentous injury and 100% for unstable injury. A normal single-slice helical CT with sagittal reformats of the cervical spine in intubated trauma patients excluded unstable injuries at follow-up cervical spine MR imaging.

MRA captures vasospasm in fatal migrainous infarction.

A 57-year-old woman presented with an escalation of her headaches which ultimately progressed to multiple strokes and death. MRI/MRA demonstrated diffuse vasospasm and other causes of stroke were excluded on premortem investigation and postmortem examination. Reversible MRI abnormalities, vasospasm on angiogram and fatal migrainous infarction have been previously reported; however, no previous case with this combination of clinical, imaging, and postmortem findings has been documented.