Vertebral Artery Injury Grading

In this AJNR Fellows' Journal Club article summary, Dr. Francis Deng and Dr. Amir Khadivi discuss the article by Proner et al., "Impact of Clinical and Radiologic Factors on CTP Timing in Acute Ischemic Stroke." They discuss the authors' findings that cardiac arrhythmias and older age are independent predictors of nondiagnostic CTP exams. Specifically, these factors often lead to the truncation of reference vessel time-attenuation curves that fail to reach equilibrium within a 45-second acquisition window.

Dr. Francis Deng discusses the article by Vankawala et al. entitled "Evaluating the Role of Imaging Markers in Predicting Stroke Risk and Guiding Management after Vertebral Artery Injury: A Retrospective Study." The Biffl grading scale assess blunt cerebrovascular injury severity, but its prognostic validity for vertebral artery injuries with respect to stroke risk remains controversial.

In this AJNR Author Interview, Dr. Francis Deng discusses with Dr. Babatunde Akinpelu the article "Assessing the Accuracy of Artificial Intelligence in Detecting Intracranial Aneurysms in a Clinical Setting Relative to Neuroradiologists." Neuroradiologists performed better than a commercial AI program for intracranial aneurysm detection in sensitivity and accuracy, while achieving comparable specificity. Common failure modes are reviewed.

In this AJNR article summary, Dr. Francis Deng reviews a study, from corresponding author Dr. Katherine Reinshagen, entitled "Retrospective Review of MR Findings in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Associated Clinical Features". In this large cohort, the yield of MRI for relevant findings was 5.9%, including tumors in less than 3%. The spectrum of pathology is illustrated

In this AJNR article summary, Dr. Francis Deng reviews an article by Dr. Andrew Callen and colleagues entitled "Enhancing Clarity in Dynamic Myelography Reporting: Results of a Survey of Patients and Referring Providers Evaluating a Standardized Reporting System in the Myelographic Workup of Patients with Suspected Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension". The SIH-RADS system provides a structured manner of reporting results of dynamic CT myelography that are clear, actionable, and preferred by both patients and providers.

In this AJNR Author Interview, Dr. Francis Deng discusses with Dr. Rohini Nadgir the article "Clinical Impact of Sinus CT Surveillance Imaging among Febrile Neutropenic Patients: A Retrospective Observational Study." CT sinus imaging results, positive or negative, did not directly alter clinical management in this patient population, suggesting that routine sinus CT may be a low-yield examination in the setting of febrile neutropenia.

Podcast editor Francis Deng explores a recent AJNR article, "Diagnostic Performance of Ultrasound in Neck Node NIRADS Category 2." Bottom line is: Ultrasound, with targeted FNA, can accurately determine tumor recurrence in patients with NI-RADS 2 (low suspicion) lymph node findings during surveillance of head and neck cancer.

Dr. Francis Deng interviews Dr. Ajay Madhavan about his article "Evaluation of Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension Probabilistic Brain MRI Scoring Systems in Normal Patients" published in the September issue of AJNR.    

In this AJNR Podcast author interview, Dr. Francis Deng is joined by leading expert Dr. Ana Franceschi, lead author of the recent AJNR State of the Practice paper on brain PET for Alzheimer disease. Dr. Franceschi breaks down everything clinicians need to know about this new era of molecular neuroimaging relevant to Alzheimer disease diagnostics and response assessment, from scan interpretation to the practical logistics of scaling up services.

New AJNR Podcast Editor Dr. Francis Deng discusses "Frontal Paraventricular Cysts: Refined Definitions and Outcomes" from the August issue of AJNR in this episode. Be sure to visit our website to watch the video version of this podcast.  (8:34)