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Background: We studied the evolution over time of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) lesion volume and the factors involved on early and late infarct growth (EIG and LIG) in stroke patients undergoing endovascular treatment (EVT) according to the final revascularization grade. Methods: This is a prospective cohort of patients with anterior large artery occlusion undergoing EVT arriving at 1 comprehensive stroke center. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed on arrival (pre-EVT), Results: We included 98 patients (mean age 70, median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 17, final mTICI≥2b 86%). Median EIG and LIG were 48 and 63.3 mL in patients with final mTICIρ =0.667; P ρ =0.614; P Conclusions: Infarct grows during and after EVT, especially in nonrecanalizers but also to a lesser extent in recanalizers. In recanalizers, number of passes and DWI volume influence EIG, while number of passes, DWI, and hypoperfused volume after the procedure determine LIG.

Introduction: After achieving successful reperfusion some acute stroke patients still exhibit persistent perfusion deficits. These deficits have been defined in a heterogeneous manner by using CBF, CBV or Tmax maps as a perfusion deficit in the previous ischemic penumbra (impaired microcirculation perfusion-IMP) or inside the infarcted tissue (no reflow-NR). The significance, frequency and pathophysiology of this phenomenon are so far unknown. Methods: Prospective cohort of patients with isolated anterior intracranial occlusion undergoing endovascular treatment (EVT) and achieving complete recanalization (final mTICI≥2B). Brain MRI was performed on arrival (pre-EVT) and &lt2h after EVT (post-EVT). Infarcted tissue was segmented on DWI pre-EVT. Pre and post-EVT perfusion maps were obtained with Olea software. NR was defined in the post-EVT perfusion maps as the region inside the infarcted tissue which showed a CBV&lt15% compared to the contralateral side, while IMP was the equivalent area inside the previous tissue in penumbra. We evaluated the association between both NR and IMP and NIHSS at 24h, NIHSS at discharge and modified Rankin score (mRS) at three months adjusting by baseline NIHSS and final mTICI. Results: Thirty-five patients were included. All of them had IMP areas and 25 (71%) had NR areas. The median volume of NR and IMP was 3.43ml [IQR 1.43-8.81], corresponding to 17.9% of the infarcted tissue [IQR 4.2-50.3] and 33.9ml [IQR 14.0-69.3] (27.7% [IQR 8.2-51.2] of the penumbra) respectively. Patients with NR areas had higher NIHSS at 24 h and at discharge and higher mRS at 3 months. Volume of NR was independently associated with higher NIHSS at 24 h and at discharge. No independent association was found with IMP volume. Neither NR nor IMP were associated with hemorrhagic transformation. Patients receiving rTPA previous to EVT showed higher perfusion values inside the infarct than patients with primary EVT (2.31 mL/100g [1.48-2.43] vs 0.92 [0.7-1.47] p=0.02), although NR areas appeared in the same proportion in both groups. Conclusions: No reflow phenomenon can be a marker of poor outcome in the early evaluation of successfully recanalized stroke patients especially when the persistent perfusion deficit is located inside the infarcted tissue.

Purpose: Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumor in adults and has few therapeutic options. The study of molecular subtype classifications may lead to improved prognostic classification and identification of new therapeutic targets. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) subtype classification has mainly been applied in U.S. clinical trials, while the intrinsic glioma subtype (IGS) has mainly been applied in European trials. Experimental Design: From paraffin-embedded tumor samples of 432 patients with uniformly treated, newly diagnosed glioblastoma, we built tissue microarrays for IHC analysis and applied RNA sequencing to the best samples to classify them according to TCGA and IGS subtypes. Results: We obtained transcriptomic results from 124 patients. There was a lack of agreement among the three TCGA classificatory algorithms employed, which was not solely attributable to intratumoral heterogeneity. There was overlapping of TCGA mesenchymal subtype with IGS cluster 23 and of TCGA classical subtype with IGS cluster 18. Molecular subtypes were not associated with prognosis, but levels of expression of 13 novel genes were identified as independent prognostic markers in glioma-CpG island methylator phenotype–negative patients, independently of clinical factors and MGMT methylation. These findings were validated in at least one external database. Three of the 13 genes were selected for IHC validation. In particular, high ZNF7 RNA expression and low ZNF7 protein expression were strongly associated with longer survival, independently of molecular subtypes. Conclusions: TCGA and IGS molecular classifications of glioblastoma have no higher prognostic value than individual genes and should be refined before being applied to clinical trials.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumor in adults and has few therapeutic options. The study of molecular subtype classifications may lead to improved prognostic classification and identification of new therapeutic targets. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) subtype classification has mainly been applied in U.S. clinical trials, while the intrinsic glioma subtype (IGS) has mainly been applied in European trials.From paraffin-embedded tumor samples of 432 patients with uniformly treated, newly diagnosed glioblastoma, we built tissue microarrays for IHC analysis and applied RNA sequencing to the best samples to classify them according to TCGA and IGS subtypes.We obtained transcriptomic results from 124 patients. There was a lack of agreement among the three TCGA classificatory algorithms employed, which was not solely attributable to intratumoral heterogeneity. There was overlapping of TCGA mesenchymal subtype with IGS cluster 23 and of TCGA classical subtype with IGS cluster 18. Molecular subtypes were not associated with prognosis, but levels of expression of 13 novel genes were identified as independent prognostic markers in glioma-CpG island methylator phenotype-negative patients, independently of clinical factors andTCGA and IGS molecular classifications of glioblastoma have no higher prognostic value than individual genes and should be refined before being applied to clinical trials.

We report a case of acute-onset multifocal vertebral osteitis with a marked impact on the patient's general health. The radiological, scintigraphic and magnetic resonance findings made it necessary to carry out a differential diagnosis to distinguish it from an infiltrative neoplastic process and determine whether it had an infectious or an inflammatory etiology. The presence of noninfectious multifocal osteitis and sternoclavicular arthritis and the subsequent development of plantar pustulosis pointed to SAPHO syndrome. Treatment with infliximab led to improvement in the clinical symptoms, laboratory values and radiological abnormalities.

We report a case of acute-onset multifocal vertebral osteitis with a marked impact on the patient's general health. The radiological, scintigraphic and magnetic resonance findings made it necessary to carry out a differential diagnosis to distinguish it from an infiltrative neoplastic process and determine whether it had an infectious or an inflammatory etiology. The presence of noninfectious multifocal osteitis and sternoclavicular arthritis and the subsequent development of plantar pustulosis pointed to SAPHO syndrome. Treatment with infliximab led to improvement in the clinical symptoms, laboratory values and radiological abnormalities.

To compare the prognostic value of pulse amplitude on intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring and disproportionately enlarged subarachnoid space hydrocephalus (DESH) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for predicting surgical benefit after shunt placement in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH). Patients with suspected iNPH were prospectively recruited from a single centre. All patients received preoperative MRI and ICP monitoring. Patients were classified as shunt responders if they had an improvement of one point or more on the NPH score at 1 year post-surgery. The sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, and positive and negative predictive values of the two diagnostic methods were calculated. Sixty-four of 89 patients clinically improved at 1 year post-surgery and were classed as shunt responders. Positive DESH findings had a sensitivity of 79.4 % and specificity of 80.8 % for predicting shunt responders. Fifty-five of 89 patients had positive DESH findings: 50 of these responded to VP shunt, giving a positive and negative predictive value of 90.9 % and 61.8 %, respectively. Fifty-seven of 89 patients had high ICP pulse amplitude. High ICP pulse amplitude had a sensitivity of 84.4 %, specificity of 88 %, positive predictive value of 94.7 % and negative predictive value of 61.8 % for predicting shunt responders. Both positive DESH findings and high ICP pulse amplitude support the diagnosis of iNPH and provide additional diagnostic value for predicting shunt-responsive patients; however, high ICP amplitude was more accurate than positive DESH findings, although it is an invasive test.

To assess the value of resection in glioblastoma based on pre-surgical tumor characteristics and a subsequent staging system. The lack of a staging system for glioblastoma hinders the analysis of treatment outcome. We classified 292 uniformly treated glioblastoma patients as stage I, II, or III based on tumor size, location, and eloquence and then analyzed the impact of the extent of resection. We classified 62% of patients as stage I, 25.3% as stage II, and 12.7% as stage III. Gross total resection (GTR) was performed mainly in stage I rather than stage II or III patients (79.2% vs. 14.6% vs. 6.3%; P < 0.001). Overall survival (OS) was 17.7, 14.6, and 10.8 months for stage I, II, and III patients, respectively (P = 0.005). Longer OS was significantly associated with greater extent of resection, younger age, KPS >= 70%, MGMT methylation, lower stage, and tumor

In a previous study, we have shown the added value of (1) H MRS for the neuroradiological characterisation of adult human brain tumours. In that study, several methods of MRS analysis were used, and a software program, the International Network for Pattern Recognition of Tumours Using Magnetic Resonance Decision Support System 1.0 (INTERPRET DSS 1.0), with a short-TE classifier, provided the best results. Since then, the DSS evolved into a version 2.0 that contains an additional long-TE classifier. This study has two objectives. First, to determine whether clinicians with no experience of spectroscopy are comparable with spectroscopists in the use of the system, when only minimum training in the use of the system was given. Second, to assess whether or not a version with another TE is better than the initial version. We undertook a second study with the same cases and nine evaluators to assess whether the diagnostic accuracy of DSS 2.0 was comparable with the values obtained with DSS 1.0. In the second study, the analysis protocol was flexible in comparison with the first one to mimic a clinical environment. In the present study, on average, each case required 5.4 min by neuroradiologists and 9 min by spectroscopists for evaluation. Most classes and superclasses of tumours gave the same results as with DSS 1.0, except for astrocytomas of World Health Organization (WHO) grade III, in which performance measured as the area under the curve (AUC) decreased: AUC = 0.87 (0.72-1.02) with DSS 1.0 and AUC = 0.62 (0.55-0.70) with DSS 2.0. When analysing the performance of radiologists and spectroscopists with respect to DSS 1.0, the results were the same for most classes. Having data with two TEs instead of one did not affect the results of the evaluation.

Purpose: Glioblastoma (GB) patients usually have symptoms that affect their functional status, and medical staff, as well as the patients and their caregivers, might have different perceptions about it. The performance status is important to establish a patient’s survival prediction and treatment decisions. This study was aimed to explore whether health care providers, patients, and caregivers have a common perception of patients’ functional statuses and to investigate in further studies whether the functional scales used in oncology clinical practice are objective tools to evaluate brain tumour patients. Methods: GB patients treated at our Neuro-Oncology Unit were evaluated once using Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG) and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) by a medical oncologist (MO), an independent investigator (II), the patient and the patient’s main caregiver. Results: Fifty patients were enrolled. Concordance in KPS evaluation among the four observers was low (Fleiss’ Kappa=0.354; p

e14039Background: GBM is associated with a uniformly poor prognosis. The evaluation of response to treatment by MRI is imperfect some results may difficulties to deciding changing treatment. We ana...

Introduction: In glioblastoma, the extent of surgery affects neurological condition, survival, and the efficacy of postsurgical systemic treatment. We analyzed the impact of surgical extent on overall survival in function of baseline tumor radiological characteristics (size, eloquence of adjacent brain, and location) and known prognostic factors. Material and Methods: Patients received standard radiotherapy and concomitant/adjuvant temozolomide (GLIOCAT Study). We used an MRI-based topographical glioblastoma staging system (stages I, II, and III) integrating tumor location (A, B, C), size (≤5 cm or >5cm), and eloquence of adjacent brain. Evaluations were accepted when kappa was near 1; only evaluations of T1Gd sequences are reported. Surgery was classified as complete resection (CR=disease-free postoperative MRI), partial resection (PR), or biopsy (B). Age, Karnofsky performance score (KPS), Mini-Mental State (MMS), isocitrate dehydrogenase mutations (mIDH), and O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase promoter methylation (methMGMT) were recorded. Results: In 280 patients, Location: A = 133 (47.5%) // B = 110 (39.3%) // C = 37 (13.2%); Eloquence: NO=196 (70%)//YES= 84(30%); size: ≤5cm: 150(54.5%) // > 5cm: 125(45.5%); Stage: I: 100(43.9%)//II: (22.8%)//III: 76(33.3%). Clinical factors KPS (

e13513Background: Prognosis of GBM pts is still poor with a median survival of 15 months; however a small fraction survives more than 30 months, defined in our study as long term survivors (LTS-30)...

e13515Background: Molecular alterations in GBM, might better explain than morphology or clinical factors, differences in outcome and response to treatment. Multiple data integration an homogeneous ...

Background and Purpose— To describe the safety and effectiveness of a self-expanding and fully retrievable stent (Solitaire AB; ev3 Inc, Plymouth, MN) in revascularization of patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods— Prospective, single-center study of 20 patients with an acute ischemic stroke attributable to a large artery occlusion of the anterior circulation within the first 8 hours from symptoms onset (median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, 19 [interquartile range, 15–23]). The occlusion site was middle cerebral artery in 12 patients, proximal internal carotid artery/middle cerebral artery tandem occlusion in 3 patients, and terminus internal carotid artery in 5 patients. Thrombectomy was used as rescue therapy in 2 patients who were refractory to intra-arterial plasminogen activator, and in 3 patients in whom successful recanalization with the MERCI retriever was not achieved. Results— Successful revascularization defined as thrombosis in cerebral ischemia grade 2b or 3 was achieved in 18 of 20 (90%) treated vessels, and 16 patients showed immediate restoration of flow after stent deployment. The mean number of passes for maximal recanalization was 1.4, and the median (quartiles) time from groin puncture to recanalization was 50 (38–71) minutes. No case required adjuvant therapy after deployment of the embolectomy device. No significant procedural events occurred. Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was found in 2 (10%) patients, 4 (20%) patients died during the 90-day follow-up period, and 45% of patients showed good functional outcome at 3 months (modified Rankin Scale score ≤2). Conclusions— These results suggest that the Solitaire AB device can rapidly, safely, and effectively retrieve clots from the middle cerebral artery and terminus internal carotid artery within 8 hours from symptoms onset.