A 32-year-old male presented with a 4-year history of palpitations, diaphoresis, and orthostatic ... more A 32-year-old male presented with a 4-year history of palpitations, diaphoresis, and orthostatic hypotension. One year prior to presentation, he began experiencing severe, episodic headaches and neck pressure. Neurological work-up included an MRI head, neck, and spine, identifying a left posterior mediastinal lesion adjacent to the T5 vertebral body, approximately 2.4 x 2.0 cm. A community surgical center attempted mass resection via Video -assisted (VATS) approach. Resection was aborted intraoperatively due to a hypertensive crisis following lesion manipulation, with his systolic blood pressure increasing above 325 mmHg. Subsequent evaluation revealed a 24-hour urine norepinephrine of 6117 nmol/d (normal <575) and normetanephrines of 16.6 umol/d (normal <3.4). An MIBG study showed intense tracer avidity in the left paraspinal lesion and minimal uptake in the adrenal glands. A functional paravertebral paraganglioma was diagnosed and the patient was initiated on alpha and beta-...
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques, 2019
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA) encephalitis is a recently described autoimmune disease that... more N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA) encephalitis is a recently described autoimmune disease that typically presents with prodromal symptoms including upper respiratory tract infection, headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Psychiatric symptoms follow within weeks, including anxiety, insomnia, mania, paranoia and grandiose delusions. The diagnosis is confirmed by the detection of NMDA antibodies in the serum or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).1 Tumours, especially teratomas, are frequently associated with NMDA encephalitis; however, only 5% of male patients older than 18 years have been found to have an underlying tumour. Optic neuropathy associated with NMDA encephalitis is being increasingly recognised in the literature2–6 and was reviewed most recently by Mugavin et al.2 in 2017. In this report, we present a case of bilateral optic neuropathy in a young man diagnosed with NMDA receptor encephalitis.
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques, 2020
ABSTRACT:Interventional neuroradiology (INR) has evolved from a hybrid mixture of daring radiolog... more ABSTRACT:Interventional neuroradiology (INR) has evolved from a hybrid mixture of daring radiologists and iconoclastic neurosurgeons into a multidisciplinary specialty, which has become indispensable for cerebrovascular and neurological centers worldwide. This manuscript traces the origins of INR and describes its evolution to the present day. The focus will be on cerebrovascular disorders including aneurysms, stroke, brain arteriovenous malformations, dural arteriovenous fistulae, and atherosclerotic disease, both intra- and extracranial. Also discussed are cerebral vasospasm, venolymphatic malformations of the head and neck, tumor embolization, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, inferior petrosal venous sinus sampling for Cushing’s disease, and spinal interventions. Pediatric INR has not been included and deserves a separate, dedicated review.
BackgroundTo analyse the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) a... more BackgroundTo analyse the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) and identify factors predicting functional outcome.MethodsMulticentre retrospective cohort study of COVID-19 patients with AIS who presented to 30 stroke centres in the USA and Canada between 14 March and 30 August 2020. The primary endpoint was poor functional outcome, defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 5 or 6 at discharge. Secondary endpoints include favourable outcome (mRS ≤2) and mortality at discharge, ordinal mRS (shift analysis), symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (sICH) and occurrence of in-hospital complications.ResultsA total of 230 COVID-19 patients with AIS were included. 67.0% (154/230) were older than 60 years, while 33.0% (76/230) were younger. Median (IQR) National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at presentation was 12.0 (17.0) and 42.8% (89/208) presented with large vessel occlusion (LVO). Approximately 50.2% (102/203) of the patients had poor outcome...
Background Preventing errors and complications in neurointervention is crucial, particularly in t... more Background Preventing errors and complications in neurointervention is crucial, particularly in the treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs), where the natural history is generally benign, and the margin of treatment benefit small. We aimed to investigate how neurointerventionalists perceive the importance and frequency of errors and the resulting complications in endovascular UIA treatment, and which steps could be taken to prevent them. Methods An international multidisciplinary survey was conducted among neurointerventionalists. Participants provided their demographic characteristics and neurointerventional treatment volume. They were asked about their perceptions on the importance and frequency of different errors in endovascular UIA treatment, and which solutions they thought to be most effective in preventing these errors. Results Two-hundred-thirty-three neurointerventionalists from 38 countries participated in the survey. Participants identified errors in techni...
Official Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada
We describe the first documented case of meningitis caused by Lodderomyces elongisporus. Identifi... more We describe the first documented case of meningitis caused by Lodderomyces elongisporus. Identification of L. elongisporus was made on the basis of an arachnoid biopsy with pathology samples sent for fungal internal transcribed spacer sequencing after multiple central nervous system (CNS) fungal culture specimens were negative. After final diagnosis, treatment was transitioned from amphotericin to fluconazole, which, combined with insertion of lumbar drain followed by a permanent ventriculopleural shunt, resulted in significant clinical improvement. Our report reviews the literature of ( 1 ) cases of L. elongisporus, which almost exclusively describe fungemia or endocarditis; ( 2 ) CNS infections caused by Candida parapsilosis, an organism with which L. elongisporus was previously conflated; and ( 3 ) management of fungal meningitis–associated hydrocephalus.
BACKGROUND Maintenance of euvolemia and cerebral perfusion are recommended for the prevention of ... more BACKGROUND Maintenance of euvolemia and cerebral perfusion are recommended for the prevention of cerebral vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). We conducted a pilot randomized controlled study to assess the feasibility and efficacy of goal-directed therapy (GDT) to correct fluid and hemodynamic derangements during endovascular coiling in patients with aSAH. METHODS This study was conducted between November 2015 and February 2019 at a single tertiary center in Canada. Adult patients with aSAH within 5 days of aneurysm rupture were randomly assigned to receive either GDT or standard therapy during endovascular coiling. The incidence of dehydration at presentation and the efficacy of GDT were evaluated. RESULTS Forty patients were allocated to receive GDT (n=21) or standard therapy (n=19). Sixty percent of all patients were found to have dehydration before the coiling procedure commenced. Compared with standard therapy, GDT reduced the duration of intraoperative hypovolemia (mean difference 37.6 [95% confidence interval, 6.2-37.4] min, P=0.006) and low cardiac index (mean difference 30.7 [95% confidence interval, 9.5-56.9] min, P=0.035). There were no differences between the 2 treatment groups with respect to the incidence of vasospasm, stroke, death, and other complications up to postoperative day 90. CONCLUSIONS A high proportion of aSAH patients presented at the coiling procedure with dehydration and a low cardiac output state; these derangements were more likely to be corrected if the GDT algorithm was used. Compared with standard therapy, use of the GDT algorithm resulted in earlier recognition and more consistent treatment of dehydration and hemodynamic derangement during endovascular coiling.
A 63-year-old male immigrant from Hong Kong presented with a 2-day history of urinary retention. ... more A 63-year-old male immigrant from Hong Kong presented with a 2-day history of urinary retention. On examination, he had a cauda equina syndrome. Imaging by CT and MRI revealed a large L2-L3 disc herniation and spinal stenosis. An emergency bilateral L2 laminectomy and L2-L3 discectomy resolved his pre-operative symptoms. However, the MRI scan had also identified a sclerotic lesion at the left T12 pedicle, characterised by abnormal bone marrow T1 hypointensity (Figure 1A) and T2 hyperintensity (Figure 1B), suggesting a metastasis. However, a primary site was not identified in CT scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis, and a skeletal survey and an isotope bone scan did not reveal any other bone lesions. A fluoroscopic guided biopsy of the left T12 pediclular lesion was carried out. MICROSCOPIC PATHOLOGY
BACKGROUND Nerinetide, an eicosapeptide that interferes with post-synaptic density protein 95, is... more BACKGROUND Nerinetide, an eicosapeptide that interferes with post-synaptic density protein 95, is a neuroprotectant that is effective in preclinical stroke models of ischaemia-reperfusion. In this trial, we assessed the efficacy and safety of nerinetide in human ischaemia-reperfusion that occurs with rapid endovascular thrombectomy in patients who had an acute ischaemic stroke. METHODS For this multicentre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled study done in 48 acute care hospitals in eight countries, we enrolled patients with acute ischaemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion within a 12 h treatment window. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older with a disabling ischaemic stroke at the time of randomisation, had been functioning independently in the community before the stroke, had an Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) greater than 4, and vascular imaging showing moderate-to-good collateral filling, as determined by multiphase CT angiography. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intravenous nerinetide in a single dose of 2·6 mg/kg, up to a maximum dose of 270 mg, on the basis of estimated or actual weight (if known) or saline placebo by use of a real-time, dynamic, internet-based, stratified randomised minimisation procedure. Patients were stratified by intravenous alteplase treatment and declared endovascular device choice. All trial personnel and patients were masked to sequence and treatment allocation. All patients underwent endovascular thrombectomy and received alteplase in usual care when indicated. The primary outcome was a favourable functional outcome 90 days after randomisation, defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 0-2. Secondary outcomes were measures of neurological disability, functional independence in activities of daily living, excellent functional outcome (mRS 0-1), and mortality. The analysis was done in the intention-to-treat population and adjusted for age, sex, baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, ASPECTS, occlusion location, site, alteplase use, and declared first device. The safety population included all patients who received any amount of study drug. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02930018. FINDINGS Between March 1, 2017, and Aug 12, 2019, 1105 patients were randomly assigned to receive nerinetide (n=549) or placebo (n=556). 337 (61·4%) of 549 patients with nerinetide and 329 (59·2%) of 556 with placebo achieved an mRS score of 0-2 at 90 days (adjusted risk ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·96-1·14; p=0·35). Secondary outcomes were similar between groups. We observed evidence of treatment effect modification resulting in inhibition of treatment effect in patients receiving alteplase. Serious adverse events occurred equally between groups. INTERPRETATION Nerinetide did not improve the proportion of patients achieving good clinical outcomes after endovascular thrombectomy compared with patients receiving placebo. FUNDING Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Alberta Innovates, and NoNO.
Cardiac left ventricle (LV) quantification is among the most clinically important tasks for ident... more Cardiac left ventricle (LV) quantification is among the most clinically important tasks for identification and diagnosis of cardiac disease. However, it is still a task of great challenge due to the high variability of cardiac structure across subjects and the complexity of temporal dynamics of cardiac sequences. Full quantification, i.e., to simultaneously quantify all LV indices including two areas (cavity and myocardium), six regional wall thicknesses (RWT), three LV dimensions, and one phase (Diastole or Systole), is even more challenging since the ambiguous correlations existing among these indices may impinge upon the convergence and generalization of the learning procedure. In this paper, we propose a deep multitask relationship learning network (DMTRL) for full LV quantification. The proposed DMTRL first obtains expressive and robust cardiac representations with a deep convolution neural network (CNN); then models the temporal dynamics of cardiac sequences effectively with t...
Canadian Association of Radiologists journal = Journal l'Association canadienne des radiologistes, Jan 29, 2017
To explore the patient perception on radiation-related cancer risk from interventional radiology ... more To explore the patient perception on radiation-related cancer risk from interventional radiology (IR) procedures and whether informed radiation consent is warranted. A multiple-choice survey was prospectively administered to 68 adults undergoing a body or neuro-IR procedure with ionizing radiation exposure. Subgroup analysis with chi-square or Fisher exact test was performed based on patient past IR history (P < .05). A total of 81% of patients wanted to be informed if there was a radiation-related 3% increased cancer risk over 5 years. Although 55% considered 3% a small risk, 28% wanted to further discuss the risks and alternate options, and 15% would have only proceeded if it were a life-saving procedure: 89%, 80%, and 67% of patients wanted to be informed with exposure risks of 1 in 100, 1 in 1000, and 1 in 10,000, respectively. Only 53% were aware they were going to be exposed to radiation, irrespective of past IR history (P = .15). Most patients believed radiation consent sh...
The carotid web is an intraluminal shelf-like projection arising from the posterior wall of the c... more The carotid web is an intraluminal shelf-like projection arising from the posterior wall of the carotid bifurcation and an uncommon etiology of ischemic strokes. We describe the feasibility of endovascular stent placement to treat this condition. A 47-year-old woman presented with a sudden occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery. Computed tomography angiography and digital subtraction angiography showed a carotid web in the ipsilateral carotid bifurcation. Treatment included mechanical thrombectomy for the middle cerebral artery occlusion and carotid stent placement to prevent further ischemic episodes from the carotid web. At the 6-month follow-up, good apposition of the stent against the artery wall was noted, and the patient was free of neurologic symptoms. Carotid artery stent placement is a feasible option in the management of carotid webs.
A 32-year-old male presented with a 4-year history of palpitations, diaphoresis, and orthostatic ... more A 32-year-old male presented with a 4-year history of palpitations, diaphoresis, and orthostatic hypotension. One year prior to presentation, he began experiencing severe, episodic headaches and neck pressure. Neurological work-up included an MRI head, neck, and spine, identifying a left posterior mediastinal lesion adjacent to the T5 vertebral body, approximately 2.4 x 2.0 cm. A community surgical center attempted mass resection via Video -assisted (VATS) approach. Resection was aborted intraoperatively due to a hypertensive crisis following lesion manipulation, with his systolic blood pressure increasing above 325 mmHg. Subsequent evaluation revealed a 24-hour urine norepinephrine of 6117 nmol/d (normal <575) and normetanephrines of 16.6 umol/d (normal <3.4). An MIBG study showed intense tracer avidity in the left paraspinal lesion and minimal uptake in the adrenal glands. A functional paravertebral paraganglioma was diagnosed and the patient was initiated on alpha and beta-...
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques, 2019
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA) encephalitis is a recently described autoimmune disease that... more N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA) encephalitis is a recently described autoimmune disease that typically presents with prodromal symptoms including upper respiratory tract infection, headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Psychiatric symptoms follow within weeks, including anxiety, insomnia, mania, paranoia and grandiose delusions. The diagnosis is confirmed by the detection of NMDA antibodies in the serum or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).1 Tumours, especially teratomas, are frequently associated with NMDA encephalitis; however, only 5% of male patients older than 18 years have been found to have an underlying tumour. Optic neuropathy associated with NMDA encephalitis is being increasingly recognised in the literature2–6 and was reviewed most recently by Mugavin et al.2 in 2017. In this report, we present a case of bilateral optic neuropathy in a young man diagnosed with NMDA receptor encephalitis.
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques, 2020
ABSTRACT:Interventional neuroradiology (INR) has evolved from a hybrid mixture of daring radiolog... more ABSTRACT:Interventional neuroradiology (INR) has evolved from a hybrid mixture of daring radiologists and iconoclastic neurosurgeons into a multidisciplinary specialty, which has become indispensable for cerebrovascular and neurological centers worldwide. This manuscript traces the origins of INR and describes its evolution to the present day. The focus will be on cerebrovascular disorders including aneurysms, stroke, brain arteriovenous malformations, dural arteriovenous fistulae, and atherosclerotic disease, both intra- and extracranial. Also discussed are cerebral vasospasm, venolymphatic malformations of the head and neck, tumor embolization, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, inferior petrosal venous sinus sampling for Cushing’s disease, and spinal interventions. Pediatric INR has not been included and deserves a separate, dedicated review.
BackgroundTo analyse the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) a... more BackgroundTo analyse the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) and identify factors predicting functional outcome.MethodsMulticentre retrospective cohort study of COVID-19 patients with AIS who presented to 30 stroke centres in the USA and Canada between 14 March and 30 August 2020. The primary endpoint was poor functional outcome, defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 5 or 6 at discharge. Secondary endpoints include favourable outcome (mRS ≤2) and mortality at discharge, ordinal mRS (shift analysis), symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (sICH) and occurrence of in-hospital complications.ResultsA total of 230 COVID-19 patients with AIS were included. 67.0% (154/230) were older than 60 years, while 33.0% (76/230) were younger. Median (IQR) National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at presentation was 12.0 (17.0) and 42.8% (89/208) presented with large vessel occlusion (LVO). Approximately 50.2% (102/203) of the patients had poor outcome...
Background Preventing errors and complications in neurointervention is crucial, particularly in t... more Background Preventing errors and complications in neurointervention is crucial, particularly in the treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs), where the natural history is generally benign, and the margin of treatment benefit small. We aimed to investigate how neurointerventionalists perceive the importance and frequency of errors and the resulting complications in endovascular UIA treatment, and which steps could be taken to prevent them. Methods An international multidisciplinary survey was conducted among neurointerventionalists. Participants provided their demographic characteristics and neurointerventional treatment volume. They were asked about their perceptions on the importance and frequency of different errors in endovascular UIA treatment, and which solutions they thought to be most effective in preventing these errors. Results Two-hundred-thirty-three neurointerventionalists from 38 countries participated in the survey. Participants identified errors in techni...
Official Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada
We describe the first documented case of meningitis caused by Lodderomyces elongisporus. Identifi... more We describe the first documented case of meningitis caused by Lodderomyces elongisporus. Identification of L. elongisporus was made on the basis of an arachnoid biopsy with pathology samples sent for fungal internal transcribed spacer sequencing after multiple central nervous system (CNS) fungal culture specimens were negative. After final diagnosis, treatment was transitioned from amphotericin to fluconazole, which, combined with insertion of lumbar drain followed by a permanent ventriculopleural shunt, resulted in significant clinical improvement. Our report reviews the literature of ( 1 ) cases of L. elongisporus, which almost exclusively describe fungemia or endocarditis; ( 2 ) CNS infections caused by Candida parapsilosis, an organism with which L. elongisporus was previously conflated; and ( 3 ) management of fungal meningitis–associated hydrocephalus.
BACKGROUND Maintenance of euvolemia and cerebral perfusion are recommended for the prevention of ... more BACKGROUND Maintenance of euvolemia and cerebral perfusion are recommended for the prevention of cerebral vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). We conducted a pilot randomized controlled study to assess the feasibility and efficacy of goal-directed therapy (GDT) to correct fluid and hemodynamic derangements during endovascular coiling in patients with aSAH. METHODS This study was conducted between November 2015 and February 2019 at a single tertiary center in Canada. Adult patients with aSAH within 5 days of aneurysm rupture were randomly assigned to receive either GDT or standard therapy during endovascular coiling. The incidence of dehydration at presentation and the efficacy of GDT were evaluated. RESULTS Forty patients were allocated to receive GDT (n=21) or standard therapy (n=19). Sixty percent of all patients were found to have dehydration before the coiling procedure commenced. Compared with standard therapy, GDT reduced the duration of intraoperative hypovolemia (mean difference 37.6 [95% confidence interval, 6.2-37.4] min, P=0.006) and low cardiac index (mean difference 30.7 [95% confidence interval, 9.5-56.9] min, P=0.035). There were no differences between the 2 treatment groups with respect to the incidence of vasospasm, stroke, death, and other complications up to postoperative day 90. CONCLUSIONS A high proportion of aSAH patients presented at the coiling procedure with dehydration and a low cardiac output state; these derangements were more likely to be corrected if the GDT algorithm was used. Compared with standard therapy, use of the GDT algorithm resulted in earlier recognition and more consistent treatment of dehydration and hemodynamic derangement during endovascular coiling.
A 63-year-old male immigrant from Hong Kong presented with a 2-day history of urinary retention. ... more A 63-year-old male immigrant from Hong Kong presented with a 2-day history of urinary retention. On examination, he had a cauda equina syndrome. Imaging by CT and MRI revealed a large L2-L3 disc herniation and spinal stenosis. An emergency bilateral L2 laminectomy and L2-L3 discectomy resolved his pre-operative symptoms. However, the MRI scan had also identified a sclerotic lesion at the left T12 pedicle, characterised by abnormal bone marrow T1 hypointensity (Figure 1A) and T2 hyperintensity (Figure 1B), suggesting a metastasis. However, a primary site was not identified in CT scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis, and a skeletal survey and an isotope bone scan did not reveal any other bone lesions. A fluoroscopic guided biopsy of the left T12 pediclular lesion was carried out. MICROSCOPIC PATHOLOGY
BACKGROUND Nerinetide, an eicosapeptide that interferes with post-synaptic density protein 95, is... more BACKGROUND Nerinetide, an eicosapeptide that interferes with post-synaptic density protein 95, is a neuroprotectant that is effective in preclinical stroke models of ischaemia-reperfusion. In this trial, we assessed the efficacy and safety of nerinetide in human ischaemia-reperfusion that occurs with rapid endovascular thrombectomy in patients who had an acute ischaemic stroke. METHODS For this multicentre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled study done in 48 acute care hospitals in eight countries, we enrolled patients with acute ischaemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion within a 12 h treatment window. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older with a disabling ischaemic stroke at the time of randomisation, had been functioning independently in the community before the stroke, had an Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) greater than 4, and vascular imaging showing moderate-to-good collateral filling, as determined by multiphase CT angiography. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intravenous nerinetide in a single dose of 2·6 mg/kg, up to a maximum dose of 270 mg, on the basis of estimated or actual weight (if known) or saline placebo by use of a real-time, dynamic, internet-based, stratified randomised minimisation procedure. Patients were stratified by intravenous alteplase treatment and declared endovascular device choice. All trial personnel and patients were masked to sequence and treatment allocation. All patients underwent endovascular thrombectomy and received alteplase in usual care when indicated. The primary outcome was a favourable functional outcome 90 days after randomisation, defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 0-2. Secondary outcomes were measures of neurological disability, functional independence in activities of daily living, excellent functional outcome (mRS 0-1), and mortality. The analysis was done in the intention-to-treat population and adjusted for age, sex, baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, ASPECTS, occlusion location, site, alteplase use, and declared first device. The safety population included all patients who received any amount of study drug. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02930018. FINDINGS Between March 1, 2017, and Aug 12, 2019, 1105 patients were randomly assigned to receive nerinetide (n=549) or placebo (n=556). 337 (61·4%) of 549 patients with nerinetide and 329 (59·2%) of 556 with placebo achieved an mRS score of 0-2 at 90 days (adjusted risk ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·96-1·14; p=0·35). Secondary outcomes were similar between groups. We observed evidence of treatment effect modification resulting in inhibition of treatment effect in patients receiving alteplase. Serious adverse events occurred equally between groups. INTERPRETATION Nerinetide did not improve the proportion of patients achieving good clinical outcomes after endovascular thrombectomy compared with patients receiving placebo. FUNDING Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Alberta Innovates, and NoNO.
Cardiac left ventricle (LV) quantification is among the most clinically important tasks for ident... more Cardiac left ventricle (LV) quantification is among the most clinically important tasks for identification and diagnosis of cardiac disease. However, it is still a task of great challenge due to the high variability of cardiac structure across subjects and the complexity of temporal dynamics of cardiac sequences. Full quantification, i.e., to simultaneously quantify all LV indices including two areas (cavity and myocardium), six regional wall thicknesses (RWT), three LV dimensions, and one phase (Diastole or Systole), is even more challenging since the ambiguous correlations existing among these indices may impinge upon the convergence and generalization of the learning procedure. In this paper, we propose a deep multitask relationship learning network (DMTRL) for full LV quantification. The proposed DMTRL first obtains expressive and robust cardiac representations with a deep convolution neural network (CNN); then models the temporal dynamics of cardiac sequences effectively with t...
Canadian Association of Radiologists journal = Journal l'Association canadienne des radiologistes, Jan 29, 2017
To explore the patient perception on radiation-related cancer risk from interventional radiology ... more To explore the patient perception on radiation-related cancer risk from interventional radiology (IR) procedures and whether informed radiation consent is warranted. A multiple-choice survey was prospectively administered to 68 adults undergoing a body or neuro-IR procedure with ionizing radiation exposure. Subgroup analysis with chi-square or Fisher exact test was performed based on patient past IR history (P < .05). A total of 81% of patients wanted to be informed if there was a radiation-related 3% increased cancer risk over 5 years. Although 55% considered 3% a small risk, 28% wanted to further discuss the risks and alternate options, and 15% would have only proceeded if it were a life-saving procedure: 89%, 80%, and 67% of patients wanted to be informed with exposure risks of 1 in 100, 1 in 1000, and 1 in 10,000, respectively. Only 53% were aware they were going to be exposed to radiation, irrespective of past IR history (P = .15). Most patients believed radiation consent sh...
The carotid web is an intraluminal shelf-like projection arising from the posterior wall of the c... more The carotid web is an intraluminal shelf-like projection arising from the posterior wall of the carotid bifurcation and an uncommon etiology of ischemic strokes. We describe the feasibility of endovascular stent placement to treat this condition. A 47-year-old woman presented with a sudden occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery. Computed tomography angiography and digital subtraction angiography showed a carotid web in the ipsilateral carotid bifurcation. Treatment included mechanical thrombectomy for the middle cerebral artery occlusion and carotid stent placement to prevent further ischemic episodes from the carotid web. At the 6-month follow-up, good apposition of the stent against the artery wall was noted, and the patient was free of neurologic symptoms. Carotid artery stent placement is a feasible option in the management of carotid webs.
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Papers by Sachin Pandey