Traumatic brain injury, neuroimaging, and neurodegeneration

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can trigger immediate and long-term damage to the brain, depending on its severity. While mild cases may be temporary, more severe injuries lead to ongoing neural degeneration. Neuroimaging reveals that brain changes can continue well into the chronic phase, far beyond the initial trauma.

This article explores how neuroimaging helps us understand TBI’s impact on brain development, aging, and structural damage—particularly in the frontotemporolimbic areas and white matter. It also highlights how TBI may increase the risk of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders later in life.

Axial Loading during MR Imaging Can Influence Treatment Decision for Symptomatic Spinal Stenosis

Axially loaded MRI provides a more accurate view of spinal canal narrowing in patients with spinal stenosis, revealing changes that might not appear in standard imaging. This study evaluated how this technique affects treatment decisions by having neurosurgeons reassess 20 patients whose spinal narrowing was visible only with axial loading.

The results showed that the added imaging influenced changes in treatment plans, often shifting from conservative care to surgical intervention. This highlights how axially loaded MRI can offer critical insights and may play a key role in determining the best approach for managing spinal stenosis.

Feasibility study of AI-assisted multi-parameter MRI diagnosis of prostate cancer

This study presents an AI-powered CAD system using mp-MRI and a ResNet50-based model to classify prostate cancer. Trained on 274 lesion datasets, the system achieved high diagnostic accuracy (AUC 0.89), showing strong potential for enhancing prostate cancer screening with deep learning and multi-head attention mechanisms.

Exploiting macro- and micro-structural brain changes for improved Parkinson’s disease classification from MRI data

This study developed an explainable deep learning model using multimodal MRI data to classify Parkinson’s disease (PD) with high accuracy. Trained on over 1,200 datasets, the model achieved an AUC of 0.89, with saliency maps confirming that micro-structural brain changes—especially in subcortical regions—are key in PD diagnosis.

Utility of Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging Surveillance in Children and Adults With Cancer Predisposition Syndromes: A Retrospective Study

Whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) is a valuable screening tool for individuals with cancer predisposition syndromes (CPS), offering radiation-free, early cancer detection. In this study, WB-MRI showed high specificity (92%) and helped identify treatable cancers in several patients, supporting its role in proactive surveillance for high-risk groups.

3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging: A new standard in liver imaging?

While 3.0 Tesla MRI is becoming more common, its performance in liver imaging remains comparable to 1.5 T for evaluating focal and diffuse liver diseases. To maximize the benefits of 3T systems, further technical optimizations and innovations in hardware and imaging protocols are essential.

MRI of the Spine: Image Quality and Normal–Neoplastic Bone Marrow Contrast at 3 T Versus 1.5 T

This study shows that 3-Tesla MRI provides superior image quality of the spine compared to 1.5-Tesla, offering better contrast between normal and neoplastic bone marrow. Using skeletal muscle as a reference on T1-weighted images, diagnostic accuracy was higher at 3T, enhancing detection of spine abnormalities.

Diagnostic Performance of MRI for the Detection of Pulmonary Nodules: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis found that MRI performs well in detecting lung nodules ≥4 mm, achieving 87.7% sensitivity overall. For nodules ≥8–10 mm, MRI nearly matched CT accuracy (98.5%), with a low false-positive rate, supporting MRI’s potential as a radiation-free alternative for lung nodule detection.

Diffusion-Weighted MRI in the Body: Applications and Challenges in Oncology

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a fast, contrast-free MRI technique that detects differences in water molecule motion, offering unique insights into tumor cellularity and treatment response. It’s increasingly applied across the body for tumor detection, characterization, and monitoring, though technical challenges remain for widespread cancer imaging use.

Gray matter-white matter contrast on spin-echo T1-weighted images at 3 T and 1.5 T: a quantitative comparison study

This study found that 3T MRI provides better gray-white matter contrast than 1.5T on single-slice T1-weighted images and multi-slice scans with a 25% interslice gap. However, contrast reduction is more pronounced at 3T during multi-slice imaging, highlighting the importance of imaging protocol adjustments when using higher field strengths.

Axial loading during MR imaging can influence treatment decision for symptomatic spinal stenosis

This study found that axially loaded MRI scans can reveal spinal canal narrowing not seen in routine imaging, influencing treatment decisions in spinal stenosis cases. In several patients, neurosurgeons shifted from conservative care to surgery after reviewing the loaded scans, highlighting the clinical value of axial loading in spine imaging.