What about cerebral venous sinus thrombosis? A series of three autopsy cases

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an uncommon cerebrovascular disorder that gained massive media attention in 2021, when an association between COVID-19 and its vaccines was found in several reported cases, raising the suspicion of a causative relation that is still debated.Three cases of CVST unrelated to COVID-19 are reported in this article to highlight the difficulty in the early recognition and management of this condition, as it occurs in a variety of diseases with different clinical and pathological manifestations.When the diagnosis cannot be achieved in the clinical setting, the role of the pathologist becomes essential in the determination of the cause of death and in the identification of the etiology of CVST.During the autopsy, coordination between the physician and the forensic pathologist is crucial to correlate the clinical presentation with the pathological picture.     

The empty delta sign. A useful or misleading sign in cerebral x-ray computed tomography?

One case of bifidity of the superior sagittal sinus, resulting in a false "empty delta sign", is presented. The authors emphasize the importance of the indirect signs of sinovenous thrombosis, i.e. cerebral edema and multiple or bilateral hemorrhagic infarcts, in the diagnosis of true empty delta sign.     

Does cerebral blood flow decline in healthy aging? A PET study with partial-volume correction.

It remains a matter of controversy as to whether cerebral perfusion declines with healthy aging. In vivo imaging with PET permits quantitative evaluation of brain physiology; however, previous PET studies have inconsistently reported aging reductions in cerebral blood flow (CBF), oxygen metabolism, and glucose metabolism. In part, this may be because of a lack of correction for the dilution effect of age-related cerebral volume loss on PET measurements. METHODS: CBF PET scans were obtained using [15O]H2O in 27 healthy individuals (age range, 19-76 y) and corrected for partial-volume effects from cerebral atrophy using an MR-based algorithm. RESULTS: There was a significant difference (P = 0.01) in mean cortical CBF between young/midlife (age range, 19-46 y; mean +/- SD, 56+/-10 mL/100 mL/min) and elderly (age range, 60-76 y; mean +/- SD, 49+/-2.6 mL/100 mL/min) subgroups before correcting for partial-volume effects. However, this group difference resolved after partial-volume correction (young/midlife: mean +/- SD, 62+/-10 mL/100 mL/min; elderly: mean +/- SD, 61+/-4.8 mL/100 mL/min; P = 0.66). When all subjects were considered, a mild but significant inverse correlation between age and cortical CBF measurements was present in the uncorrected but not the corrected data. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that CBF may not decline with age in healthy individuals and that failure to correct for the dilution effect of age-related cerebral atrophy may confound interpretation of previous PET studies that have shown aging reductions in physiologic measurements.