Multicentric fibromatosis of familial inheritance

This is an unusual case presentation of a young woman with a clinical history and course simulating juvenile hyaline fibromatosis, but without hyalinization in the stroma. Because of the age of onset, the apparent familial inheritance, the nonaggressive and nonregressive tumor traits, the disease cannot be classified as multicentric fibromatosis. Therefore, we are referring to this case as multicentric fibromatosis with familial inheritance, a previously unreported entity to our knowledge.     

MR-Guided percutaneous ethanol ablation of liver tissue in a .2-T open MR system: Preliminary study in porcine model

The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of MR-guided percutaneous ethanol ablation of liver tissue on a .2-T open MR scanner. Needles were placed by MR guidance first into an ex vivo sheep liver and then into livers of three anesthetized pigs, and injection of 10 ml of 96% alcohol was performed. T1 fast low-angle shot (FLASH), T2 turbo spin echo (TSE), and T1 spin echo (SE) images were obtained after incremental volumes of injection. In one pig, simultaneous injection of saline into normal liver was also performed with subsequent pathological correlation. Ethanol-infiltrated liver was hypointense to liver on all sequences, whereas saline caused no tissue signal changes on T1 SE and either isointense or hyperintense changes on T2 TSE images. Pathological examination confirmed ethanol-induced acute liver changes as compared with the control. MR guidance of needle placement and monitoring of ethanol effects on liver tissue is feasible. This may have implications for potential MR-guided hepatic tumor ablation.     

Magnetic resonance imaging of the craniocervical junction

Magnetic resonance imaging has become the study of choice for the majority of abnormalities of the craniocervical junction as well as for demonstration of primary pathology of the spinal cord, and brain stem. Although the applications of MR are currently limited by its high cost, relatively long scan time, and low sensitivity to calcification, new pulse sequences, faster scan strategies, and lower cost MR scanner are changing this situation. MR contrast agents and the use of 3-D imaging techniques combined with gradient echoes promise to play a role in MR of the craniocervical junction in the near future.     

Interstitial photoablative laser therapy guided by magnetic resonance imaging for the treatment of deep tumors.

The failure rate of cancer treatment remains unacceptably high, still being a leading cause of mortality in adults and children despite major advances over the past 50 years in the fields of surgery, radiation therapy, and, more recently, chemo and immunotherapy. In the United States, the 5-year survival rate for all cancers in the population has increased by only approximately 10% since 1960. Surgical access to some deep tumors of the head and neck and other areas often require extensive dissections with residual functional and cosmetic deformities. Repeated treatment is not possible after maximum dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy is still limited by its systemic toxicity. An attractive solution to these problems would be the development of a new adjunctive method combining the best features of interstitial laser phototherapy for selective tumor destruction via minimally invasive techniques for access and 3D-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a monitoring system for laser-tissue interactions. Our experience with this new technique is reviewed.