13 Mar 2007

Last day of the conference and, amazingly, there are still some people here! Maybe seeking refuge from the warm weather and bright sunshine..

Volksgarten_gate

Neurodegenerative and demyelinating diseases were this morning’s topic:

Low dose fluoxetine reduces the NAA-peak on MR spectroscopy in MS patients, according to a study by Sijens et al. (Groningen, NL); unfortunately clinical outcome was not studied. Well, as long as the brain normalises, right?

Palmenhaus

The combination of triple dose Gd, 3T scanning, 30 min delay after contrast administration, and a fat-saturation sequence increases the detection of active MS plaques (Wolansky et al, Newark, US) - I reckon! A double inversion recovery pulse sequence makes it easier to determine the precise location of MS plaques (within grey matter, adjacent to grey matter, or both in grey and white matter), according to Gavra et al. (Athens, GR). No idea whether this has got any clinical implications, but it does make us, neurotic radiologists, so much happier :-).

Voxel-based morphometry shows early grey matter changes in the hippocampus of asymptomatic subjects with familial Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study by Della Nave et al. (Pisa, IT). Scary..

Anyway, it’s been fun, but I’ve really heard enough German for a while.. time to go home and do some real work again!