SUMMARY: Resting-state fMRI was first described by Biswal et al in 1995 and has since then been widely used in both healthy subjects and patients with various neurologic, neurosurgical, and psychiatric disorders. As opposed to paradigm- or task-based functional MR imaging, resting-state fMRI does not require subjects to perform any specific task. The low-frequency oscillations of the resting-state fMRI signal have been shown to relate to the spontaneous neural activity. There are many ways to analyze resting-state fMRI data. In this review article, we will briefly describe a few of these and highlight the advantages and limitations of each. This description is to facilitate the adoption and use of resting-state fMRI in the clinical setting, helping neuroradiologists become familiar with these techniques and applying them for the care of patients with neurologic and psychiatric diseases.

S on the PT side and determined whether these lesions occurred as multiple or single entities. Methods: The dual-phase contrast-enhanced computed tomography images of 242 patients with unilateral venous PT were retrospectively reviewed. The vascular anomalies and variants on the symptomatic and asymptomatic sides were analyzed, and the incidences of anomalies or variants on each side were compared. The number of anomalies and variants on the symptomatic side in each patient was calculated. Results: (1) A total 170 patients (170/242) had more than one anomaly or variant on the symptomatic side, and 58 patients (58/242) had a single lesion on tomography. (2) There was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of dehiscent sigmoid plate (P = 0.000), lateral sinus stenosis (P = 0.014), high jugular bulb (P = 0.000), sigmoid sinus diverticulum (P = 0.000), jugular bulb diverticulum (P = 0.000), dehiscent jugular bulb (P = 0.000), and a large emissary vein (P = 0.006) between the symptomatic and asymptomatic sides. (3) Dehiscent sigmoid plate (86.4%) was the most frequent lesion on the symptomatic side, followed by lateral sinus stenosis (55.8%), high jugular bulb (47.1%), sigmoid sinus diverticulum (34.3%), jugular bulb diverticulum (13.6%), dehiscent jugular bulb (13.6%), large emissary vein (4.1%), sinus thrombosis (1.2%), and petrosquamosal sinus (0.8%). Conclusions: Various vascular anomalies and variants occur more frequently on the venous PT side. Preliminary findings suggest that venous PT patients may have multiple vascular anomalies or variants on the symptomatic side....

Predicting early recurrence (ER) after radical therapy for HCC patients is critical for the decision of subsequent follow-up and treatment. Radiomic features derived from the medical imaging show great potential to predict prognosis. Here we aim to develop and validate a radiomics nomogram that could predict ER after curative ablation. Total 184 HCC patients treated from August 2007 to August 2014 were included in the study and were divided into the training (n = 129) and validation(n = 55) cohorts randomly. The endpoint was recurrence free survival (RFS). A set of 647 radiomics features were extracted from the 3 phases contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT) images. The minimum redundancy maximum relevance algorithm (MRMRA) was used for feature selection. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression model was used to build a radiomics signature. Recurrence prediction models were built using clinicopathological factors and radiomics signature, and a prognostic nomogram was developed and validated by calibration. Among the four radiomics models, the portal venous phase model obtained the best performance in the validation subgroup (C-index = 0.736 (95%CI:0.726–0.856)). When adding the clinicopathological factors to the models, the portal venous phase combined model also yielded the best predictive performance for training (C-index = 0.792(95%CI:0.727–0.857) and validation (C-index = 0.755(95%CI:0.651–0.860) subgroup. The combined model indicated a more distinct improvement of predictive power than the simple clinical model (ANOVA, P < 0.0001). This study successfully built a radiomics nomogram that integrated clinicopathological and radiomics features, which can be potentially used to predict ER after curative ablation for HCC patients.

Background: Although the imaging features of sigmoid sinus diverticulum induced pulsatile tinnitus (PT) have been presented in some extent, detailed imaging findings still have not been systematically evaluated and precise diagnostic radiographic criteria has not been established. Purpose: To examine the computed tomography (CT) characteristics of sigmoid sinus diverticulum accompanied with PT. Material and Methods: Fifteen PT patients with sigmoid sinus diverticula proven by surgery were recruited after consenting. CT images of 15 patients were obtained and analyzed, including features of diverticula, brain venous systems, integrity of the sigmoid plate, and the degree of temporal bone pneumatization. Results: Sigmoid sinus diverticulum was located on the same side of PT in 15 patients. Diverticula originated at the superior curve of the sigmoid sinus in 11 patients and the descending segment of the sigmoid sinus in four patients. Sigmoid sinus diverticula focally eroded into the adjacent mastoid air cells in 12 patients and mastoid cortex in three patients. Among eight patients with unilateral dominant brain venous systems, the diverticula were seen on the dominant side in seven patients and non-dominant side in one patient. In contrast, the other seven patients showed co-dominant brain venous systems, with three presenting diverticula on the right side and four on the left. More notably, dehiscent sigmoid plate on the PT side was demonstrated in all patients. In addition, temporal bone hyper-pneumatization was found in nine patients, good and moderate pneumatization in three patients, respectively. Conclusion: Dehiscent sigmoid plate and extensive temporal bone pneumatization are two important imaging characteristics of the PT induced by sigmoid sinus diverticulum.