No abstract

Twenty patients who had suffered spinal trauma were examined by magnetic resonance tomography. Fifteen patients with first degree trauma in Erdmann's classification showed no abnormality. Magnetic resonance tomography of the cervical spine appears to be a suitable method for investigating patients with whiplash injuries. It is indicated following severe flexion injuries with subluxations and neurological symptoms, since it is the only method that can demonstrate the spinal cord directly and completely and show the extent of cord compression. For patients with thoracic trauma and rapidly developing neurological symptoms, magnetic resonance tomography is ideal for showing post-traumatic syringomyelia. Magnetic resonance tomography following whiplash injuries is recommended if plain films of the cervical spine show any abnormalities, as well as for the investigation of acute or sub-acute neurological abnormalities. The various findings are discussed.

Experimental ligation of the renal veins in rats indicate highly significant and characteristic changes within two hours, consisting of significant prolongation of T2 relaxation time in the cortex and T2 shortening in the medulla. In addition, there is a considerable increase in the size of the kidney, due to swelling of the cortex. T2 prolongation of the cortex is most marked between 30 hours and two to four days after ligation of the vein. In the following weeks there is a return to normal. T2 of the medulla at two to three weeks after ligation shows highly significant reduction compared with the normal side and, at this time, the size of the experimental kidney is significantly less than the opposite kidney. These results indicate that magnetic resonance tomography is a highly sensitive method for the early demonstration of renal vein thrombosis.

Ioxaglate causes a dose dependent prolongation of thrombin time, thrombin coagulase time, partial thromboplastin time and calcium thromboplastin time. A substantial activation of fibrinolysis, assayed by a dose dependent decrease of plasminogen concentrations, does not take place. Higher concentration of ioxaglate (more than 25 mg iodine/ml) cause a complement activation. No C-3 split products could be detected by two-dimensional immunoelectrophoresis. Ioxaglate induced changes of global coagulation tests are interpreted as being caused by interference of fibrin polymerization. The demonstration of complement activation by high concentrations of ioxaglate has no practical consequences.

We examined 21 patients with focal lesions of the liver. Routinely we used T1 weighted, proton weighted and T2 weighted measurement modes, mainly with repetition times of 1.6 sec and echo delay times of 35 or 120 msec. Using these parameters we can see characteristic changes of the signals of the liver tumours. Cystic lesions usually show a strong decrease of the signal in the T1 weighted images in comparison with the normal liver pattern, in the proton weighted images a weak decrease but also in some cases a weak increase of the signal; in the T2 weighted images they show signals of very great intensity. We can differentiate haemangioma of cystic lesions because of the very strong signal in the proton weighted images in comparison with the normal liver pattern, which we could not see in any other focal liver disease. Metastases and hepatoma produced low signal intensity in the T1 weighted image. The proton weighted and the T2 weighted images show signals with a slightly greater intensity compared with the normal pattern, i.e. a very good possibility to distinguish hepatoma and metastases from cystic lesions or haemangioma. The differentiation from hepatoma and metastases cannot be made with NMR up to now. We are also not able to differentiate the focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) from metastases. We used a 0.35 T supraconductive magnetic system.