Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics in the cervical spinal subarachnoid space (SSS) have been thought to be important to help diagnose and assess craniospinal disorders such as Chiari I malformation (CM). In this study we obtained time-resolved three directional velocity encoded phase-contrast MRI (4D PC MRI) in three healthy volunteers and four CM patients and compared the 4D PC MRI measurements to subject-specific 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The CFD simulations considered the geometry to be rigid-walled and did not include small anatomical structures such as nerve roots, denticulate ligaments and arachnoid trabeculae. Results were compared at nine axial planes along the cervical SSS in terms of peak CSF velocities in both the cranial and caudal direction and visual interpretation of thru-plane velocity profiles. 4D PC MRI peak CSF velocities were consistently greater than the CFD peak velocities and these differences were more pronounced in CM patients than in healthy subjects. In the upper cervical SSS of CM patients the 4D PC MRI quantified stronger fluid jets than the CFD. Visual interpretation of the 4D PC MRI thru-plane velocity profiles showed greater pulsatile movement of CSF in the anterior SSS in comparison to the posterior and reduction in local CSF velocities near nerve roots. CFD velocity profiles were relatively uniform around the spinal cord for all subjects. This study represents the first comparison of 4D PC MRI measurements to CFD of CSF flow in the cervical SSS. The results highlight the utility of 4D PC MRI for evaluation of complex CSF dynamics and the need for improvement of CFD methodology. Future studies are needed to investigate whether integration of fine anatomical structures and gross motion of the brain and/or spinal cord into the computational model will lead to a better agreement between the two techniques.

Purpose To address the lack of prospective data on the real-life clinical application of trans-arterial radioembolization (TARE) in Europe, the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) initiated the prospective observational study CIRSE Registry for SIR-Spheres® Therapy (CIRT). Materials and Methods Patients were enrolled from 1 January 2015 till 31 December 2017. Eligible patients were adult patients treated with TARE with Y90 resin microspheres for primary or metastatic liver tumours. Patients were followed up for 24 months after treatment, whereas data on the clinical context of TARE, overall survival (OS) and safety were collected. Results Totally, 1027 patients were analysed. 68.2% of the intention of treatment was palliative. Up to half of the patients received systemic therapy and/or locoregional treatments prior to TARE (53.1%; 38.3%). Median overall survival (OS) was reported per cohort and was 16.5 months (95% confidence interval (CI) 14.2–19.3) for hepatocellular carcinoma, 14.6 months (95% CI 10.9–17.9) for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. For liver metastases, median OS for colorectal cancer was 9.8 months (95% CI 8.3–12.9), 5.6 months for pancreatic cancer (95% CI 4.1–6.6), 10.6 months (95% CI 7.3–14.4) for breast cancer, 14.6 months (95% CI 7.3–21.4) for melanoma and 33.1 months (95% CI 22.1–nr) for neuroendocrine tumours. Statistically significant prognostic factors in terms of OS include the presence of ascites, cirrhosis, extra-hepatic disease, patient performance status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group), number of chemotherapy lines prior to TARE and tumour burden. Thirty-day mortality rate was 1.0%. 2.5% experienced adverse events grade 3 or 4 within 30 days after TARE. Conclusion In the real-life clinical setting, TARE is largely considered to be a part of a palliative treatment strategy across indications and provides an excellent safety profile. Level of evidence Level 3. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02305459.

Abnormal alterations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow are thought to play an important role in pathophysiology of various craniospinal disorders such as hydrocephalus and Chiari malformation. Three directional phase contrast MRI (4D Flow) has been proposed as one method for quantification of the CSF dynamics in healthy and disease states, but prior to further implementation of this technique, its accuracy in measuring CSF velocity magnitude and distribution must be evaluated. In this study, an MR-compatible experimental platform was developed based on an anatomically detailed 3D printed model of the cervical subarachnoid space and subject specific flow boundary conditions. Accuracy of 4D Flow measurements was assessed by comparison of CSF velocities obtained within the in vitro model with the numerically predicted velocities calculated from a spatially averaged computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model based on the same geometry and flow boundary conditions. Good agreement was observed between CFD and 4D Flow in terms of spatial distribution and peak magnitude of through-plane velocities with an average difference of 7.5% and 10.6% for peak systolic and diastolic velocities, respectively. Regression analysis showed lower accuracy of 4D Flow measurement at the timeframes corresponding to low CSF flow rate and poor correlation between CFD and 4D Flow in-plane velocities.

SummaryThe rationale for exchange blood transfusion (ET) in severe falciparum malaria is threefold: reduction of parasitaemia, reduction of presumptive 'toxic' factors, and improvement of the rheological quality of the blood. We evaluated the records of 61 patients treated with ET to describe the present status of malaria treatment in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and to assess the efficacy of ET. Clinical data of 61 patients treated with ET were compared to data of 63 patients treated in 2 hospitals where ETs were generally not performed. We found that exchange transfusion is applied according to the clinician's subjective impression rather than strict guidelines. Logistic regression analysis adjusting for the differences in clinical parameters between patients treated with or without ET did not identify treatment as a prognostic indicator (odds ratio for relative risk of death with ET: 1.3; 95% CI: 0.4-4.9). Exchange transfusion did not significantly improve the unfavourable prognosis in cases of severe falciparum malaria. However, failure to reach statistical significance may be due to the retrospective design of the study and therefore non-systematic approach.keywords malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, treatment, exchange blood transfusion correspondence Dr Gerd-Dieter Burchard, Bernhard

For the first time, inter-operator dependence of MRI based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cervical spinal subarachnoid space (SSS) is evaluated. In vivo MRI flow measurements and anatomy MRI images were obtained at the cervico-medullary junction of a healthy subject and a Chiari I malformation patient. 3D anatomies of the SSS were reconstructed by manual segmentation by four independent operators for both cases. CFD results were compared at nine axial locations along the SSS in terms of hydrodynamic and geometric parameters. Intraclass correlation (ICC) assessed the inter-operator agreement for each parameter over the axial locations and coefficient of variance (CV) compared the percentage of variance for each parameter between the operators. Greater operator dependence was found for the patient (0.19 0.78). For the healthy subject, hydraulic diameter and Womersley number had the least variance (CV= ~2%). For the patient, peak diastolic velocity and Reynolds number had the smallest variance (CV= ~3%). These results show a high degree of inter-operator reliability for MRI-based CFD simulations of CSF flow in the cervical spine for healthy subjects and a lower degree of reliability for patients with Type I Chiari malformation.