No abstract

The cerebral activation pattern due to acupuncture is not completely understood. Although the effect of acupuncture on cerebral haemodynamics has been studied, no previous report has focused on different puncture and stimulation methods. We used functional MRI (fMRI) in 15 healthy subjects to investigate cortical activation during stimulation of two real acupoints (Liv3 and G40) and one sham point, needled in a random and, for the subjects, blinded order employing rotating and non-rotating methods, using a blocked paradigm on a 1.5 tesla imager. Compared to the non-rotating stimulation method, during rotating stimulation of the real acupoints, we observed an increase in activation in both secondary somatosensory cortical areas, frontal areas, the right side of the thalamus and the left side of the cerebellum; no such effects of the needling technique were seen while stimulating the sham point. The observation that rotating the needle strengthened the effects of acupuncture only at real acupoints suggests that, as claimed in Chinese traditional medicine, stimulation of these acupoints has a specific effect on cortical neuronal activity, absent with sham acupoints. These specific cerebral activation patterns might explain the therapeutic effects of acupuncture in certain subjects.

The described fusion system is dependable and efficient for targeted MRI/TRUS fusion-guided biopsy. mpMRI PI-RADS scores combined with a novel real-time MRI/TRUS fusion system facilitate sufficient diagnosis of PCa with high sensitivity and specificity.

Lung and heart-lung transplantation can be performed with an acceptable risk and a favourable long-term outcome in patients with grown-up CHD. Careful patient selection and planning of the surgical strategy is essential in this high-risk patient population.

Benign liver tumors and tumor-like lesions cover a broad spectrum of differential diagnoses, varying from dysontogenetic cysts to pseudolesions. Focal nodular hyperplasia, adenoma and regenerating nodules play a major role in clinical practice. Based on imaging findings, these lesions can be classified as cystic or solid, solitary or multiple, and hyper- or hypovascular. Haemangioma, FNH, steroid-associated adenoma, cystadenoma and echinococcus cysts can be reliably diagnosed using imaging techniques. The same is true for pseudolesions, which are found in particular on dynamic computed tomography. Other entities such as adenoma in cirrhotic livers, angiomyolipoma, regenerating nodules or Echinococcus alveolaris cannot be safely diagnosed by imaging and require biopsy. Morphological and functional characteristics of the most common lesions in the different imaging modalities will be discussed. Where possible, a diagnostic strategy will be presented.