We studied five patients with multiple sclerosis with one plaque of demyelination more than 2 cm in diameter, using conventional and diffusion-weighted MRI, soon after the onset of symptoms and over 1-36 months. The orientationally averaged diffusion coefficient was increased in all the acute lesions, and increased further during follow-up in three. There was a strong correlation between and the degree of low signal on T1-weighted images. The quantitative information provided by allowed delineation of different diffusion patterns in large MS lesions, that may reflect heterogeneity of the anatomical substrate.

Although the US method promises to permit a safe and cost-effective assessment of skeletal age, its low accuracy makes it currently unsuitable for clinical use.

The jejunoileal length was measured on double-contrast small bowel enema radiographs, obtained from 10 patients who had been investigated for abdominal pain. Previous endoscopic and radiologic examinations had excluded lesions of the upper and lower GI tract. The length of the small bowel ranged from 230 to 370 cm, with an average length of 280 cm.

We performed CT to investigate how treatment may modify the basic skeletal pathology of congenital club foot. Two homogenous groups of patients treated by one of the authors (EI) or under his supervision were studied. The first included 32 patients with 47 club feet reviewed at a mean age of 25 years and treated by manipulation, application of toe-to-groin plaster casts and an extensive posteromedial release. The second included 32 patients with 49 club feet reviewed at a mean age of 19 years and treated by the Ponseti manipulation technique, application of toe-to-groin plaster casts and a limited posterior release. At follow-up the shape of the subtalar, talonavicular and calcaneocuboid joints was found to be altered in many feet in both groups. This did not appear to be influenced significantly by the type of treatment performed. Correction of the heel varus and the increased declination angle of the neck of the talus was better in the club feet of the second group, whereas reduction of the medial subluxation of the navicular was better in the first. There was a marked increase in the external ankle torsion angle in the first group and a moderate increase of this angle in the second group, in which medial subluxation of the cuboid on the anterior apophysis of the calcaneum was always corrected. Equinus was corrected in both groups but three-dimensional CT reconstruction of the whole foot showed that cavus, supination and adduction deformities were corrected much better in the second group.