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Cranial Fossa (cranial + fossa)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences75%
Life Sciences25%

Kinds of Cranial Fossa

  • posterior cranial fossa
    		•

    Selected Abstracts

    A 6-YEAR-OLD GIRL WITH AN EXTRA-AXIAL MASS IN THE MIDDLE CRANIAL FOSSA

    BRAIN PATHOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
    Kenta Masui MD
    First page of article [source]

    Setting Up a Multidisciplinary Program for Management of Patent Foramen Ovale-Mediated Syndromes

    JOURNAL OF INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
    GIANLUCA RIGATELLI M.D.
    Background: These days no codified multidisciplinary protocol has been reported to manage all the different patent foramen ovale (PFO)-mediated syndromes. We sought to propose a multidisciplinary program of diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of all PFO-mediated syndromes based on an in-hospital multidisciplinary task force and to review the activities during the first year. Methods: From September 2004, we organized in our hospital, a 600-bed tertiary hospital, a management program for PFO-mediated syndromes based on a task force composed of cardiologists, neurologists, and internists. Different levels of protocols were created in order to cover diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of PFO-mediated syndromes. We reviewed the activity of our program in the first year up to September 2005. Results: Thirty-five patients (23 female, mean age 65 ± 24 years) were evaluated for suspected PFO-mediated syndromes: 20 for cryptogenic stroke, 2 for peripheral and coronary embolisms, 3 for platypnea-orthodeoxia, 9 for emicrania with aura, and 1 with hypoxiemia during neurosurgical intervention in the posterior cranial fossa. Diagnosis of PFO was confirmed in 25 patients. According to the multidisciplinary protocols, 15 patients failed to meet the requirements for transcatheter closure and were left in medical therapy whereas 11 patients (7 patients with PFO, 2 with multiperforated ASD, and 2 with a secundum ASD) underwent transcatheter closure. After a mean follow-up of 10.8 ± 4.9 months, no recurrent PFO syndromes were noted in patients treated with devices. Conclusion: The first year of our multidisciplinary program allowed a reasonable and potentially successful approach for correctly identifying patients with PFO-mediated syndromes until randomized studies are completed. [source]

    Brain structural damage in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2.

    MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 6 2008
    A voxel-based morphometry study
    Abstract Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) enables an unbiased in-vivo whole-brain quantitative analysis of differences in gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) volumes. We assessed with VBM 20 spinocerebellar ataxia Type 2 (SCA2) patients with mild or moderate cerebellar deficit and 20 age and sex-matched healthy controls. SCA2 patients showed a significant (P < 0.05 corrected for multiple comparison) symmetric loss of GM in the cerebellar vermis and hemispheres sparing lobules I,II, Crus II,VII, and X, and of the WM in the peridentate region, middle cerebellar peduncles, dorsal pons, and cerebral peduncles. The CSF volume was increased in the posterior cranial fossa. No GM, WM or CSF volume changes were observed in the supratentorial compartment. A mild (P < 0.05, >0.01) correlation was observed between the GM and WM loss and severity of the neurological deficit. In SCA2 patients with mild to moderate cerebellar deficit, GM and WM volume loss and CSF volume increase are confined to the posterior cranial fossa. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society [source]

    Brain size and the human cranial base: A prenatal perspective

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 4 2002
    Nathan Jeffery
    Abstract Pivotally positioned as the interface between the neurocranium and the face, the cranial base has long been recognized as a key area to our understanding of the origins of modern human skull form. Compared with other primates, modern humans have more coronally orientated petrous bones and a higher degree of basicranial flexion, resulting in a deeper and wider posterior cranial fossa. It has been argued that this derived condition results from a phylogenetic increase in the size of the brain and its subcomponents (infra- and supratentorial volumes) relative to corresponding lengths of the cranial base (posterior and anterior, respectively). The purpose of this study was to test such evolutionary hypotheses in a prenatal ontogenetic context. We measured the degree of basicranial flexion, petrous reorientation, base lengths, and endocranial volumes from high-resolution magnetic resonance images (hrMRI) of 46 human fetuses ranging from 10,29 weeks of gestation. Bivariate comparisons with age revealed a number of temporal trends during the period investigated, most notable of which were coronal rotation of the petrous bones and basicranial retroflexion (flattening). Importantly, the results reveal significant increases of relative endocranial sizes across the sample, and the hypotheses therefore predict correlated variations of cranial base flexion and petrous orientation in accordance with these increases. Statistical analyses did not yield results as predicted by the hypotheses. Thus, the propositions that base flexion and petrous reorientation are due to increases of relative endocranial sizes were not corroborated by the findings of this study, at least for the period investigated. Am J Phys Anthropol 118:324,340, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

    Evidence for the Influence of Diet on Cranial Form and Robusticity

    THE ANATOMICAL RECORD : ADVANCES IN INTEGRATIVE ANATOMY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
    Rachel A. Menegaz
    Abstract The evolutionary significance of cranial form and robusticity in early Homo has been variously attributed to allometry, encephalization, metabolic factors, locomotor activity, and masticatory forces. However, the influence of such factors is variably understood. To evaluate the effect of masticatory loading on neurocranial form, sibling groups of weanling white rabbits were divided into two cohorts of 10 individuals each and raised on either a soft diet or a hard/tough diet for 16 weeks until subadulthood. Micro-CT was used to quantify and visualize morphological variation between treatment groups. Results reveal trends (P < 0.10) for greater outer table thickness of the frontal bones, zygomatic height, and cranial globularity in rabbits raised on a hard/tough diet. Furthermore, analyses of three-dimensional coordinate landmark data indicate that the basicrania of hard/tough diet rabbits exhibit more robust middle cranial fossae and pterygoid plates, as well as altered overall morphology of the caudal cranial fossa. Thus, long term increases in masticatory loads may result in thickening of the bones of the neurocranial vault and/or altering the curvature of the walls. Differences in cranial regions not directly associated with the generation or resistance of masticatory forces (i.e., frontal bone, basicranium) may be indirectly correlated with diet-induced variation in maxillomandibular morphology. These findings also suggest that long-term variation in masticatory forces associated with differences in dietary properties can contribute to the complex and multifactorial development of neurocranial morphology. Anat Rec, 293:630,641, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

    Nerve of Origin, Tumor Size, Hearing Preservation, and Facial Nerve Outcomes in 359 Vestibular Schwannoma Resections at a Tertiary Care Academic Center

    THE LARYNGOSCOPE, Issue 12 2007
    Abraham Jacob MD
    Abstract Objective: To determine nerve of origin, tumor size, hearing preservation rates, and facial nerve outcomes in a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing translabyrinthine (TL), middle cranial fossa (MCF), and retrosigmoid/suboccipital (SO) approaches to vestibular schwannomas (VS). Study Design: Retrospective. Methods: Chart review. Results: Patient charts from 231 TL, 70 MCF, 53 SO, and 5 combined TL/SO procedures for VS were evaluated in 356 patients. The inferior vestibular nerve (IVN) was the nerve of origin in 84 of 359 cases (23.3%), while the superior vestibular nerve (SVN) was the nerve of origin in 36 patients (10%). In 239 of 359 cases (66.6%), the nerve of origin was not identified. Forty patients undergoing hearing preservation surgery had hearing results and nerve of origin data available for review. Functional hearing (<50dB PTA and >50% speech discrimination) was preserved in 10 of 15 patients (75%) with SVN tumors, while only 7 of 25 patients (28%) with IVN tumors retained functional hearing. Facial nerve outcomes and nerve of origin were recorded simultaneously in 109 patients. Seventy-one of 74 patients (95%) patients with IVN tumors achieved a House-Brackmann (HB) grade I,III, while 35 of 35 patients (100%) with SVN tumors retained HB I,III facial function. Looking at tumor size versus hearing preservation, functional hearing was preserved in 22 of 49 patients (45%) with <1-cm tumors, and 4 of 20 patients (20%) with 1- to 1.5-cm tumors. For all cases with documented facial nerve function, HB I,III were achieved in 96% of SO, 94% of MCF, and 88% of TL procedures. Conclusions: Our retrospective data indicated that IVN tumors were twice as common as SVN tumors. The nerve of origin did not affect facial nerve outcomes but did impact hearing preservation rates. Patients with tumors <1 cm in size had the best chance for hearing preservation. Overall facial nerve preservation was excellent with >90% achieving HB 1 to 3 function at final follow-up. [source]

    CHARGE syndrome as unusual cause of hypogonadism: endocrine and molecular evaluation

    ANDROLOGIA, Issue 5 2010
    L. Foppiani
    Summary Coloboma, heart defect, atresia choanae, retarded growth and development, genital hypoplasia, ear anomalies (CHARGE) syndrome is a genetic syndrome in which hypogonadism is a frequent feature. A causative mutation within the chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein-7 gene, which plays an important role in the embryonic development, is present in 2/3 of affected patients. We describe the clinical, hormonal and molecular characteristics of a young man from Ecuador who was diagnosed as having CHARGE syndrome at an adult age. The patient showed several phenotypic features of the syndrome, associated with a prepubertal state and cryptorchidism; hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism with undetectable testosterone levels not responsive to hCG testing and severe osteoporosis were ascertained. Molecular evaluation of the CHD7 gene showed the novel frameshift truncating heterozygous mutation p.Tyr1046Glyfs*23 in exon 12. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed mild hypoplasia of the pituitary gland and hypoplasia of the posterior cranial fossa. Parenteral testosterone therapy led to sexual development over time and, in combination with diphophonate therapy and calcium,vitamin D supplementation, significantly improved bone mineralisation. Early proper hormonal treatment of hypogonadism in patients with complex genetic syndromes is important to achieve normal sexual maturation, improve quality of life and avoid significant comorbidities, such as osteoporosis. [source]

    Craniofacial surgery for malignant skull base tumors

    CANCER, Issue 6 2003
    Report of an International Collaborative Study
    Abstract BACKGROUND Malignant tumors of the skull base are rare. Therefore, no single center treats enough patients to accumulate significant numbers for meaningful analysis of outcomes after craniofacial surgery (CFS). The current report was based on a large cohort that was analyzed retrospectively by an International Collaborative Study Group. METHODS One thousand three hundred seven patients who underwent CFS in 17 institutions were analyzable for outcome. The median age was 54 years (range, 1,98 years). Definitive treatment prior to CFS had been administered in 59% of patients and included radiotherapy in 367 patients (28%), chemotherapy in 151 patients (12%), and surgery in 523 patients (40%). The majority of tumors (87%) involved the anterior cranial fossa. Squamous cell carcinoma (29%) and adenocarcinoma (16%) were the most common histologic types. The margins of surgical resection were reported close/positive in 412 patients (32%). Adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy was received by 510 patients (39%), and chemotherapy was received by 57 patients (4%). RESULTS Postoperative complications were reported in 433 patients (33%), with local wound complications the most common (18%). The postoperative mortality rate was 4%. With a median follow-up of 25 months, the 5-year overall, disease-specific, and recurrence-free survival rates were 54%, 60%, and 53%, respectively. The histology of the primary tumor, its intracranial extent, and the status of surgical margins were independent predictors of overall, disease-specific, and recurrence-free survival on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS CFS is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with malignant tumors of the skull base. The histology of the primary tumor, its intracranial extent, and the status of surgical margins are independent determinants of outcome. Cancer 2003;98:1179,87. © 2003 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.11630 [source]