Orbital myositis occurs in typical and atypical forms. This review summarizes and updates the current state of knowledge of all forms of inflammation affecting extraocular muscle, excluding ...thyroid-associated orbitopathy.
A comprehensive literature review of orbital myositis was performed.
Orbital myositis typically occurs in an idiopathic acute form, with painful diplopia due to inflammation in 1 or more extraocular muscles of young adult females, which usually responds to a course of oral corticosteroids. Atypical forms include idiopathic chronic or recurrent orbital myositis, and myositis related to systemic autoimmune, inflammatory, and infective conditions. The commonest associated autoimmune condition is inflammatory bowel disease. Immunoglobulin G4-related ophthalmic disease often affects extraocular muscle. Drug reactions and rarely paraneoplastic disease may also cause extraocular muscle inflammation.
Orbital myositis occurs in a typical acute steroid responsive form, but atypical forms related to specific autoimmune and inflammatory conditions are increasingly recognized. Orbital myositis has many similarities to uveitis and would benefit from a systematic approach to nomenclature, diagnosis, and treatment.
The vacuum platform McNab, A
Journal of physics. Conference series,
10/2017, Volume:
898, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This paper describes GridPP's Vacuum Platform for managing virtual machines (VMs), which has been used to run production workloads for WLCG and other HEP experiments. The platform provides a uniform ...interface between VMs and the sites they run at, whether the site is organised as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud system such as OpenStack, or an Infrastructure-as-a-Client system such as Vac. The paper describes our experience in using this platform, in developing and operating VM lifecycle managers Vac and Vcycle, and in interacting with VMs provided by LHCb, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS, and the GridPP DIRAC service to run production workloads.
A very large number of disorders affect the orbit, and many of these occur in the setting of systemic disease. This lecture covers selected aspects of orbital diseases with systemic associations in ...which the author has a particular clinical or research interest. Spontaneous orbital haemorrhage often occurs in the presence of bleeding diatheses. Thrombosis of orbital veins and ischaemic necrosis of orbital and ocular adnexal tissues occur with thrombophilic disorders, vasculitis, and certain bacterial and fungal infections. Non-infectious orbital inflammation commonly occurs with specific inflammatory diseases, including Graves' disease, IgG4-related disease, sarcoidosis, Sjögren's syndrome and granulomatosis with polyangiitis, all of which have systemic manifestations. IgG4-related ophthalmic disease is commoner than all these except Graves' orbitopathy. Some of these orbital inflammatory diseases are associated with an increased risk of B-cell lymphoma, usually marginal zone lymphoma of MALT type. Ocular adnexal lymphoma also has an association with infectious agents including Helicobacter pylori and Chlamydia psittaci. Orbital metastasis may be the first presentation of systemic malignancy. A number of orbital neoplasms occur in the setting of familial cancer syndromes, including Neurofibromatosis types 1 and 2. Study of the genetics and molecular biology of orbital diseases such as Graves' orbitopathy and idiopathic orbital inflammatory disease will yield useful information on their diagnosis and management.
A major challenge in understanding the cellular diversity of the brain has been linking activity during behavior with standard cellular typology. For example, it has not been possible to determine ...whether principal neurons in prefrontal cortex active during distinct experiences represent separable cell types, and it is not known whether these differentially active cells exert distinct causal influences on behavior. Here, we develop quantitative hydrogel-based technologies to connect activity in cells reporting on behavioral experience with measures for both brain-wide wiring and molecular phenotype. We find that positive and negative-valence experiences in prefrontal cortex are represented by cell populations that differ in their causal impact on behavior, long-range wiring, and gene expression profiles, with the major discriminant being expression of the adaptation-linked gene NPAS4. These findings illuminate cellular logic of prefrontal cortex information processing and natural adaptive behavior and may point the way to cell-type-specific understanding and treatment of disease-associated states.
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•Cohort-scale CLARITY is enabled for whole-brain activity/projection measurements•mPFC cells active during distinct-valence experiences exhibit distinct projections•Positive-valence experience preferentially recruits an NPAS4+ population in mPFC•Recruiting diverse experience-defined mPFC ensembles drives distinct behaviors
A quantitative analysis of the wiring and molecular properties of neurons in the prefrontal cortex that are associated with distinct behavioral experiences illuminates the logic of information processing in the brain.
3D histology, slice-based connectivity atlases, and diffusion MRI are common techniques to map brain wiring. While there are many modality-specific tools to process these data, there is a lack of ...integration across modalities. We develop an automated resource that combines histologically cleared volumes with connectivity atlases and MRI, enabling the analysis of histological features across multiple fiber tracts and networks, and their correlation with in-vivo biomarkers. We apply our pipeline in a murine stroke model, demonstrating not only strong correspondence between MRI abnormalities and CLARITY-tissue staining, but also uncovering acute cellular effects in areas connected to the ischemic core. We provide improved maps of connectivity by quantifying projection terminals from CLARITY viral injections, and integrate diffusion MRI with CLARITY viral tracing to compare connectivity maps across scales. Finally, we demonstrate tract-level histological changes of stroke through this multimodal integration. This resource can propel investigations of network alterations underlying neurological disorders.
The engineering of a 3T human MRI scanner equipped with 300mT/m gradients – the strongest gradients ever built for an in vivo human MRI scanner – was a major component of the NIH Blueprint Human ...Connectome Project (HCP). This effort was motivated by the HCP's goal of mapping, as completely as possible, the macroscopic structural connections of the in vivo healthy, adult human brain using diffusion tractography. Yet, the 300mT/m gradient system is well suited to many additional types of diffusion measurements. Here, we present three initial applications of the 300mT/m gradients that fall outside the immediate scope of the HCP. These include: 1) diffusion tractography to study the anatomy of consciousness and the mechanisms of brain recovery following traumatic coma; 2) q-space measurements of axon diameter distributions in the in vivo human brain and 3) postmortem diffusion tractography as an adjunct to standard histopathological analysis. We show that the improved sensitivity and diffusion-resolution provided by the gradients are rapidly enabling human applications of techniques that were previously possible only for in vitro and animal models on small-bore scanners, thereby creating novel opportunities to map the microstructure of the human brain in health and disease.
•Diffusion spectrum imaging to study traumatic coma recovery•In vivo human axon diameter measurements using 300mT/m gradients•High-resolution (0.6mm isotropic) diffusion imaging in whole, fixed human brain
Perhaps more than any other “-omics” endeavor, the accuracy and level of detail obtained from mapping the major connection pathways in the living human brain with diffusion MRI depend on the ...capabilities of the imaging technology used. The current tools are remarkable; allowing the formation of an “image” of the water diffusion probability distribution in regions of complex crossing fibers at each of half a million voxels in the brain. Nonetheless our ability to map the connection pathways is limited by the image sensitivity and resolution, and also the contrast and resolution in encoding of the diffusion probability distribution.
The goal of our Human Connectome Project (HCP) is to address these limiting factors by re-engineering the scanner from the ground up to optimize the high b-value, high angular resolution diffusion imaging needed for sensitive and accurate mapping of the brain's structural connections. Our efforts were directed based on the relative contributions of each scanner component. The gradient subsection was a major focus since gradient amplitude is central to determining the diffusion contrast, the amount of T2 signal loss, and the blurring of the water PDF over the course of the diffusion time. By implementing a novel 4-port drive geometry and optimizing size and linearity for the brain, we demonstrate a whole-body sized scanner with Gmax=300mT/m on each axis capable of the sustained duty cycle needed for diffusion imaging. The system is capable of slewing the gradient at a rate of 200T/m/s as needed for the EPI image encoding. In order to enhance the efficiency of the diffusion sequence we implemented a FOV shifting approach to Simultaneous MultiSlice (SMS) EPI capable of unaliasing 3 slices excited simultaneously with a modest g-factor penalty allowing us to diffusion encode whole brain volumes with low TR and TE. Finally we combine the multi-slice approach with a compressive sampling reconstruction to sufficiently undersample q-space to achieve a DSI scan in less than 5min. To augment this accelerated imaging approach we developed a 64-channel, tight-fitting brain array coil and show its performance benefit compared to a commercial 32-channel coil at all locations in the brain for these accelerated acquisitions.
The technical challenges of developing the over-all system are discussed as well as results from SNR comparisons, ODF metrics and fiber tracking comparisons. The ultra-high gradients yielded substantial and immediate gains in the sensitivity through reduction of TE and improved signal detection and increased efficiency of the DSI or HARDI acquisition, accuracy and resolution of diffusion tractography, as defined by identification of known structure and fiber crossing.
•Approach for advancing the sensitivity of the diffusion connectivity measurement.•Optimization of Gmax=300mT/m gradient, RF coil and sequence.•Improved sensitivity and diffusion contrast in high quality DSI/Q Ball.
Diffusion tensor MRI is sensitive to the coherent structure of brain tissue and is commonly used to study large-scale white matter structure. Diffusion in gray matter is more isotropic, however, ...several groups have observed coherent patterns of diffusion anisotropy within the cerebral cortical gray matter. We extend the study of cortical diffusion anisotropy by relating it to the local coordinate system of the folded cerebral cortex. We use 1mm and sub-millimeter isotropic resolution diffusion imaging to perform a laminar analysis of the principal diffusion orientation, fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity and partial volume effects. Data from 6 in vivo human subjects, a fixed human brain specimen and an anesthetized macaque were examined. Large regions of cortex show a radial diffusion orientation. In vivo human and macaque data displayed a sharp transition from radial to tangential diffusion orientation at the border between primary motor and somatosensory cortex, and some evidence of tangential diffusion in secondary somatosensory cortex and primary auditory cortex. Ex vivo diffusion imaging in a human tissue sample showed some tangential diffusion orientation in S1 but mostly radial diffusion orientations in both M1 and S1.
► Measurement of diffusion anisotropy in the in vivo human cerebral cortex. ► Dominant diffusion orientation compared to the local cortical orientation. ► Analysis of cortical depth-dependent diffusion features and partial volume effects. ► Diffusion in the cortex is predominantly orthogonal to the cortical surface. ► Evidence of tangential diffusion in S1 and to a lesser extent S2 and A1.
Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for axon diameter mapping benefit from higher maximum gradient strengths than are currently available on commercial human scanners. Using a ...dedicated high-gradient 3T human MRI scanner with a maximum gradient strength of 300mT/m, we systematically studied the effect of gradient strength on in vivo axon diameter and density estimates in the human corpus callosum. Pulsed gradient spin echo experiments were performed in a single scan session lasting approximately 2h on each of three human subjects. The data were then divided into subsets with maximum gradient strengths of 77, 145, 212, and 293mT/m and diffusion times encompassing short (16 and 25ms) and long (60 and 94ms) diffusion time regimes. A three-compartment model of intra-axonal diffusion, extra-axonal diffusion, and free diffusion in cerebrospinal fluid was fitted to the data using a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. For the acquisition parameters, model, and fitting routine used in our study, it was found that higher maximum gradient strengths decreased the mean axon diameter estimates by two to three fold and decreased the uncertainty in axon diameter estimates by more than half across the corpus callosum. The exclusive use of longer diffusion times resulted in axon diameter estimates that were up to two times larger than those obtained with shorter diffusion times. Axon diameter and density maps appeared less noisy and showed improved contrast between different regions of the corpus callosum with higher maximum gradient strength. Known differences in axon diameter and density between the genu, body, and splenium of the corpus callosum were preserved and became more reproducible at higher maximum gradient strengths. Our results suggest that an optimal q-space sampling scheme for estimating in vivo axon diameters should incorporate the highest possible gradient strength. The improvement in axon diameter and density estimates that we demonstrate from increasing maximum gradient strength will inform protocol development and encourage the adoption of higher maximum gradient strengths for use in commercial human scanners.
•The effect of gradient strength on in vivo human axon diameter estimates was studied.•Experiments were performed on a novel 3T MRI with maximum gradients of 300mT/m.•Higher gradient strengths resulted in smaller, more robust axon diameter estimates.•Shorter diffusion times resulted in smaller axon diameter estimates.
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