Anna Nastro

Azienda Ospedaliera di Rilievo Nazionale Santobono Pausilipon · neuroscienze

Background Brain parenchyma (BP) and intracranial cerebrospinal fluid (iCSF) volumes measured by fully automated segmentation of clinical brain MRI studies may be useful for the diagnosis and follow‐up of pediatric hydrocephalus. However, previously published segmentation techniques either rely on dedicated sequences, not routinely used in clinical...

Background Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor, accounting for 40% of childhood tumors in posterior fossa. Metastatic disease, occurring in 20–30% of all medulloblastoma cases at diagnosis, is largely exclusive to the leptomeninges. On the contrary, primary leptomeningeal medulloblastoma or so-called chameleon me...

Purpose To evaluate the anatomical variations of dural venous sinuses in children with external hydrocephalus, proposing a radiological grading of progressive anatomic restriction to venous outflow based on brain phase-contrast magnetic resonance venography (PC-MRV); to evaluate the correlation between positional plagiocephaly and dural sinuses pat...

Background Symptomatic cysts of the septum pellucidum (CSP) are extremely rare in children and surgical indications are not well defined. A very careful clinical and neuroradiologic evaluation is necessary to consider a patient for surgical indication. Methods We present a surgical series of 7 pediatric patients. Clinical and radiological features...

IntroductionTuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder affecting multiple systems, due to inactivating mutations of TSC1 or TSC2 mTOR pathway genes. Neurological manifestations are observed in about 95% cases, representing the most frequent cause of morbidity and one of the most common causes of mortality.Background Neur...

Background Chronic subdural hematoma associated with dural calcifications in previously pediatric shunted patients is a rare condition. The inner dural membrane opening can lead to progressive brain herniation into the subdural space due to brain re-expansion. Case Description. A 15 yo boy, previously shunted at birth for congenital hydrocephalus,...

7-year-old patient with surgically treated right frontal high-grade glial tumor.

4-year-old patient with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma treated by radiation therapy.Postoperative MR follow-up performed with MR morphologic sequences. 4-year-old patient with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma treated by radiation therapy. Postoperative MR follow-up performed with MR morphologic sequences.

The importance of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) is clearly established in the surgical treatment of hydrocephalus related to aqueductal stenosis. In the preoperative phase, a careful preoperative Magnetic Resonance (MR) study allows identification of patients that could be good candidates to the procedure instead of extra-thecal diversiona...

Background Interhypothalamic adhesions (IHAs) are horizontally oriented parenchymal bands of tissue connecting the medial hypothalamic regions across the third ventricle. They can be assessed with high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) techniques. Case Description We report MR and neuroendoscopic features of IHA in a 3-year-old boy without sympto...

OBJECTIVE In the past, the outcome of surgical treatment for thalamic tumor was poor. These lesions were often considered inoperable. However, contemporary microsurgical techniques, together with improvements in neuroimaging that enable accurate presurgical planning, allow resection to be accomplished in a safer way. METHODS The medical records, i...

OBJECTIVE Intraventricular choroid plexus cysts are unusual causes of acute hydrocephalus in children. Radiological diagnosis of intraventricular choroid plexus cysts is difficult because they have very thin walls and fluid contents similar to CSF and can go undetected on routine CT studies. METHODS This study reports the authors' experience with...

Pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is the most common pediatric cerebellar neoplasm and the most common pediatric glioma, constituting 85 % of all cerebellar astrocytomas and 10 % of all cerebral astrocytomas in this age group. PAs are usually clinically benign and are classified as grade I by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Neuroimaging of brain tumors has evolved from a strictly morphology-based discipline to one that encompasses function, physiology, and anatomy.

Infants affected by neuroblastoma with symptomatic epidural compression require early diagnosis and appropriate treatment to avoid severe late complications. However, no established guidelines are available regarding the optimal treatment of these patients. We describe 5 such infants. The interval between the onset of symptoms and tumor diagnosis w...

The sylvian aqueduct is the most common site of intraventricular blockage of the cerebro-spinal fluid. Clinical aspects, neuroradiological appearance, and treatment of hydrocephalus secondary to aqueductal stenosis are specific. An extensive literature review concerning etiologic, pathogenetic, clinical, and neuroradiological aspects has been perfo...

Even if the first description of Dandy-Walker dates back 1887, difficulty in the establishment of correct diagnosis, especially concerning differential diagnosis with other types of posterior fossa CSF collection, still persists. Further confusion is added by the inclusion, in some classification, of different malformations with different prognosis...

Gangliogliomas originating in the optic pathway are rare, with less than 20 cases reported in the literature. Diffuse, bilateral involvement of the entire optico-chiasmatic pathway is exceptional. We report a case of suprasellar ganglioglioma that involved bilaterally the entire pregeniculate optic pathway. The patient presented with visual deficit...

Central nervous system (CNS) complications during treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remain a challenging clinical problem. Outcome improvement with more intensive chemotherapy has significantly increased the incidence and severity of adverse events. This study analyzed the incidence of neurological complications during ALL t...

We report two cases of primary malignant lymphoma, unusually originating in the skull base, respectively, in clivus and temporal bone, and histologically confirmed after biopsy. In both cases, Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) disclosed homogenously enhancing tumours with bone destruction.Because of the non-specific imag...