Brain Metabolism And Cerebral Disorders

This open access book offers an essential overview of brain, head and neck, and spine imaging. Over the last few years, there have been considerable advances in this area, driven by both clinical and technological developments. Written by leading international experts and teachers, the chapters are disease-oriented and cover all relevant imaging modalities, with a focus on magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. The book also includes a synopsis of pediatric imaging. IDKD books are rewritten (not merely updated) every four years, which means they offer a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in imaging. The book is clearly structured and features learning objectives, abstracts, subheadings, tables and take-home points, supported by design elements to help readers navigate the text. It will particularly appeal to general radiologists, radiology residents, and interventional radiologists who want to update their diagnostic expertise, as well as clinicians from other specialties who are interested in imaging for their patient care.

This book discusses new methods for dynamically assessing the brain function of patients with neurological diseases, describing such advanced techniques as positron emission tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and the autoradiographic analysis of transport, metabolism and receptor binding. The book adopts the clinician's point of view, and provides the background needed to understand the rapid advances in our understanding of brain metabolism. It aims to explain how these new techniques are used in assessing neurological disorders of metabolism.

At the present time several techniques are available for studying quantitatively global and regional blood flow and metabolism of the human brain. How ever, many scientists working in the clinical and research field who would like to use these tools for their investigations may be less familiar with the indi cations and limitations of the individual methods. The rapid development of both modern imaging techniques and new tracers may have led to some con fusion in answering the question as to which method is appropriate to solve the diagnostic problem of an individuum with brain disease. Scepticism and ignorance as to the methods to be used as tools in differential diagnosis of brain disorders may have prevented their widespread introduction into clinical practice. Thus, the significance of circulatory and metabolic parameters involved in the majority of diseases of the central nervous system may have been overlooked. The contributions compiled in this book describe in detail the individual techniques, outline their indications and limitations and deal in particular with newer methods such as the atraumatic 133Xe technique, stable xenon tomogra phy, three-dimensional techniques such as 133Xe single photon emission tomog raphy and N-isopropyl-P23-iodoamphetamine. Positron emission tomography studies provide information on function and metabolism, particularly that of oxygen and glucose, in regional brain areas of interest. Nuclear magnetic reso nance may be a promising method for studying metabolic parameters; however, accurate circulation measurements can not be performed at present.

This book focuses on advances in our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of brain iron uptake, iron homeostasis and iron metabolism in the pathophysiology and pharmacology of CNS disease models. Dysregulation of brain iron homeostasis can lead to severe pathological changes in the neural system. Iron deficiency can slow down the development of the neural system and cause language and motion disorders, while iron overload is closely related to neurodegenerative diseases. Although some current books include chapters on iron metabolism and certain neurodegenerative diseases, this is the first systematic summary of the latest discoveries regarding brain iron metabolism and CNS diseases. By providing novel and thought-provoking insights into the mechanisms and physiological significance of brain iron metabolism and related diseases, the book stimulates further new research directions. It helps graduate students and researchers gain an overall picture of brain iron metabolism and the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, and also offers pharmaceutical companies inspiration for new treatment strategies for CNS diseases.