Massimo Caulo

Università degli Studi G. d'Annunzio Chieti e Pescara | UNICH · Department of Neuroscience & Imaging

Oncotype Dx Recurrence Score (RS) has been validated in patients with ER + /HER2 − invasive breast carcinoma to estimate patient risk of recurrence and guide the use of adjuvant chemotherapy. We investigated the role of MRI-based radiomics features extracted from the tumor and the peritumoral tissues to predict the risk of tumor recurrence. A total...

Background and purpose: Surgical resection of cerebral cavernous malformations close to eloquent regions frequently uses fMRI and DTI for surgical planning to best preserve neurologic function. This study investigates the reliability of fMRI and DTI near cerebral cavernous malformations. Materials and methods: Consecutive patients with cerebral...

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a frequent aortic disease. If the diameter of the aorta is larger than 5 cm, an open surgical repair (OSR) or an endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) are recommended. To prevent possible complications (i.e., endoleaks), EVAR-treated patients need to be monitored for 5 years following the intervention, using computed...

Ultrasound imaging is widely used to evaluate the neuromusculoskeletal system, and recently, a particular interest is mounting in assessing the bone tissue and fractures. Ultrasound can be considered a valuable diagnostic tool to perform a first-line evaluation of bone tissue, especially in particular settings without direct access to X-ray imaging...

Purpose: To develop a predictive grading model based on diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) metrics in children affected by gliomas, and to investigate the clinical impact of the predictive model by correlating with overall survival and progression-free survival. Materials and methods: 59 patients with a histological diagnosis of glioma were retros...

Background: Cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a monogenic small-vessel disease that is characterized by a wide range of neurologic and neuropsychological impairments. Constructional impairments have been reported in some cases but have never been assessed systematically. Object...

Purpose: To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of MRI diagnostic algorithms with an ascending automatization, in distinguishing between high-grade glioma (HGG) and solitary brain metastases (SBM). Methods: 36 patients with histologically proven HGG (n = 18) or SBM (n = 18), matched by size and location were enrolled from a database containing 6...

The salience network (SN), ventral attention network (VAN), dorsal attention network (DAN) and default mode network (DMN) have shown significant interactions and overlapping functions in bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of attention. In the present study, we tested if the SN, VAN, DAN and DMN connectivity can infer the gestational age (GA) at birt...

Objective To (1) compare bladder cancer (BC) muscle invasiveness among three b-values using a contrast-free approach based on Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VI-RADS), to (2) determine if muscle-invasiveness assessment is affected by the reader experience, and to (3) compare BC conspicuity among three b-values, qualitatively and quantita...

Aim: The present study aimed to examine meniscal morphology in an adult population in vivo through computed tomographic images, including research into morphological differences related to osteoarthritis, ageing and the meniscal location within the knee joint and a proposal for a supplementation of the current morphological classification. Materi...

Cytotoxic lesions of the corpus callosum (CLOCCs) are a clinical-radiological spectrum of disorders secondary to several etiopathogeneses. Cytotoxic lesions of the corpus callosum are typically associated with mild clinical symptoms including fever, headache, confusion, and altered mental status. We present a case of a 51-year-old Caucasian woman w...

Purpose Dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion-weighted MR imaging (PWI) is increasingly used in clinical neuroimaging for a range of conditions. More highly concentrated GBCAs (e.g., gadobutrol) are often preferred for DSC imaging because it is thought that more Gd is present in the volume of interest during first pass for a given equival...

Brain tumor surgery requires a delicate tradeof between complete removal of neoplastic tissue while minimizing loss of brain function. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and difusion tensor imaging (DTI) have emerged as valuable tools for non-invasive assessment of human brain function and are now used to determine brain regions that shou...

High-grade gliomas (HGG) represent about 15% of all pediatric brain tumors, with a dismal prognosis and survival rates ranging from 15 to 35%. Approximately 10–12% of pediatric HGGs (pHGG) occur in children younger than five years of age at diagnosis, specifically infants (iHGG), with an unexpected overall survival rate (OS) in 60–70% of cases. In...

Background and Objectives: Several authors have reported cervical and axillary lymphadenopathies as known side effects following anti-COVID-19 vaccine administration. Few data are available about atypical locations of post-anti-COVID-19 vaccine lymphadenopathy. In this investigation, we evaluated the incidence and prevalence of postvaccine lymphade...

TCC is a semisynthetic molecule widely used in clinical settings as a pain killer and myorelaxant. Several neurological side effects have been reported in association with TCC treatment including somnolence, confusion and seizure, the latter in a lower percentage of patients. Some previous reports described seizure onset after TCC intake in adultho...

Currently, several pathologies have corresponding and specific diagnostic and therapeutic branches of interest focused on early and correct detection, as well as the best therapeutic approach. Radiology never ceases to develop newer technologies in order to give patients a clear, safe, early, and precise diagnosis; furthermore, in the last few year...

Oncotype Dx is a genetic assay providing a recurrence score (RS) correlated with the risk of cancer recurrence and adjuvant treatment response in breast carcinoma. We investigated the ability of an MRI-based radiomics approach to predict the risk of tumor recurrence in breast cancer. A total of 62 patients with biopsy-proved ER+/HER2- early breast...

Gliomas disturb brain functions, contributing to abnormal neuronal activity and connectivity changes that can be effectively investigated using magnetoencephalography (MEG). In this work, we used MEG to evaluate frequency-specific alterations of brain activity and functional connectivity in glioma patients. Two consecutive 5-min sessions of eyes-cl...

Despite advances in tumor treatment, the inconsistent response is a major challenge among glioblastoma multiform (GBM) that lead to different survival time. Our aim was to integrate multimodal MRI with non-supervised and supervised machine learning methods to predict GBM patients’ survival time. To this end, we identified different compartments of...

Objective The aim of this study was to report the rate of additional anomalies detected exclusively at prenatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in fetuses with isolated severe ventriculomegaly undergoing neurosonography. Method Multicenter, retrospective, cohort study involving 20 referral fetal medicine centers in Italy, United Kingdom, Spain an...

Background and Objectives To investigate the natural history and outcomes following treatment for spontaneous amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA)-like in cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation (CAA-ri). Methods A multicenter, hospital-based, longitudinal, prospective observational study of inpatients meeting CAA-ri diagnostic cr...

Objectives Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is the standard technique for assessing aortic stenosis (AS), with effective orifice area (EOA) recommended for grading severity. EOA is operator-dependent, influenced by a number of pitfalls, and requires multiple measurements introducing independent and random sources of error. We tested the diagnos...

Abstract Ground-glass opacities (GGOs) are a non-specific high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) finding tipically observed in early Coronavirus disesase 19 (COVID-19) pneumonia. However, GGOs are also seen in other acute lung diseases, thus making challenging the differential diagnosis. To this aim, we investigated the performance of a radiomi...

Objectives: To evaluate the methodology of studies reporting reference charts of fetal brain structures at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Web of Science databases were searched electronically up to December 31, 2020. The primary outcome was to evaluate the methodology of the studies investigating the b...

Spatial configuration learning depends on the parahippocampal place area (PPA), a functionally heterogenous area which current visuo-spatial processing models place downstream from parietal cortex and area V4 of early visual cortex (EVC). Here, we present evidence for the medial occipital longitudinal tract (MOLT), a novel white matter pathway conn...

Objectives The early detection of preterm infants (PI) at risk for intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and neurological sequelae still constitutes an unsolved issue. We aimed at validating the role of S100B protein in the early diagnosis and prognosis of IVH in PI by means of cerebral ultrasound (CUS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) today consid...

Premature birth affects the developmental trajectory of the brain during a period of intense maturation with possible lifelong consequences. To better understand the effect of prematurity on brain structure and function, we performed blood‐oxygen‐level dependent (BOLD) and anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 40 weeks of postmenstrual age...

The Salience Network (SN), Ventral Attention Network (VAN), Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) and Default Mode Network (DMN) have shown significant interactions and overlapping functions in bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of attention. In the present study we tested if the SN, VAN, DAN and DMN connectivity can infer the gestational age (GA) at birth...

The pericardial cavity, sinuses, and recesses are frequently depicted on Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance (MR). We here review the normal human pericardial structures as provided by MR imaging of young, healthy subject and CT scans acquired after iatrogenic coronary dissection. We compared such radiological information with cadaveric...

Myofascial pain in the masticatory region, generally referred to as headache, is a common temporomandibular disorder (TMD) characterized by the hypersensitive regions of the contracted skeletal muscle fibers. A correct clinical treatment of myofascial pain has the potential to modify the functional activation of cerebral networks associated with pa...

Neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) followed by total mesorectal excision (TME) represents the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced (≥ T3 or N+) rectal cancer (LARC). Approximately 15% of patients with LARC shows a complete response after CRT. The use of pre-treatment MRI as predictive biomarker could help to increase the chance o...

Brain vascular damage accumulate in aging and often manifest as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) on MRI. Despite increased interest in automated methods to segment WMHs, a gold standard has not been achieved and their longitudinal reproducibility has been poorly investigated. The aim of present work is to evaluate accuracy and reproducibility o...

Male breast cancer is rare. It accounts for less than 1% of all cancers in men and less than 1% of all breast cancers. We present the case of a 73-years-old male patient with the coexistence of ipsilateral gynecomastia and two synchronous unilateral primary malignant tumors: invasive papillary carcinoma and invasive ductal carcinoma. Our case empha...

Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (KTS) is an uncommon congenital condition, resulting in vascular malformations affecting capillary, venous, and lymphatic systems and bone and/or soft tissue hypertrophy. Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) may be useful in assessing the severity of the disease and for treatment planning. We present two cases of two whit...

PURPOSE Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) has not yet been tested for pediatric brain tumors. Estimating diffusion values from whole-tumor based (VOI) segmentations may improve diffusion measurement repeatability compared to conventional region-of-interest (ROI) approaches. Our purpose was to compare repeatability between ROI and VOI DKI-derived dif...

PURPOSE Medulloblastoma (MB) is a complex pathology. Four molecular subgroups have been unveiled (Wingless-WNT, Sonic Hedgehog-SHH, Group 3-G3 and Group 4-G4), characterized by significant differences in patient clinical outcome. We investigated the utility of a radiomic analysis to predict molecular subgroups in patients with MB. MATERIALS AND ME...

The amygdala and the hippocampus are two limbic structures that play a critical role in cognition and behaviour but their small size hampers their manual segmentation in multicenter datasets. Here, we assessed the reliability of the automated segmentation of amygdalar nuclei and hippocampal subfields across sites and vendors. We applied a new high‐...

Ground-Glass Opacities (GGOs) are a non-specific CT finding observed in the early phase of COVID-19 pneumonia. However, GGOs are also seen in other acute interstitial and alveolar lung diseases, thus making the differential diagnosis a diagnostic challenge. In this poof-of-concept study, we aimed to differentiate COVID-19 pneumonia presenting with...

Objectives (1) To investigate whether a contrast-free biparametric MRI (bp-MRI) including T2-weighted images (T2W) and diffusion-weighted images (DWI) can be considered an accurate alternative to the standard multiparametric MRI (mp-MRI), consisting of T2, DWI, and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) imaging for the muscle-invasiveness assessment of bl...

Neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) followed by total mesorectal excision (TME) represents the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced (³ T3 or N+) rectal cancer (LARC). Approximately 15% of patients with LARC shows a complete response after CRT. The use of pre-treatment MRI as predictive biomarker could help to increase the chance o...

Objective: We investigated for the first time the presence of chronic changes in the functional organization of sensorimotor brain areas induced by prolonged training with a bidirectional hand prosthesis. Methods: A multimodal neurophysiological and neuroimaging evaluation of brain functional changes occurring during training in five consecutive...

PurposeThe head of the hippocampus (H) is classically described as having two to four digitations both in ex vivo specimens and in vivo MR coronal images. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a new MR-based classification of the anatomical variants of the hippocampal head in a large sample population of healthy subjects.MethodsMR image...

Introduction: Corpus callosum agenesis (ACC) is frequently diagnosed during fetal life; its prognosis depends also on additional anomalies. The additional value of fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in fetuses with 'isolated' complete (cACC) and partial (pACC) agenesis of the corpus callosum on ultrasound is still debated. Material and method...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a leading role in the non-invasive evaluation of bone marrow (BM). Normal BM pattern depends on the ratio and distribution of yellow and red marrow, which are subject to changes with age, pathologies, and treatments. Neonates show almost entirely red marrow. Over time, yellow marrow conversion takes place with...

The Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) is a recently developed classification aiming to improve the standardization of liver imaging assessment in patients at risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The LI-RADS v2017 implemented new algorithms for ultrasound (US) screening and surveillance, contrast-enhanced US diagnosis a...

Background The amygdala and the hippocampus are two limbic structures that play a critical role in cognition and behavior, however their manual segmentation and that of their smaller nuclei/subfields in multicenter datasets is time consuming and difficult due to the low contrast of standard MRI. Here, we assessed the reliability of the automated se...

54-year-old patient with right parietal high-grade oligodendroglioma treated with subtotal surgery and combined radiation therapy–chemotherapy.3T morphofunctional MR follow-up performed with morphologic sequence and spectroscopy at 2 years after surgery and combined radiation therapy–chemotherapy. 54-year-old patient with right parietal high-grade...

59-year-old patient with right frontal anaplastic astrocytoma treated with partial surgery and combined radiation therapy–chemotherapy.3T morphofunctional MR follow-up performed with morphologic imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging, perfusion study, and spectroscopy at 7, 15, and 28 months after surgery and combined radiation therapy–chemotherapy. 5...

46-year-old patient with right frontal low-grade astrocytoma treated with subtotal surgery and combined radiation therapy–chemotherapy.3T morphofunctional MR follow-up performed with morphologic imaging, diffusion, perfusion, and spectroscopy at 4 years after surgery and combined radiation therapy–chemotherapy. 46-year-old patient with right fronta...

Cerebral plasticity is the ability of the central nervous system to reorganize itself in response to different injuries. The reshaping of functional areas is a crucial mechanism to compensate for damaged function. It is acknowledged that functional remodeling of cortical areas may occur also in glioma patients. Principal limits of previous investig...

Purpose To compare tumor detectability and conspicuity of standard b = 1000 s/mm² (b1000) versus ultrahigh b = 2000 s/mm² (b2000) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in rectal cancer. Methods Fifty-five patients for a total of 81 3T DWI-MR scans were retrospectively evaluated by two differently experienced readers. A comparison between b1000 and b200...

Purpose To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of MRI for placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) and clinical outcome prediction in women with placenta previa, using a novel MRI-based predictive model. Methods Thirty-eight placental MRI exams performed on a 1.5T scanner were retrospectively reviewed by two radiologists in consensus. The presence of T2 da...

Objective: To compare brainstem acoustic evoked potentials (BAEP) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the differential diagnosis of intracranial hypotension (IH), Chiari malformation (CM) and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Methods: BAEP were recorded in 18 IH, 18 CM, 20 SNHL patients and 52 controls. MRI were acquired in all IH and CM pa...

Objectives To compare dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) data obtained using different prebolus T1 values in glioma grading and molecular profiling. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 83 cases of gliomas: 46 lower-grade gliomas (LGG; grades II and III) and 37 high-grade gliomas (HGG; grade IV). DCE-MRI maps of plasma volume fraction (Vp), ex...

Background: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) has a dismal prognosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains the gold standard for non-invasive DIPG diagnosis. MRI features have been tested as surrogate biomarkers. We investigated the direct involvement of cranial nerve V (CN V) in DIPG at diagnosis and its utility as predictor of poor over...

The brain is the principal processor of internal and external sensory experiences including pain. Pain is a multidimensional experience influenced by complex interactions among multiple processes including nociception (the afferent neural activity transmitting sensory information about noxious stimuli), cognitive appraisals (expectation, attention)...

Purpose To investigate modifications of Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) metrics in lateral white matter (WM) bundles of the cervical spinal cord in patients with previous stroke in the vascular territory of the middle cerebral artery (MCA). Methods Twenty consecutive patients with a previous i...

Background and objective Application parameters of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for therapeutic purposes are relatively restricted. The aim of this study was to assess safety and effects on motor cortex excitability of an intensive anodal-tDCS protocol. Methods In 26 healthy subjects, five 15-minute anodal-tDCS sessions were deli...