Matteo Bellini

• Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese

Background and purpose Degenerative and/or herniated discs are a global cause of chronic lower back and neck pain. While multiple treatments exist, the research for long-term effective interventions with minimal side effects continues. The radioplaque gelified ethanol (RGE) (DiscoGel®, Hérouville-Saint-Clair, France), is an addition to the armament...

Vertebral augmentation has emerged as a crucial intervention for cancer patients suffering from vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) due to metastatic spinal tumors. These fractures significantly compromise patients' quality of life and exacerbate pain, leading to increased morbidity and decreased functional status. This comprehensive review expl...

Purpose To evaluate safety and efficacy of the novel percutaneous interspinous device (PID) for the treatment of symptomatic degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS) in 3 different centers. Methods From November 2016 to March 2020, 255 patients (male 125, mean age 71.2 years old range 49–91 years old) with neurogenic claudication, confirmed by e...

Vertebral augmentation has been used to treat painful vertebral compression fractures and metastatic lesions in millions of patients around the world. An international group of subject matter experts have considered the evidence, including but not limited to mortality. These considerations led them to ask whether it is appropriate to allow the subj...

AIMS: to assess radiological and clinical outcomes, in terms of safety and efficacy, of symptomatic vertebral fractures with and without posterior wall and\or both endplates involvement, treated with vesselplasty technique (Vessel-X, Dragon Crown Medical Co., Ltd Shandong, China). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 66 Patients who...

This chapter presents a comprehensive review of disk degeneration and lumbar stenosis disease, diagnosis, and percutaneous image-guided decompressive spinal techniques.

Low back pain, radicular leg pain, and lumbar spinal stenosis are the most common of all chronic pain disorders. Discogenic pain is related to distress of annular fibers and tears, whereas spinal stenosis is related to reduction of the spinal canal dimensions and compression of the neural elements; radicular pain is mainly related to disc herniatio...

Purpose To retrospectively assess safety and potential effectiveness of percutaneous intervertebral disc coagulation therapy (PDCT) using plasma thermal reaction for the treatment of lumbar and cervical disc hernias resistant to medical therapy. Materials and Methods Forty-four patients (age range 18–87 years, mean 52.7) with contained and extrude...

Operative treatments of the spine are becoming increasingly more common for the availability of a wide range of surgical and minimally invasive procedures. MR imaging allows for excellent evaluation of both normal and abnormal findings in the postoperative spine. This article provides the basic tools to evaluate complications after different operat...

Literature has suggested that changes in brain flow circulation occur in patients with multiple sclerosis. In this study, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was used to measure the absolute CCT value in MS patients and to correlate its value to age at disease onset and duration, and to expand disability status scale (EDSS). DSA assessment was pe...

This study compared high-resolution MRI with histology in advanced stage retinoblastomas in which ophthalmoscopy and ultrasonography did not give an exhaustive depiction of the tumour and/or its extension. MRI of orbits and head in 28 retinoblastoma patients (28 eyes) treated with primary enucleation were evaluated. Iris neoangiogenesis, infiltrati...

Background and purpose: Chemonucleolysis represents a minimally invasive percutaneous technique characterized by an intradiskal injection of materials under fluoroscopic or CT guidance. Recently, a substance based on radiopaque gelified ethanol has been introduced. The purpose of this study was to describe the indications, procedure, safety, and e...

The autonomic nervous system maintains constant cerebral venous blood outflow in changing positions. Alterations in cerebral autoregulation can be revealed by postural changes at quantitative color Doppler sonography. The aim of this study was to reach an optimal cutoff value of the difference between the cerebral venous blood outflow in the supine...

Purpose To demonstrate the safety and efficacy of injection of RGE in the percutaneuos treatment of lumbar and cervical disc herniations. Furthermore, intervertebral disc morfostructural changes has been evaluated by three dimensional compute tomography (3D-CT). Materials and Methods Between September 2010 and April 2012, 47 symptomatic patients (...

A 65-year-old man improved significantly during intravenous thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for acute stroke due to thrombotic occlusion of the basilar artery apex. However, 5 minutes after the end of tPA infusion, he developed anterior circulation clinical symptoms. Angiography showed signs of left middle cerebral...

Transient ischemic attack (TIA) has to be considered an "alarm bell" of a more or less severe organic or systemic vasculopathy. Positive findings at neuroimaging means tissue damage. The purpose of this retrospective study was to assess the role of neuroimaging in the management of patients presenting with TIA, and to consider the relative implicat...

Spindle cell lipoma is a rare and distinct variant of soft tissue tumour characterised by spindle cells in which the fat content may be scarce or absent. Most spindle cell lipomas arise as a subcutaneous mass of the neck, shoulders or back. Rarely, they can also be found in unusual sites, such as the oral cavity, larynx, bronchus, breast, and extre...

Effects of methadone misuse have been rarely described. The purpose of this case report is to increase the knowledge of methadone-related leukoencephalopathy. We report the long-term follow-up by brain magnetic resonance imaging including isotropic diffusion-weighted imaging and mean apparent diffusion coefficient values of a 49-year-old patient wh...

We describe the case of a 13-year-old male with ù aciduria. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion weighted imaging disclosed some previously unreported findings. In particular, we observed an almost total sparing of early myelinated regions, and a restricted diffusion pattern in the dentate nuclei. Magnetization transfer contrast sh...

A hospitalized 81-year-old man with hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower-limb obstructive arteriopathy, and antithrombin III deficiency who was being treated with low-molecular-weight heparin, clopidogrel bisulfate, and acetylsalicylic acid presented with sudden aphasia and right hemiplegia. Brain computed tomography (CT) resu...

Occipital neuralgia may be related to traumatic, compressive, or inflammatory injury to the occipital nerve or C2 radicular level and cervical spinal cord lesions. We report a series of 3 patients with definite relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) who experienced sudden occipital neuralgiform pain with or without diminished sensation in the...

PURPOSE/AIM To assess safety and efficacy of percutatenous injection of radiopaque gelified ethanol (pi-RGE) for the treatment of lumbar and cervical disc herniations. CONTENT ORGANIZATION Pictorial review including indications and contraindications, technical aspects, clinical outcome, and morfostructural changes evaluation at three-month 3D-CT,...

PURPOSE/AIM To increase awareness to and to become familiar with CT, MRI, and DWI-ADC findings of Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) at both diagnosis and follow-up. CONTENT ORGANIZATION This educational exhibit shows a wide range of CT, MRI, and DWI-ADC findings obtained at both diagnosis and follow-up in alcoholic and non-alcoholic patients observed...