Sossio Cirillo

• MD
• Professor (Full) at University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"

Purpose: Evaluation of clinical and radiological effects of the therapeutic outcome of CT-guided pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) treatment adjacent to the lumbar dorsal root ganglion (DRG) for patients with chronic intractable lumbosacral radicular pain in a single-center prospective longitudinal study in order to evaluate predictive factors of safety...

Dilated Virchow–Robin spaces (VRSs) are expansions of the normal perivascular spaces with a short axis greater than 2 mm or, according to some authors, greater than 3 mm. They are usually documented at the basal ganglia, at the convexity white matter (WM) and centrum semiovale, and at the mesencephalon. The anterior temporal WM is a recently descri...

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

Hypophysitis (HP) is a rare acute or chronic inflammatory condition of the pituitary gland. The greatest challenge in the management of HP is establishing a diagnosis through clinical criteria and non-invasive methods and predicting the patients’ clinical outcome. The aim of this review is to describe the neuroradiological findings of this rare dis...

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.

Patient with surgically treated grade III left fronto-parietal oligodendroglioma.Postoperative follow-up performed late (9 months) with MR morphologic sequences. Patient with surgically treated grade III left fronto-parietal oligodendroglioma. Postoperative follow-up performed late (9 months) with MR morphologic sequences.

Patients with previous surgery of a right frontal meningioma subsequently irradiated.Postoperative and postradiation therapy follow-up performed late (3 and 4 years) with MR morphologic and perfusion sequences. Patients with previous surgery of a right frontal meningioma subsequently irradiated. Postoperative and postradiation therapy follow-up per...

Patient with surgically treated right fronto-parieto-temporal glioblastoma multiforme.Late postoperative MR imaging with morphologic sequences and diffusion-weighted imaging. Patient with surgically treated right fronto-parieto-temporal glioblastoma multiforme. Late postoperative MR imaging with morphologic sequences and diffusion-weighted imaging.

Patient with posterior left temporal anaplastic oligoastrocytoma treated with surgery and subsequent radiation.Postoperative and postradiation therapy follow-up performed late (6, 15, and 24 months) with MR morphologic and perfusion sequences. Patient with posterior left temporal anaplastic oligoastrocytoma treated with surgery and subsequent radia...

The relationship between psychosocial stress at work and mental health outcome is well-known. Brain-imaging studies hypothesize morphological brain modifications connected to work-related stress. To our knowledge this is the first study describing the link between work characteristics and brain imaging in a sample of work-related psychiatric patien...

In this manuscript we report the case of a 69-year-old female patient, who suffers from Parkinson's disease (PD) with a dilated Virchow-Robin space (dVRS) on the left anterior perforated substance. During a magnetic resonance imaging examination, the presence of a dVRS was discovered on the left anterior perforated substance. Subsequently, the pati...

Introduction Fatigue (F) is a common, inexplicable, and disabling symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a possible correlation between fatigue and morpho-volumetric features and site of dilated perivascular spaces (dPS), visible on 3T magnetic resonance (MR) in fatigued multiple sclerosis patients (F...

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a clinico-radiological condition, generally observed in conjunction with severe and acute hypertension, that involves mainly the posterior head areas (occipital and temporal lobes) and anterior "watershed" areas. In this syndrome it is rare to observe a predominant involvement of the brainstem....

Pasireotide is the first medical therapy officially approved for the treatment of adult patients with Cushing's disease (CD) who experienced a failure of pituitary surgery or are not candidates for surgery and require medical therapeutic intervention. The current study aimed at investigating the effects of long-term treatment with pasireotide (up t...

To better understand the effects of short-term computer-based cognitive rehabilitation (cCR) on cognitive performances and default mode network (DMN) intrinsic functional connectivity (FC) in cognitively impaired relapsing remitting (RR) multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Eighteen cognitively impaired RRMS patients underwent neuropsychological evalu...

In Graves' Ophthalmopathy, it is important to distinguish active inflammatory phase, responsive to immunosuppressive treatment, from fibrotic unresponsive inactive one. The purpose of this study is, first, to identify the relevant orbital magnetic resonance imaging signal intensities before treatment, so to classify patients according to their clin...

The aim of this study was to assess differences in the presence, size, number and site of dilated cerebral Virchow-Robin spaces (VRSd) between patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the inactive phase and healthy controls, and between MS patients with disabling (MSd) or nondisabling (MSnd) disease. The study was performed by retrospectively analy...

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) has demonstrated disrupted default mode network (DMN) connectivity in a number of pain conditions, including migraine. However, the significance of altered resting-state brain functional connectivity in migraine is still unknown. The present study is aimed to explore DMN functional conne...

In Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) it is important to distinguish acute inflammation at an early stage, responsive to immunosuppressive treatment, from inactive fibrotic end stage disease, unresponsive to the same treatment. The purpose of this study was to identify the most relevant signal intensities on orbital MR imaging with contrast administration...

In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) has produced mounting evidence of a widespread white matter (WM) damage within motor and extramotor pathways. To provide novel information about the degenerative process in ALS, overcoming some of the limitations imposed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI),...

Introduction: Bilateral inferior petrosal sinus sampling (BIPSS) is the test that offers the highest diagnostic accuracy in the differential diagnosis between pituitary and ectopic Cushng’s syndrome (CS). The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of BIPSS performed in the last six years, after the change in the technical procedur...

Syringomyelia is a disorder in which a cyst or cavity forms within the spinal cord. This cyst, called syrinx, can expand and elongate over time, destroying the spinal cord. We describe the case of a young patient with partial spontaneous regression of syringomyelia in Chiari I malformation, confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging three years after...

Objective: To investigate functional connectivity of the visual resting-state network (V-RSN) in normal-sighted relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients with and without previous optic neuritis (ON). Methods: Thirty normal-sighted RRMS patients, 16 without (nON-MS) and 14 with (ON-MS) previous ON, and 15 age- and sex-matched health...

Virchow-Robin spaces are lesions often seen in the brain parenchyma but their etiopathogenesis remains unsettled. Giant Virchow-Robin spaces placed in the midbrain are extremely rare. We describe three patients with a diagnosis of giant Virchow-Robin spaces in the midbrain, and their clinical and radiologic findings. We reviewed the literature in t...

Paget's disease (PD) is a common focal progressive osteometabolic disorder characterised by a disturbance in bone modelling and remodelling, because of an increase in osteoblastic and osteoclastic activity. It is a condition of unknown aetiology affecting approximately 3% of the population over 40 years of age and, approximately 10% of those over t...

Pagets disease (PD) is a common focal progressive osteometabolic disorder characterised by a disturbance in bone modelling and remodelling, because of an increase in osteoblastic and osteoclastic activity. It is a condition of unknown aetiology affecting approximately 3% of the population over 40 years of age and, approximately 10% of those over th...

La regione sellare e parasellare è costituita da differenti strutture che hanno tra loro relazioni anatomiche complesse e possono dare origine a molteplici processi patologici, quali neoplasie, lesioni congenite, patologie infettive ed infiammatorie, anomalie vascolari. Le attuali metodiche di imaging, principalmente la risonanza magnetica, permett...

We describe a 28-year-old woman with a dilated perivascular spaces in the right pre-rolandic district. The purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth overview of the MR imaging features of VR spaces and to describe magnetic resonance imaging evidence of complete regression of dilated perivascular spaces (2).

The extensive application of advanced MR imaging techniques to the study of ALS has undoubtedly improved our knowledge of disease pathophysiology, even if the actual spread of the neurodegenerative process throughout the central nervous system is not fully understood. The present study aimed to detect WM patterns of microstructural abnormalities to...

We report a case of trigeminal neuralgia caused by persistent trigeminal artery (PTA) associated with asymptomatic left temporal cavernoma. Our patient presented unstable blood hypertension and the pain of typical trigeminal neuralgia over the second and third divisions of the nerve in the right side of the face. The attacks were often precipitated...

Dementia is a common and growing problem, affecting 5% of the over 65s and 20% of the over 80s. Dementia is a clinical diagnosis, but often neuroimaging is crucial for proper assessment. Structural imaging by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MRI) may help clinicians by identifying nondegenerative and potentially treatable causes of...

Patients with previous surgery of a right frontal meningioma subsequently irradiated Postoperative and post-radiation therapy follow-up performed late (3 and 4 years) with MR morphologic and perfusion sequences

Patient with surgically treated grade III left fronto-parietal oligodendroglioma Postoperative follow-up performed late (9 months) with MR morphologic sequences

Patient with surgically treated right fronto-parieto-temporal glioblastoma multiforme Late postoperative MR imaging with morphologic sequences and diffusion-weighted imaging

Patient with posterior left temporal anaplastic oligoastrocytoma treated with surgery and subsequent radiation Postoperative and post-radiation therapy follow-up performed late (6, 15, and 24 months) with MR morphologic and perfusion sequences

The aim of our study was to explore the pain processing network in patients with migraine during trigeminal nociceptive stimulation. Sixteen patients with episodic migraine without aura and 16 healthy controls performed functional magnetic resonance imaging during thermal stimuli (at 41, 51 and 53°C). Patients with migraine showed a greater activat...

This study correlated anatomical findings and clinical evidence in Duane's Retraction Syndrome using brain MRI. The study included 11 patients with different types of Duane's Retraction Syndrome (DRS). Each patient underwent brain MRI. The VI(th) nerve was absent in all patients with DRS-I, present in all patients with DRS-II, while findings varied...

We report our case and review the literature on reversal DWI lesions, ADC thresholds and correlation between DWI lesion and outcome measured with clinical scales. A 30-years old woman was admitted to our hospital 18 hours after stroke onset. Considering the absence of alterations on CT and the worsening of symptomatology, the patient underwent MRI,...

A 65-year-old woman underwent MRI for a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). MRI showed hippocampal sulcus remnants bilaterally, although they were larger on the right, and left hippocampal atrophy with increased left fimbriosubicular distance (right side: 1.2 mm; left side: 2.0 mm). The meaning of these findings...

A 16-year-old female who manifested psychotic symptoms underwent CT and MRI for the evaluation of an incidentally discovered asymptomatic palpable mass of the right occipital region of the skull. The correlation between clinical and radiological data and biopsy data led to the diagnosis of eosinophilic granuloma. The radiological finding is discuss...

We assessed the spontaneous blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal fluctuations in the resting-state brain networks of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients and their relation to physiologically sensitive and disease modified functional magnetic resonance imaging parameters. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed at 3 Tesla...

We describe a patient with non-alcoholic Wernicke's encephalopathy caused by long-term parenteral nutrition. The diagnosis is based on clinical and magnetic resonance findings. We also reviewed the literature review in typical and atypical findings at MR examination.

Intramedullary metastases are rare, accounting for 0.9-5% of spinal metastases. Radiation myelopathy is considered one of the most distressing complications of radiotherapy. In both cases symptoms are aspecific, and there are no characteristic neuroradiologic findings. We describe a case of single intramedullary metastasis from lung microcytoma in...

The "default-mode" network is an ensemble of cortical regions that are typically deactivated during demanding cognitive tasks in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Using functional connectivity analysis, this network can be studied as a "stand-alone" brain system whose functional role is supposed to consist in the dynamic control...

In recent years, new technologies have become available for imaging small animals. The use of animal models in basic and preclinical sciences, for example, offers the possibility of testing diagnostic markers and drugs, which is becoming crucial in the success and timeliness of research and is allowing a more efficient approach in defining study ob...

Dementia is a common and growing problem, with 20% of those over 80 years of age suffering from this disorder. The prospect of more effective treatments has caused an increasing demand for a more accurate and earlier diagnosis of different dementia syndromes. Neuroimaging techniques may have an important role in the clinical evaluation of dementia...

We describe three patients with type A Niemann-Pick disease (NPD-A). NPD-A is an autosomal recessive neuronal storage disease classified among the sphingolipidoses, characterized by accumulation of sphingomyelin in various tissues and in the brain. Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) of our three patients showed a marked delay of myelination with fron...

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...

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) is a technique used to investigate the spontaneous correlations of blood-oxygen-level-dependent signals across different regions of the brain. Using functional connectivity tools, it is possible to investigate a specific RS-fMRI network, referred to as "default-mode" (DM) network, that i...

The case of a 58-year-old woman is described. She presented with what initially seemed to be a transient ischaemic attack. Clinical imaging, however,revealed an intracranial lipoma of the cisterna magna associated with a defect of the occipital bone and spina bifida occulta of the atlas.

BACKGROUND. È stato riportato che la frequenza di remissione, 2–5 anni dopo la sospensione di cabergolina (CAB) è del 76, 69,5 e 64,3% rispettivamente nei pazienti con iperprolattinemia non tumorale (INT), microprolattinoma (µ) e macroprolattinoma (M). OBIETTIVO. Osservare la frequenza stimata di recidiva 24–96 mesi dopo la sospensione di CAB e ide...

Remission rates of 76, 69.5 and 64.3% have been reported in patients with nontumoural hyperprolactinaemia (NTH), microprolactinoma and macroprolactinoma, respectively, 2-5 years after cabergoline (CAB) withdrawal. To report the estimated recurrence rate at 24-96 months after CAB withdrawal and indicate predictors of disease remission. Observational...

Hippocampal abnormalities correlated with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) are well documented. MTS may be associated with extrahippocampal anomalies involving limbic structures along a known neuroanatomic pathway (Papez circuit). We report a patient with MTS and thalamic changes. Seizure-related thalamic damage could have been caused by abnormal el...

Perineural tumor spread (PNS) of head and neck malignancies is a well-known form of metastatic disease in which a lesion can migrate away from the primary site along the endoneurium or perineurium. MR imaging is considered the primary method for evaluating patients with symptoms related to the trigeminal nerve in most clinical settings. Both CT and...

Independent component analysis (ICA) is a powerful technique for the multivariate, non-inferential, data-driven analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data-sets. The non-inferential nature of ICA makes this a suitable technique for the study of complex mental states whose temporal evolution would be difficult to describe analytica...

We describe a rare case of giant intracranial chordoma, emphasizing the patient's long survival and his excellent response to radiotherapy that led to a progressive regression of neurological symptomatology up to disappearance, in the absence of cerebral white matter damages.

The "default-mode" network is an ensemble of cortical regions, which are typically deactivated during demanding cognitive tasks in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Using functional connectivity, this network can be conceptualized and studied as a "stand-alone" function or system. Regardless of the task, independent component an...

Spatial independent component analysis (sICA) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time series can generate meaningful activation maps and associated descriptive signals, which are useful to evaluate datasets of the entire brain or selected portions of it. Besides computational implications, variations in the input dataset combined with...

Primary treatment with depot octreotide and lanreotide induces tumor shrinkage in newly diagnosed patients with acromegaly. The objective of the study was to evaluate clinical predictors of tumor shrinkage. This was an analytical, observational, open, prospective study. The study included 99 patients: 13 with microadenoma and 86 with macroadenoma (...

Intracranial haemorrhages account for approximately 20% of all cerebral ictuses related to vascular disease, with a higher prevalence of intraaxial localizations (15%) as compared to those principally within the subarachnoid space (5%) (1, 6, 9). Although MRI is highly specific with regard to haemorrhagic lesions, CT remains the examination of choi...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has brought about substantial changes in the diagnostic algorithms formulated in almost all aspects of Central Nervous System (CNS) pathology. This has occurred in part secondary to MRI's greater sensitivity to changes in the water content of the tissue examined, and therefore, in demonstrating all categories of CNS...

10.5 Conclusions: The use of high magnetic field strength fMRI units has the potential for improving considerably the sensitivity and specificity of functional studies. As a result of the high-field studies, fundamental neural dynamics taking place at a very small dimensional scale in specific laminar, columnar and multicolumnar domains have become...

Purpose: To describe the etiology, characteristics, and clinical evolution of epilepsy in patients with gelastic seizures (GSs). Methods: Nine patients whose seizures were characterized by typical laughing attacks were observed between 1986 and 1997. Patients were selected based on electroencephalogram (EEG) or video-EEG recordings of at least one...

Since its introduction in 1992, fMRI has rapidly evolved to become by far the most widely used imaging technique for studying brain functions in humans. One of the main reasons for the astonishing success fMRI has obtained so far is its high sensitivity in analyzing brain functional phenomena and the lack of biological invasiveness, resulting in an...

We describe two patients with meningiomas atypically appearing as long-standing forehead and vertex lumps. In both cases, CT scan and MRI identified large neoplasms arising in the frontal and parietal regions respectively with extra-cranial extension through the destroyed calvarium and intracranial development. At surgery in the first case the tumo...

Cerebrotendineous xanthomatosis (CTX), or Van Bogaert-Scherer-Epstein disease, is a very rare recessive inherited disorder of biliary acids metabolism. CTX is due to a deficiency of the hepatic mitochondrial enzyme 27-sterol hydroxylase, resulting in an insufficient production of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA). We describe the MR brain findings of th...

In the present work, an arteriovenous malformation was taken as a pathological model for studying task-related flow decreases during a motor task. Combined Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD)-perfusion experiments were applied in order to evaluate the relative sensitivity of these techniques to task-related reductions in cerebral blood flow (CBF)....

Schwannomas are the most common tumors of the spinal cord. Nevertheless, sporadic intramedullary location of this entity is a very rare condition. We present two cases of solitary thoracic intramedullary schwannoma, located at the T6 and T10 levels respectively, in patients without evidence of Von Recklinghausen's disease. Two males, 71 and 51 year...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has rapidly become the most widely used imaging method for studying brain functions in humans. This is a result of its extreme flexibility of use and of the astonishingly detailed spatial and temporal information it provides. Nevertheless, until very recently, the study of the auditory system has progres...

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) enables one to monitor a subject's brain activity during an ongoing session. The availability of online information about brain activity is essential for developing and refining interactive fMRI paradigms in research and clinical trials and for neurofeedback applications. Data analysis for real...

Animal and human studies implicate forebrain neural circuits in maternal behavior. Here, we hypothesized that human brain response to emotional stimuli relevant for social interactions between infants and adults are modulated by sex- and experience-dependent factors. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and examined brain response to infan...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the most widely used approach for studying brain functions in humans. The rapid and widespread diffusion of fMRI has been favoured by the properties this technique presents, and particularly by its sensitivity in analysing brain functional phenomena and by the lack of biological invasiveness,...

Erithrophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is a rare disease characterized by exaggerated histiocytic proliferation and activation ¹² and multisystem involvement including visceral organs, lymph nodes, bone marrow and central nervous system ⁴ . Magnetic Resonance (MR) examination was performed in 10 patients with previously diagnosed Erithrophagocytic l...

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are essential in the treatment of certain childhood CNS tumours. Unfortunately, their well-known neurotoxic potential may cause CNS injury, especially in childhood. This study describes literature reports on the possible neurotoxic damage caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy and our own experience in the MR follow-u...

This study proposes a study protocol with the timing of neuroradiological investigations in children with CNS Tumours subjected partial or total surgical resection. The follow-up serves to plan possible further surgery and to determine the prognosis and monitor complementary therapy.

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are essential in the treatment of certain childhood CNS tumours. Unfortunately, their well-known neurotoxic potential may cause CNS injury, especially in childhood. This study describes literature reports on the possible neurotoxic damage caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy and our own experience in the MR follow-u...

Erithrophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is a rare disease characterized by exaggerated histiocytic proliferation and activation and multisystem involvement including visceral organs, lymph nodes, bone marrow and central nervous system. Magnetic Resonance (MR) examination was performed in 10 patients with previously diagnosed Erithrophagocytic lymphoh...

This study proposes a study protocol with the timing of neuroradiological investigations in children with CNS Tumours subjected partial or total surgical resection. The follow-up serves to plan possible further surgery and to determine the prognosis and monitor complementary therapy.

This report refers to a 3-month-old male, with a residual choroid plexus carcinoma following partial resection, who was successfully treated with sequential chemotherapy without any postoperative radiation therapy. Along with carboplatin, we also used doxorubicin and methotrexate, hypothesizing that, given the patient's age, the blood-brain barrier...

The aim of the neuroradiologic study of a suspected pituitary mass is mainly based on the evaluation of the characteristics of the lesion (origin, structure, extension, and relationships) and the shape and location of the residual pituitary gland

We report the MR findings of a patient with clinical and laboratory evidence of Kallmann Syndrome (KS), a genetic disorder of gonadal and olfactory development, in which unexpected associated anomalies were found. The patient was clinically suffering from hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and left-side hyposmia. MR examination included thin coronal sec...

The endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach has been proposed in the past decade as a minimally invasive surgical technique for the removal of pituitary tumors. From January 1997 to November 1999, 100 consecutive patients with pituitary tumors underwent endoscopic endonasal surgery, according to Jho's technique. We employed 0 degrees, 30 degr...

Two personal cases of "de novo" aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery (ACoA) occurring 9 and 4 years, respectively, after endovascular carotid occlusion are described. A review of the 30 reported cases (including our own two) of "de novo" aneurysms after occlusion of the major cerebral vessels has shown some features, including a rather lo...

To describe the clinical history of patients with gelastic seizures (GSs) related to small-size hypothalamic hamartomas (HHs), and to show some of these unusual seizures. Patients with GSs and the MRI finding of HH < 1 cm diameter. Ictal EEG or video EEG are required. Three patients, among 6 with GSs and HH, had a small sessile HH. None of them had...