Vivian Schultz

• MD
• Brigham and Women's Hospital

This study aimed to systematically evaluate the impact of a low-dose (LD) protocol using tube current reduction on image quality, the confidence for intervention planning and guidance, and diagnostic yield for computed tomography (CT) myelography. We retrospectively analyzed 68 patients who underwent CT myelography, with 34 investigations performed...

Purpose Single-subject voxel-based morphometry (VBM) compares an individual T1-weighted MRI to a sample of normal MRI in a normative database (NDB) to detect regional atrophy. Outliers in the NDB might result in reduced sensitivity of VBM. The primary aim of the current study was to propose a method for outlier removal (“NDB cleaning”) and to test...

Background Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES) is defined as the clinical manifestation of the neuropathological entity chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A core feature of TES is neurobehavioral dysregulation (NBD), a neuropsychiatric syndrome in repetitive head impact (RHI)-exposed individuals, characterized by a poor regulation of emoti...

Background Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is a global health issue with severe behavioral and cognitive sequelae. While previous evidence suggests a variety of structural and age-related brain changes in CUD, the impact on both, cortical thickness and brain age measures remains unclear. Methods Derived from a publicly available data set (SUDMEX_CONN),...

This study aimed to systematically evaluate the impact of dose reduction on image quality and confidence for intervention planning and guidance regarding computed tomography (CT)-based intervertebral disc and vertebral body biopsies. We retrospectively analyzed 96 patients who underwent multi-detector CT (MDCT) acquired for the purpose of biopsies,...

Background Patterns of cognitive impairment in former American football players are uncertain because objective neuropsychological data are lacking. This study characterized the neuropsychological test performance of former college and professional football players. Methods One hundred seventy male former football players ( n =111 professional, n...

Background: Normative brain volume reports (NBVR) are becoming more available in the work-up of patients with suspected dementia disorders, potentially leveraging the value of structural MRI in clinical settings. The present study aims to investigate the impact of NBVRs on the diagnosis of neurodegenerative dementia disorders in real-world clinical...

Abstract Periradicular infiltrations are frequently performed in daily neuroradiological routine and are often guided by multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT), thus leading to radiation exposure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate MDCT with low dose (LD) and model-based iterative reconstruction for image-guided periradicular infiltration...

Background Repetitive head impacts (RHI) from contact sports have been associated with cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders. However, not all individuals exposed to RHI develop such disorders. This may be explained by the reserve hypothesis. It remains unclear if the reserve hypothesis accounts for the heterogenous symptom presentation in RHI-e...

Background Exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) is associated with an increased risk of later-life neurobehavioral dysregulation and neurodegenerative disease. The underlying pathomechanisms are largely unknown. Purpose To investigate whether RHI exposure is associated with later-life corpus callosum (CC) microstructure and whether CC microstr...

Sports‐related concussion is a serious health challenge, and females are at higher risk of sustaining a sports‐related concussion compared to males. Although there are many studies that investigate outcomes following concussion, females remain an understudied population, despite representing a large proportion of the organized sports community. In...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from blunt trauma, acceleration–deceleration forces, rotational forces, or blast exposure to the head. The injury involves a heterogenous pattern of focal and/or diffuse axonal injury, leading to a wide range of symptoms. The severity of the injury covers the spectrum from mild to moderate to severe, with severe...

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with exposure to repetitive head impacts. CTE has been linked to disruptions in cognition, mood, and behavior. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of CTE can only be made post-mortem. Neuropathological evidence suggests limbic structures may provide an opportunity to characte...

Objectives To determine whether or not automated FreeSurfer segmentation of brain regions considered important in repetitive head trauma can be analyzed accurately without manual correction. Materials and methods 3 T MR neuroimaging was performed with automated FreeSurfer segmentation and manual correction of 11 brain regions in former National Fo...

Objective Repetitive subconcussive head impacts (RSHI) may lead to structural, functional, and metabolic alterations of the brain. While differences between males and females have already been suggested following a concussion, whether there are sex differences following exposure to RSHI remains unknown. The aim of this study was to identify and to...

Thalamic atrophy has been associated with exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) in professional fighters. The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not age at first exposure (AFE) to RHI is associated with thalamic volume in symptomatic former National Football League (NFL) players at risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Ei...

Background: Worldwide more than 22 million children and adolescents are exposed to repetitive head impacts (RHI) in soccer. Evidence indicates cumulative effects on brain structure, but it is not known whether exposure to RHI affects cognitive improvement in adolescents. To determine whether exposure to RHI while heading the ball in soccer affects...