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The authors evaluated 17 patients with stroke who underwent brain diffusional kurtosis imaging within 4 days after the onset of symptoms. Neurologic evaluation included the Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity Motor scale in the acute phase and 3 months poststroke. The largest percentage signal changes of the lesioned hemisphere corticospinal tract were observed with axial kurtosis, with an average 12% increase compared with the contralateral corticospinal tract. The strongest associations between the 3-month Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity Motor scale score and diffusion metrics were found for the lesioned/contralateral hemisphere corticospinal tract mean kurtosis and axial kurtosis ratios. They conclude that diffusion metrics related to kurtosis were found to be more sensitive than conventional diffusivity metrics to early poststroke corticospinal tract microstructural changes.

Conventional 3T MR imaging was used to assess 499 fighters (boxers, mixed martial artists, and martial artists) and 62 controls for nonspecific WM changes, cerebral microhemorrhage, cavum septum pellucidum, and cavum vergae. Fighters had an increased prevalence of cerebral microhemorrhage (4.2% versus 0% for controls), cavum septum pellucidum (53.1% versus 17.7% for controls), and cavum vergae (14.4% versus 0% for controls). This study assessed MR imaging findings in a large cohort demonstrating a significantly increased prevalence of cavum septum pellucidum among fighters. Although cerebral microhemorrhages were higher in fighters than in controls, this finding was not statistically significant.