Disease relevance of Skull Base

• PURPOSE: Large skull-base meningiomas are difficult to treat due to their proximity or adherence to critical structures [1].
• During subsequent stages of skeletogenesis, the balance between proliferation and differentiation was shifted towards differentiation, leading to premature loss of growth, synostosis in certain sutures of the skull base and in the coronal suture of the skull vault, with dwarfism in the long bones and axial skeleton [2].
• High-dose gadodiamide injection may show a specific dynamic pattern for glomus tumors, allowing differentiation from other tumors of the middle and posterior skull base [3].
• Cranial imaging in autosomal recessive osteopetrosis. Part II. Skull base and brain [4].
• RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationships between brain and skull base growth in patients with neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) compared with healthy control subjects using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for morphometric analysis [5].

High impact information on Skull Base

• Immunohistochemical analysis of the cranial base in transgenic embryos showed reduced staining for collagen type X and persistent expression of Sox9 in chondrocytes [6].
• Neuroimaging revealed a midline nasopharyngeal tumor extending through the skull base to the clivus [7].
• They differ from their NF2-related counterparts in that they are more often of the meningothelial subtype and are located preferentially in the anterior skull base [8].
• A standard workup (including imaging of the brain, base of skull, and mandible, and CSF analysis) led to the diagnosis of a metastatic etiology in 89% of the patients [9].
• Pterygoid process sclerosis was the sole skull base abnormality in 36% (11 of 31) of the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Skull Base

• Forty-five consecutive patients with chordoma or chondrosarcoma at the base of skull or cervical spine were treated at the University of California Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (UCLBL) and University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco (UCSF) between November 1977 and October 1986 [11].
• Thirteen patients with intracranial meningiomas of the skull base were treated with one or more high-activity iodine-125 seeds [12].
• Bilateral cholesterol granuloma of the skull base: case report and review of the literature [13].
• RESULTS: Five patients aged 24-67 years (3 male) with massive invasive prolactinomas (serum prolactin 95000-500000 mU/l) eroding the skull base were treated with dopamine agonists (3 bromocriptine, 1 cabergoline and 1 both) [14].
• Discriminating between postoperative changes and residual or recurrent tumor after extensive skull base surgery is often difficult, but in a case of recurrent esthesioneuroblastoma (ENB) we found the use of Octreoscan imaging clinically useful [15].

Biological context of Skull Base

• CONCLUSIONS: BF and skull base abnormalities, especially in association with neurodevelopmental midline abnormalities, may be distinguishing MRI features for a genetic subtype of schizophrenia involving a deletion on chromosome 22 [16].
• Colocalisation of versican and aggrecan was also seen in the cranial base cartilage at d 14 of gestation [17].
• The patients (n = 17; mean age 62.5 +/- 1.7 years) were monitored as follows: conjunctival oxygen tension (PcjO2); internal jugular venous oxygen tension at the skull base level (PcijvO2); arterial blood pressure; arterial and internal jugular venous blood gases; acid-base data and lactate, pyruvate levels; end-tidal CO2 concentration [18].
• If partial synostosis represents a continuum of the craniosynostotic phenotype, then the craniosynostosis may be seen as the primary deformity in this model and the cranial base abnormalaties as secondary, deformational changes [19].
• Advantages of MRI over CT include 1) the delineation of tumor infiltrations of the longus colli muscles, rectus capitus muscles, and muscles of mastication, 2) demonstration of tumor extensions into the skull base or parapharyngeal spaces, and 3) demonstration of both normal and pathologic cranial nerves [20].

Anatomical context of Skull Base

• CT scans of the nasopharynx and the base of skull were performed in 54 patients with histologically proven NPC [21].
• CONCLUSIONS: Perhaps, it is better to down-stage single site of skull base abnormality from T3 to T2, and involvement of either anterior or posterior cranial nerves solely from T4 to T3, meanwhile, </=3cm of N2 down-stage to N1, >3cm of N1 up-stage to N2 [22].
• Thirteen patients with large anterior skull base defects caused by tumor invasion or traumatic injury involving the cribriform plate, orbital roof, and planum sphenoidale were included in the study [23].
• Sutures of both the calvaria and skull base were most accurately identified in axial and coronal high-resolution thin-section scans when bone window algorithms were used [24].
• Coordinates for 10 landmarks defining the midline basicranium and midface were acquired and areas of ossification in the midline basioccipital, basisphenoid, and presphenoid cartilages were measured as percentages of overall cranial base area [25].

Associations of Skull Base with chemical compounds

• Findings for both samples showed retroflexion, or flattening, of the cranial base and coronal petrous reorientation as well as considerable increases in absolute and relative brain sizes [26].
• CONCLUSION: Proton RT for children with aggressively recurring tumors after major skull base surgery can offer a considerable prospect of tumor control and survival [27].
• Cephalometric superimpositions on the cranial base and tantalum implants confirmed these quantitative observations [28].
• Anatomic reconstruction of the posterolateral cranial base with titanium micromesh for combined transpetrosal approach: technical note [29].
• Comparison of the means for occlusal groups showed a trend from class II to class III as cranial base dimensions and angle decreased [30].

Gene context of Skull Base

• Maximal FGFR expression in the skull base proposes a pivotal role for syndromic growth dysplasia at this site [31].
• At 8 weeks of gestation, FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR3 are equally expressed throughout the predifferentiated mesenchyme of the cranium, the endochondral skull base, and midfacial mesenchyme [31].
• Growth of perinatal cranial base explants was inhibited by treatment with noggin, a BMP inhibitor [32].
• We conclude that endogenous BMPs are required to maintain cartilage growth, and exogenous BMP4 can enhance cartilage maturation and induce ectopic chondrocyte hypertrophy in the cranial base [32].
• Developmentally regulated expression of Shh and Ihh in the developing mouse cranial base: comparison with Sox9 expression [33].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Skull Base

• CONCLUSION: Appearance of BR at previous destructive skull base following radiotherapy for NPC patients could be clearly demonstrated on CT [34].
• Radiosurgery for skull base malignancies and nasopharyngeal carcinoma [35].
• The different immunostaining pattern of tau proteins between chordoma and myxoid chondrosarcoma of bone may be useful in the differential diagnosis, especially when both neoplasms occur in the base of skull [36].
• PURPOSE: To investigate the treatment outcome of patients suffering from skull base chordoma or chondrosarcoma after fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy [37].
• Brachytherapy of recurrent tumors of the skull base and spine with iodine-125 sources [38].

References