The central nervous system curriculum is one of our curriculum articles and aims to be a collection of articles that represent the core central nervous system knowledge.
On this page:
- Definition
- Anatomy and development
- Radiological examinations
- Neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic brain injuries
- Malformations and genetic syndromes
- Metabolic and toxic CNS diseases
- Inflammatory demyelinating diseases
- Epilepsy
- Brain tumours and tumour-like lesions
- Vascular Lesions
- Infectious diseases of the CNS
- CNS trauma
- Neurodegenerative diseases
- Related articles
- References
Definition
Topics pertaining to the intracranial content (brain, pituitary, dura, intracranial vasculatures). There will be some overlap between this curriculum and the head and neck curriculum and the paediatric curriculum.
Anatomy and development
An understanding of the anatomy of relevant structures is essential. Core anatomical topics include:
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vascular anatomy of the brain
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superficial middle cerebral vein (Sylvian vein)
superior anastomotic vein (of Trolard)
inferior anastomotic vein (of Labbe)
Radiological examinations
Imaging techniques relevant to imaging of the central nervous system include:
Neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic brain injuries
Malformations and genetic syndromes
Cortical malformations
Proliferative disorders
Migration disorders
Organisation disorders
For more detail see malformations of cortical development classification.
Cerebellar malformations
Dysraphic malformations
Other malformations
Phakomatoses
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neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) (von Recklinghausen disease)
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tuberous sclerosis (Bourneville-Pringle disease)
Sturge-Weber syndrome (encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis)
von Hippel-Lindau disease (retinocerebellar angiomatosis)
incontinentia pigmenti (Bloch-Sulzberger syndrome)
basal cell naevus syndrome (Gorlin-Goltz syndrome)
Wyburn-Mason syndrome (Bonnet-Dechaume-Blanc syndrome)
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type 2 segmental Cowden disease
FGFR3 epidermal naevus syndrome
progressive facial hemiatrophy (Parry-Romberg syndrome)
Metabolic and toxic CNS diseases
Metabolic encephalopathies
Inborn errors of metabolism
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peroxisomal disorders
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mitochondrial dysfunction
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amino acid metabolism disorders
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unknown mechanism / others
Toxic encephalopathy
Alcohol use-related
Others
Inflammatory demyelinating diseases
Epilepsy
general value of CT, MRI and fMRI
Brain tumours and tumour-like lesions
intra vs extra-axial location
DWI, PWI, MRS of brain tumours
Classification
1: Neuroepithelial tumours
glioblastoma (WHO grade IV)
gliomatosis cerebri (WHO grade IV)
Neuronal and mixed neuronal-glial tumours
olfactory neuroblastoma (esthesioneuroblastoma)
Pineal tumours
Embryonal tumours
2: Tumours of the peripheral nerves
schwannoma (neurinoma, neurilemoma)
3: Meningeal tumours
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non-meningothelial primaries
CNS fibrous histiocytoma
CNS malignant melanoma
4: Lymphatic and haematopoietic tumours
plasmacytoma (CNS involvement)
5: Germ cell tumours
choriocarcinoma
mixed germ cell tumours
6: Tumours of the sellar region
7: Metastases to the brain
8: Intracranial extensions from the skull
chondroma
carcinoma
metastases
9: Non-neoplastic mass lesions and cysts
granular cell tumour (choristoma, pituicytoma)
Vascular Lesions
Stroke: diagnosis and therapy
pathophysiology of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke
cardiovascular conditions leading to ischaemia and stroke
imaging patterns of stroke
early CT signs of acute cerebral ischaemia
conventional MR Imaging findings
CT perfusion, CTA
MRA and MR perfusion
stroke therapy and outcome
Spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage
other non-traumatic causes of subarachnoid haemorrhage
Vascular anomalies and malformations
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aneurysms
Venous thrombosis
Vascular neurointerventional procedures
indications
basic techniques
Infectious diseases of the CNS
Classification
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meninges
Granulomatous inflammatory diseases
Bacterial infections
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CNS listeriosis
Fungal infections
Parasitic infections
Viral infections
Prion infections
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sporadic, variant, familial and iatrogenic)
AIDS imaging and therapy effects
CNS trauma
perforating injuries
acute subdural haematoma
chronic subdural haematoma
traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage
haemorrhage dating with MRI and CT
post-traumatic residues
Neurodegenerative diseases
Synucleinopathies
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diseases with Lewy bodies
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multiple systemic atrophy (MSA)
MSA-P (striatonigral degeneration)
olivopontocerebellar atrophy (MSA-C)
Tauopathies
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typical/classical Alzheimer disease
variant (e.g. posterior cortical atrophy)
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frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) (not all are tau)