BACKGROUND Prenatal magnetic resonance (MR) imaging demonstration of the normal spinal cord and the conus medullaris location has not been well studied. We compared balanced fast field echo (bFFE) with single-shot turbo spin-echo (SSh-TSE) MR sequences for visualizing the normal spinal cord and position of conus medullaris in fetuses. METHODS This retrospective study was approved by the Insti...

THE FEEDING BEHAVIOR of various members of the genus Conus has been described (Kohn, 1956a, 1959, 1968; Kline, 1956; Nybakken, 1967). Piscivorous species of Conus, for which feeding behavior has been recorded, attack by extending their proboscises. From this extension a radular tooth used but once is injected into the prey, which is later swallowed. The feeding behavior of Conus geographus Linn...

BACKGROUND Normal displacement of the conus medullaris with unilateral and bilateral SLR has been quantified and the "principle of linear dependence" has been described. PURPOSE Explore whether previously recorded movements of conus medullaris with SLRs are i) primarily due to transmission of tensile forces transmitted through the neural tissues during SLR or ii) the result of reciprocal move...

The genus Conus comprises approximately 700 species of venomous marine cone snails that are highly efficient predators of worms, snails, and fish. In evolutionary terms, cone snails are relatively young with the earliest fossil records occurring in the Lower Eocene, 55 Ma. The rapid radiation of cone snail species has been accompanied by remarkably high rates of toxin diversification. To shed l...

Objective Conus medullaris teratomas are very rare tumors. Traditional preoperative diagnosis depended on the findings from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Tractography is a novel technique that has recently been utilized to diagnose spinal cord lesions. This case report shows that fiber tractography has great potential in preoperative diagnosis and postoperative follow-up of teratomas of the...

Radionuclide cisternography is generally considered to be a safe procedure without significant neurological complications. However, in this report we present a patient who developed conus medullaris syndrome following radionuclide cisternography. A 46-year-old woman underwent lumbar puncture followed by radionuclide cisternography with the diagnosis of hydrocephalus. After the cisternography, s...

Authors report an extremely uncommon case dorsally exophytic conus dermoid in a threeyears old boy, who underwent meningocele repair locate at lumbosacral region at an age of one month. The boy presented with low backache and difficulty in passing urine. Magnetic resonance imaging evaluation of spine revealed presence of a large exophytic mass located dorsally in the conus and the features sugg...

-amino acids have been documented in relatively few gene products, including peptides found in Conus venoms. The present work provides an overview of various D-amino acid-containing Conus peptides (conopeptides or conotoxins), such as the contryphans, conomarphins, conophans, conomap and certain I1-superfamily conotoxins. Characterization of their sequences and structures, as well as the known ...