UConn's Price knows the school of hard knocks
DETROIT — Doctors assured A.J. Price that his headaches, dizziness and nausea were merely symptomatic of the flu.
No big deal. Price had an 18-year-old's impervious immune system. He'd return to normal in a matter of days. But days soon turned to weeks that fall of 2004. Doctors were now perplexed, bordering on panicked. Price was hospitalized for weeks, breathing through a respirator...read more...
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Connecticut news conference transcript
by Staff reports
Here is a transcript of a news conference with the University of Connecticut basketball team on Friday at Ford Field.
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Connecticut student-athletes Jeff Adrien and A.J. Price. We'll open it up for questions.
Q. What's your feel for the mindset of the team? What has it been like waiting this long to get back on the court, the chaos of this entire experience this week?
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Cerebral AVM
Also known as: Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation; High Flow AVMWhat is it?
A Cerebral AVM (arteriovenous malformation) is an abnormal collection of tangled blood vessels. High-pressure blood in distorted abnormal arteries flows directly into large draining veins without the presence of an intervening network of capillaries. These are congenital lesions, which occur in less than 1% of the population. AVMs usually cause medical problems by bleeding or leaking blood. AVMs, may also cause seizures or progressive neurological dysfunction.
Who gets it?
Cerebral AVMs are congenital lesions which arise during fetal development. They occur in less than 1% of the population. AVMs can run in families and can be associated with other vascular lesions of the brain such as cerebral aneurysms.
What causes it?
Cerebral AVMs are the result of abnormal development of cerebral circulation. They result in a “tangle” of abnormal arteries connected to large draining veins, without the benefit of an intervening capillary network. These congenital lesions may then enlarge by recruiting more blood vessels throughout childhood and into adulthood.
What are the symptoms?
Many patients with cerebral AVMs have no symptoms. However, the most common reason brain AVMs come to medical attention is through bleeding (rupture). Common symptoms of a bleeding brain AVM include, severe headache, nausea/vomiting and a new neurological deficit, such as numbness, weakness or paralysis. Patients may also present with seizures or progressive neurological decline in the absence of AVM bleeding.
How is it diagnosed?
Cerebral AVMs can be seen on CT scans, MRI/MRA, and CTAs. Specific sequences on the MRI can further help evaluate these vascular malformations. Cerebral angiography remains the gold standard in the evaluation and grading of cerebral AVMs. Cerebral angiography aids in better understanding the AVM’s inflow and outflow. An angiogram is essential to planning any treatment for the AVM.
What is the treatment?
There are three major treatment options for cerebral AVMs. These include a combination of open microsurgery, endovascular surgery, and stereotactic radiosurgery. Microsurgery uses traditional open surgical techniques with the help of a microscope and sometimes with computerized image guidance to remove the AVM. Some lesions may be too large, too deep, or located in too important of an area of the brain for safe microsurgical excision. In such cases other treatments may be necessary. In endovascular surgery, treatment is performed from within the affected blood vessel. Specially designed microcatheters are navigated by means of an angiogram into the nidus of the AVM. The lesion is then occluded from the inside using a process of embolization with either particles or glue. Some forms of endovascular treatment may be investigational and therefore require a special consent. Although very effective in reducing the size of an AVM, endovascular embolization is rarely able to completely obliterate all but the smallest of AVMs. Endovascular therapy, therefore, is usually combined with either microsurgery or stereotactic radiosurgery to give the best chance. Stereotactic radiosurgery involves the delivery of a highly focused beam of radiation to the AVM. The two most common forms of radiosurgery are linear accelerator based radiosurgery (also known as LINAC or photon knife) and gamma ray based radiosurgery (gamma knife). Radiosurgery may be less risky when compared to microsurgery, for patients with AVMs that are deep or located in important brain areas. However, the ability of conventional radiosurgery to cure an AVM drops off sharply as the AVM diameter goes above 2.5 cm (1 inch). With radiosurgery cure is not immediate and may take up to two or three years. During this time, the patient may require follow-up tests and will still be at risk for problems from the AVM. For these reasons, radiosurgery is especially appropriate for small lesions that are located in or near critical brain areas or are very deep.
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I am having a M-F of a day.... I have a headache a big one! G-damn it all... So I am gonna say good day... and go back to bed...
