ISRN Radiology

Magnetic resonance imaging is the most important diagnostic method in the investigation of the pituitary lesions. Our aim is to determine whether T2-weighted coronal images may be helpful in the evaluation of the pituitary gland with suspected pituitary adenomas. One hundred and sixty-seven patients were examined prospectively with T2-weighted coronal and T1-weighted coronal images enhanced with intravenous contrast material. The images were evaluated for the presence, the size, the location, and the ancillary signs including sellar floor erosion or ballooning, infindibulary deviation, convexity of the superior border of the gland, diffuse enlargement of the gland, and the invasion of the cavenous sinuses on both images...

Purpose. To determine the diagnostic accuracy of contrast enhanced FLAIR sequence of MRI brain in the diagnosis of meningitis. Subjects and Methods. A prospective study of 57 patients with signs and symptoms of meningitis, referred to the radiology department for MRI examination. Out of these, there were 30 males and 27 females. They underwent MRI brain with contrast including postcontrast T1W and FLAIR sequences. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis obtained by lumbar puncture after MRI was considered the "reference standard" against which MRI findings were compared...

Introduction. 3D Rotational Angiography (RA) is indispensable for evaluation of intracranial aneurysms, providing infinite viewing angles and defining the aneurysm morphology. Its role in follow-up of clipped aneurysms remains unclear. We aimed to compare the aneurysm residue/recurrence detection rate of 3D RA with 2D digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Methods. 47 patients harboring 54 clipped aneurysms underwent both 2D DSA and 3D RA. The residual/recurrent aneurysms were classified into five grades and the images of both modalities were compared...

Purpose. The carotid-cavernous fistula (CCF) is an abnormal arteriovenous communication and its drainage pathways may affect the clinic presentation and change treatment approach. We evaluated drainage patterns of CCFs by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and categorized drainage pathways according to their types and etiology. Materials and Methods. Venous drainage patterns of 13 CCFs from 10 subjects were studied and categorized as anterior, posterior, superior, inferior, and contralateral on DSA. Drainage patterns were correlated to types and etiology of CCFs...

Objectives. To study factors that predict changes in management with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Methods. The Institutional Review Board approved this HIPAA compliant study. 996 patients had DBT with full field digital mammography (FFDM). Univariate analysis evaluated predictors of management change and cancer detection. Results. DBT changed management in 109 of 996 (11%); 77 (71%) required less imaging. Recalled patients after abnormal FFDM screen were most likely to have management change-25% (24 of 97 patients) compared to 8% (13/163) of symptomatic patients and 10% (72/736) of screening patients (P < 0...

Aims. Colour doppler ultrasonography (CDUS) is widely used in the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis (DVT); however, the number of scans positive for above knee DVT is low. The present study evaluates the reliability of the D-dimer test combined with a clinical probability score (Wells score) in ruling out an above knee DVT and identifying patients who do not need a CDUS. Materials and Method. This study is a retrospective audit and reaudit of a total of 816 outpatients presenting with suspected lower limb DVT from March 2009 to March 2010 and from September 2011 to February 2012...

Objective. To evaluate the diagnostic benefit of real-time elastography (RTE) in clinical routine. Strain indices (SI) for benign and malignant tumors were assessed. Methods. 100 patients with 110 focal breast lesions were retrieved. Patients had mammography (MG), ultrasound (US), and, if necessary, MRI. RTE was conducted after ultrasound. Lesions were assessed with BI-RADS for mammography and ultrasound. Diagnosis was established with histology or follow-up. Results. SI for BI-RADS 2 was 1.71 ± 0.86. Higher SI (2...

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) represents the final common morphofunctional pathway of various pathological conditions in which a combination of myocyte injury and necrosis associated with tissue fibrosis results in impaired mechanical function. Recognition of the underlying aetiology of disease and accurate disease monitoring may be crucial to individually optimize therapeutic strategies and stratify patient's prognosis. In this regard, CMR has emerged as a new reference gold standard providing important information for differential diagnosis and new insight about individual risk stratification...

Purpose. To determine association between apparent diffusion coefficient value on diffusion-weighted imaging and Gleason score in patients with prostate cancer. Methods. This retrospective case series was conducted at Radiology Department of Aga Khan University between June 2009 and June 2011. 28 patients with biopsy-proven prostate cancer were included who underwent ultrasound guided sextant prostate biopsy and MRI. MRI images were analyzed on diagnostic console and regions of interest were drawn. Data were entered and analyzed on SPSS 20...

The quantification of radiation risks associated with radiological examinations has been a subject of interest with the increased use of X-rays. Effective dose, which is a risk-weighted measure of radiation to organs in the body associated with radiological examination, is considered a good indicator of radiological risk. We have therefore investigated patient effective doses from radiological examinations. Organ and effective doses were estimated for 94 patients who underwent computed tomography examinations and for 338 patients who had conventional radiography examinations...

Inferior vena cava (IVC) filters are used as an alternative to anticoagulants for prevention of fatal pulmonary embolism (PE) in venous thromboembolic disorders. Retrievable IVC filters have become an increasingly attractive option due to the long-term risks of permanent filter placement. These devices are shown to be technically feasible in insertion and retrieval percutaneously while providing protection from PE. Nevertheless, there are complications and failed retrievals with these retrievable filters. The aim of the paper is to review the retrievable filters and their efficacy, safety, and retrievability...

Aim. To determine whether a relationship exists between the linear measurements of overjet and overbite and the interincisal space delimited by the morphology of the upper and lower incisors. Method and Materials. 30 subjects (age range from 14.1 to 34.8 years, with a median age of 23.5 years and sex ratio F/M: 5/10) with overjet and overbite equal to 2 mm were selected from a group of 381 individuals with a full and well-aligned dentition, no previous dental treatment, and no signs or symptoms indicative of temporomandibular disorder...

Background. It is crucial to differentiate between reactive and malignant lymphadenopathies. Elastosonography measures the elasticity of the tissue. Having a reference value for benign lymph nodes (LNs) is important in interpretation. The purpose of this study is to determine the reference elastosonography values of cervical LNs. Methods. 97 LNs were evaluated by B-mode and elastosonography. Depth, length, width, length to width ratio, hilar-cortical thickness, strain ratio, and elasticity scores were measured...

Rationale and Objective. Large studies have previously been performed to set up a Chinese bone age reference, but it has been difficult to compare the maturation of Chinese children with populations elsewhere due to the potential variability between raters in different parts of the world. We re-analysed the radiographs from a large study of normal Chinese children using an automated bone age rating method to establish a Chinese bone age reference, and to compare the tempo of maturation in the Chinese with other populations...

Background and Purpose. This project examined the in vitro   γ H2AX response in lymphocytes of prostate cancer patients who had a radiosensitive response after receiving radiotherapy. The goal of this project was to determine whether the γ H2AX response, as measured by flow cytometry, could be used as a marker of individual patient radiosensitivity. Materials and Methods. Patients were selected from a randomized clinical trial evaluating the optimal timing of Dose Escalated Radiation and short-course Androgen Deprivation Therapy...

Purpose. WB-MRI is mainly used for tumor detection and surveillance. The purpose of this study is to establish the feasibility of WB-MRI at 3T for lesion characterization, with DWI/ADC-mapping and contrast-enhanced sequences, in patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF-2) and schwannomatosis. Materials and Methods. At 3T, WB-MRI was performed in 11 subjects (10 NF-2 and 1 schwannomatosis) with STIR, T1, contrast-enhanced T1, and DWI/ADC mapping (b = 50, 400, 800 s/mm(2)). Two readers reviewed imaging for the presence and character of peripheral lesions...

We present a new automated system for the detection of brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD). The MRI is analyzed by means of multiscale analysis (MSA) to obtain its fractals at six different scales. The extracted fractals are used as features to differentiate healthy brain MRI from those of AD by a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The result of classifying 93 brain MRIs consisting of 51 images of healthy brains and 42 of brains affected by AD, using leave-one-out cross-validation method, yielded 99...

About a decade ago, the first image-based computational hemodynamic studies of cerebral aneurysms were presented. Their potential for clinical applications was the result of a right combination of medical image processing, vascular reconstruction, and grid generation techniques used to reconstruct personalized domains for computational fluid and solid dynamics solvers and data analysis and visualization techniques. A considerable number of studies have captivated the attention of clinicians, neurosurgeons, and neuroradiologists, who realized the ability of those tools to help in understanding the role played by hemodynamics in the natural history and management of intracranial aneurysms...

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is an inflammatory disorder of pancreas. Two types have been identified: the diffuse and the focal or mass forming. Clinical presentation of AIP overlaps that of pancreatic cancer (PC). Sometimes serum IgG4 and CA 19-9 levels are unable to differentiate AIP from PC. Various series have shown that 5%-21% of resected pancreatic masses for suspected malignancy turned out to be AIP. Accurate diagnosis of focal AIP can avoid unnecessary surgeries. This paper elaborates the various imaging modalities useful in differentiating focal AIP from PC...

Introduction. The essay at hand is aimed at examining the application of use case modeling in analyzing and designing information systems to support Medical Imaging services. Methods. The application of use case modeling in analyzing and designing health information systems was examined using electronic databases (Pubmed, Google scholar) resources and the characteristics of the modeling system and its effect on the development and design of the health information systems were analyzed. Results. Analyzing the subject indicated that Provident modeling of health information systems should provide for quick access to many health data resources in a way that patients' data can be used in order to expand distant services and comprehensive Medical Imaging advices...