Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D R Radin.
A case of hepatolithiasis complicated by intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is reported. Awareness of this association is important for the radiologist, who may detect clinically occult malignancy in patients with intrahepatic biliary calculi.
Computed tomography (CT) is often the first imaging modality used in the diagnosis of patients with suspected abdominal disease. While it is known that early generation CT scanners often detect gallstones, the detection rate of newer equipment is not widely known. Abdominal CT scans of 226 patients who had undergone ultrasonographic (US) studies of the gallbladder were reviewed in a blinded study to determine the accuracy of state-of-the-art CT scanning equipment in the detection of cholelithiasis. Of 110 patients with US or surgical evidence of cholelithiasis, gallstones were demonstrated on CT images of 87 (79.1% sensitivity). Overall accuracy was 89.8%, while specificity was 100%. On CT images stones could appear densely (48.3%) or slightly (11.5%) calcified, as an area with a rim of increased density (21.8%), as an area of soft-tissue density (14.9%), or as an area of low density (3.4%). Stone size, stone density, section incrementation, and the pericholecystic anatomy affected the detection rate. Understanding the spectrum of findings and the other factors involved can optimize success of diagnosis of cholelithiasis on the basis of CT examinations.
In five patients with agenesis of the right lobe of the liver, computed tomography or sonography demonstrated absence of the right lobe with compensatory hypertrophy of other segments. In three patients, the caudate lobe was also absent. The radiologic differential diagnosis includes lobar atrophy due to cirrhosis or hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Nineteen other cases have been reported in the world literature since 1956. This interesting congenital anomaly may be associated with biliary tract disease (12 patients), portal hypertension (seven patients), and other congenital anomalies (four patients), or it may be an incidental finding (five patients).
Hepatic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was performed in 12 patients with 13 amebic liver abscesses. While no specific image or intensity pattern was noted, most lesions were round or oval with smooth, well-defined margins; had decreased signal intensity compared with that of liver parenchyma on T1-weighted images and increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images; and had prominent, often multiple rims of variable signal intensity. Signal homogeneity within the abscess was present more often on T1- than on T2-weighted images. Diaphragmatic disruption was seen in two cases on coronal MR images. An amebic empyema was differentiable from sympathetic pleural effusions by its hyperintensity on both T1- and T2-weighted images. In patients who also underwent computed tomography (CT) or ultrasonography (US), no lesion was missed with any modality, and except for shape, no consistent features were found among images obtained with the different modalities. The data suggest that CT, US, and MR imaging are comparably effective in the detection of amebic abscess.
Although amebic liver abscess can virtually always be successfully treated medically, percutaneous drainage has been advocated recently. In 96 recently treated patients, therapeutic aspiration and percutaneous drainage were rarely needed. Most cases were correctly diagnosed by means of clinical, laboratory, and sonographic findings. Abscesses in only 13 (13.5%) patients were diagnostically aspirated. An abscess in one patient was therapeutically aspirated because the patient was responding slowly to medical therapy. No patient required catheter drainage. The key to successful amebic abscess management is medical therapy. Therapeutic drainage is rarely needed. Successfully treated patients occasionally respond slowly to medical therapy, and successfully treated amebic abscesses may enlarge or become bizarre-appearing on sonograms. This should not prompt therapeutic drainage. Diagnostic aspiration is appropriate when amebic and pyogenic abscesses are indistinguishable using clinical and imaging findings. Rare indications for therapeutic aspiration or drainage include pyogenic superinfection and large, juxtacardiac abscesses (potential intrapericardial rupture).
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
We blindly compared the sonographic findings in amebic (112 lesions) and pyogenic (30 lesions) liver abscesses. Two sonographic features were significantly more prevalent in amebic abscesses: the lesions had a round or oval shape and the lesions had an echogenicity that was lower than that of normal liver and were internally homogeneous on high-gain scans. Amebic abscesses were round or oval in 92 instances (82%), while 18 pyogenic abscesses (60%) (p less than .01) had these shapes. Fifty-nine (58%) of 101 amebic abscesses displayed low echogenicity and homogeneous internal echoes with high-gain settings compared with nine (36%) of 25 pyogenic abscesses (p less than .04). Despite these different sonographic patterns, image findings alone were inadequate in distinguishing pyogenic from amebic liver abscesses. However, when the sonographic findings were coupled with clinical and laboratory data, a correct diagnosis was possible in 83 (86%) of 96 patients with amebic abscess. It appears that, although some sonographic features of amebic abscess differ from those of pyogenic abscess, these differences are not sufficient to allow a specific diagnosis on the basis of sonography alone. Sonography can expedite abscess detection and, when coupled with clinical and laboratory data, can aid in differentiating pyogenic from amebic liver abscesses.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Colonoscopy is a widely used procedure with low morbidity and mortality. A case of cecal volvulus following colonoscopy is presented. This potentially lethal complication should be considered in patients with persistent abdominal pain following colonoscopy because it is easily diagnosed radiographically and requires emergency surgical intervention.
Small-bowel varices are rare, occurring almost exclusively in patients with portal hypertension. A patient with ileal varices due to mesenteric venous occlusion by metastatic tumor is reported. This association has not been described previously.
A comatose patient on a ventilator suffered circulatory collapse while undergoing abdominal computed tomography. The computed tomography findings are presented, and the means for prompt recognition of this catastrophe are discussed.
On rare occasions, excessive lipase production by functioning pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma results in subcutaneous and intraosseous fat necrosis. A patient with subcutaneous nodules and osteolytic lesions from metastatic fat necrosis associated with this malignancy is reported. Prompt recognition of the syndrome led to complete resection of the otherwise asymptomatic neoplasm of the exocrine pancreas.
FM sonography - a signal-processing technique that uses frequency and phase information as well as amplitude data - shows promise in evaluation of patients with diffuse liver disease. In a prospective blinded review of 37 patients with biopsy-proved liver disease and 42 healthy volunteers, FM sonography was clearly superior to traditional amplitude-based (AM) sonography in distinguishing healthy from diseased subjects. Statistically significant differences were seen in accuracy (FM, 98.7%; AM, 84.8%), sensitivity (FM, 97.3%; AM, 70.3%), and negative predictive value (FM, 97.7%; AM, 78.8%). Our data also suggest that current FM sonographic techniques cannot differentiate among histologic findings associated with different hepatic parenchymal abnormalities. It is unclear, therefore, whether FM imaging can reduce the numbers of patients who require biopsy for diagnosis or the frequency of biopsy procedures in patients with known disease.
The Kock continent ileal urinary reservoir (Kock pouch) is a new urinary bypass system that can overcome some of the principal complications associated with other forms of urinary diversion. It is important to understand the anatomy and radiology of this new technique since radiologists play an important role in evaluating the function of the Kock pouch as well as assessing its complications. The authors review the clinical and radiographic findings in 193 patients who had undergone Kock pouch urinary diversion. Patients are evaluated radiographically in the immediate postoperative period and at regular postoperative intervals for as long as 3 years. Routine evaluation consists of Kock pouch cystography followed by intravenous urography. When indicated, computed tomography, ultrasound, and interventional radiologic procedures are used. The normal anatomy as well as the radiographic appearance of the Kock pouch is presented. In addition, the radiographic appearance of pouch complications and their frequency are reviewed.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
During a 2 1/2-year period, 10 patients with suspected pheochromocytoma were evaluated by unenhanced computed tomography (CT). Six adrenal masses, one hyperplastic adrenal gland, and two extraadrenal retroperitoneal masses were detected in seven patients; CT of the adrenals and retroperitoneum was normal in three patients. Scintigraphy with iodine-131 metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG) was performed in nine of the 10 patients and corroborated the CT findings in all cases. In the three patients with normal CT and 131I-MIBG scintigraphic findings, follow-up assays of serum catecholamines were normal. In six of the seven patients with abnormal CT scans, surgical and pathologic confirmation was obtained; one patient was lost to follow-up after her CT scan. Unenhanced CT is recommended as the initial localizing procedure in patients with suspected pheochromocytoma, thereby avoiding the small but finite risk of hypertensive crisis associated with intravenous injection of urographic contrast medium.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.