Diagnosis of breast cancer: contribution of US as an adjunct to mammography.

Purpose: To determine the value of ultrasonography (US) as an adjunct to mammography for the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: In a 2-year prospective study, 4,811 mammograms were classified according to level of suspicion of malignancy. Targeted US was performed to analyze (a) circumscribed lesions, possibly cysts; (b) palpable lesions visible at mammography; (c) palpable lesions not visible at mammography; and (d) nonpalpable lesions visible at mammography.

Assessment of the progression of emphysema by quantitative analysis of spirometrically gated computed tomography images.

Rationale And Objectives: The authors assessed the progression of pulmonary emphysema by means of quantitative analysis of computed tomography images.

Methods: Twenty-three patients suffering from emphysema due to an alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, aged 45 +/- 7 years and exsmokers, were scanned twice with a 1-year time interval. At 90% of the vital lung capacity, slices with a thickness of 1.

Quantification of pulmonary and systemic blood flow by magnetic resonance velocity mapping in the assessment of atrial-level shunts.

The objective of this study was to asses the feasibility and accuracy of magnetic resonance (MR) velocity mapping to calculate pulmonary-to-systemic flow ratio (Qp:Qs) in patients with a suspected or diagnosed atrial-level shunt. During a one-year period, all patients referred to our department for further evaluation of an atrial-level shunt underwent the same imaging protocol. Multiphase-multisection gradient-echo MR image sets of the heart were acquired to measure left and right ventricular stroke volumes for validation.