[Physiologic hyperpigmentation on darker skin].

Many, even common, normal variations and nuances of skin of color are less frequently described or often misinterpreted as pathological. Recognizing these physiologic changes is gaining relevance in our increasingly diverse patient population and enables the physician to encourage the acceptance by the patients as well as to manage our resources wisely. Therefore, we explain common hyperpigmentation on dark skin such as demarcation lines, mucosal hyperpigmentation, melanonychia striata, and circumscribed dermal melanocytosis.

Periprosthetic infections: How do we diagnose and treat? Results of an online survey and comparison with international recommendations.

Objective: Endoprosthetic replacement surgery of hip and knee joints is widely performed, but always carries the risk of developing periprosthetic infection (PPI). Treatment of PPI is lengthy and demanding for the patient, often involving multiple surgeries as well as lengthy drug therapies. Remediation is not always successful despite extensive therapy.

Virtual calcium-suppression in dual energy computed tomography predicts metabolic activity of focal MM lesions as determined by fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission-tomography.

Purpose: Recent studies showed that dual energy CT (DECT) allows for detection of bone marrow infiltration in multiple myeloma (MM) by obtaining virtual non-calcium (VNCa) images. This feasibility study investigated, if VNCa imaging might discriminate metabolically active, focal lesions in MM against avital lesions in MM patients, considering fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission-tomography CT (FDG PET/CT) as the standard of reference.

Method: The study included 60 osteolytic lesions in 10 consecutive low-dose whole body CT scans of patients with MM, who underwent both FDG PET/CT and DECT at a tertiary care university hospital.

Virtual monoenergetic images preserve diagnostic assessability in contrast media reduced abdominal spectral detector CT.

Objectives: To investigate if low-keV virtual monoenergetic images (VMI) from abdominal spectral detector CT (SDCT) with reduced intravenous contrast media application (RCM) provide abdominal assessment similar to conventional images with standard contrast media (SCM) dose.

Methods: 78 patients with abdominal SDCT were retrospectively included: 41 patients at risk for adverse reactions who received 44 RCM examinations with 50 ml and 37 patients who underwent 44 SCM examinations with 100 ml of contrast media (CM) and who were matched for effective body diameters. RCM, SCM images and RCM-VMI were reconstructed.

Virtual monoenergetic images and post-processing algorithms effectively reduce CT artifacts from intracranial aneurysm treatment.

To evaluate artifact reduction by virtual monoenergetic images (VMI) and metal artifact reduction algorithms (MAR) as well as the combination of both approaches (VMI) compared to conventional CT images (CI) as standard of reference. In this retrospective study, 35 patients were included who underwent spectral-detector CT (SDCT) with additional MAR-reconstructions due to artifacts from coils or clips. CI, VMI, MAR and VMI (range: 100-200 keV, 10 keV-increment) were reconstructed.