Purpose: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of endovascular fiducial markers (EVFMs) for CyberKnife stereotactic radiation therapy (RT) of malignant lung neoplasms in patients with contraindications to percutaneous fiducial marker (PTFM) placement.
Materials And Methods: Between January 2011 and December 2013, 15 patients (7 men and 8 women) aged 59-87 years (mean, 73 y) underwent EVFM placement and 109 patients (54 men and 55 women) aged 55-92 years (mean, 73 y) underwent 114 PTFM placements. All patients who received EVFMs had contraindications to PTFM insertion.
The right vertebral artery most commonly originates as the first branch of the right subclavian artery. Although anatomical variants of the aortic arch are commonly encountered on cross-sectional imaging, certain variants of the right vertebral artery are exceedingly rare. In this report, we present 3 cases of aberrant right vertebral artery arising as the last branch of the aortic arch, a very rare variant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Surgery remains the standard treatment for medically operable patients with early-stage non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Following surgical resection, adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended for large tumors >4 cm. For unfit patients, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has emerged as an excellent alternative to surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLocal pleural anesthesia during percutaneous lung interventions is an important part of the procedure that has not been standardized in the literature. Significant pain can be experienced during lung biopsies, which may affect the outcome of intervention. We describe a step-by-step method of anesthesia targeting the most sensitive anatomical structure involved: the parietal pleura.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate the impact of pulmonary arterial wall distensibility on the assessment of a computed tomography (CT) score in patients with nonmassive pulmonary embolism (PE) (ie, Mastora score).
Materials And Methods: The arterial wall distensibility of five central pulmonary arteries (pulmonary artery trunk, right and left main pulmonary arteries, right and left interlobar pulmonary arteries) was studied on ECG-gated CT angiographic studies of the chest in 15 patients with no pulmonary arterial hypertension (group 1; mean pulmonary artery pressure: 17.2 mm Hg) and 9 patients with nonmassive PE (group 2), using 2D reconstructions at every 10% of the R-R interval.