Risk factors for development of coronary heart disease in patients with acromegaly: a five-year prospective study.

Background: Data on coronary heart disease (CHD) are scanty and matter of argument in acromegalic patients.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate risk factors for development of CHD and the occurrence of cardiac events in acromegalic patients during a 5-yr prospective study.

Design: Ten-year likelihood for CHD development was estimated by the Framingham scoring system (FS); patients were stratified as having low (FS < 10), intermediate (>or= 10 FS < 20), or high (FS >or= 20) risk.

Thymus alterations and systemic sclerosis.

Objectives: The pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) includes complex alterations to the immune system, possibly responsible for diffuse microvasculature and fibroblast dysfunction. Previous anecdotal observations suggest a possible role for thymus alterations in some autoimmune rheumatic diseases, including SSc. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of radiological thymus alterations in SSc patients.

Colorectal cancer: role of CT colonography in preoperative evaluation after incomplete colonoscopy.

Purpose: To evaluate computed tomographic (CT) colonography in patients with clinical suspicion of colorectal cancer and in whom colonoscopy was incomplete.

Materials And Methods: After incomplete colonoscopy, 34 patients underwent CT colonography before and after intravenous injection of iodinated contrast agent, in supine and prone positions. Twenty patients with no evidence of colon cancer after complete colonoscopy were included as a control group.

Urinary desmosine excretion is inversely correlated with the extent of emphysema in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

An enhanced proteolysis of lung interstitium is key event in the pathogenesis of emphysema, a major constituent of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To assess whether urinary desmosine and/or hydroxyproline may be used as a marker of lung destruction we studied urinary excretions of these products in 20 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in 19 appropriate controls in 24h urine collection samples. For desmosine measurements, we developed a new indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Relationship between extent of pulmonary emphysema by high-resolution computed tomography and lung elastic recoil in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

We investigated the relationship between the extent of pulmonary emphysema, assessed by quantitative high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), and lung mechanics in 24 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The extent of emphysema was quantified as the relative lung area with CT numbers < -950 Hounsfield Units (HU). Patients with COPD had severe airflow obstruction (FEV(1) 35 +/- 15% pred) and severe reduction of CO diffusion constant (DCO/VA 37 +/- 19% pred).

Crohn disease of the small bowel: spiral CT evaluation after oral hyperhydration with isotonic solution.

Purpose: Our aim was to evaluate the accuracy of spiral CT study of small-bowel Crohn disease with use of oral hyperhydration with isoosmotic solution.

Method: We prospectively analyzed 33 consecutive patients and 10 control subjects with spiral CT after oral administration of 2,000 ml of polyethylene glycol electrolyte-balanced solution. The CT diagnoses were compared with the results of conventional radiologic oral barium examination (33 cases), ileum colonoscopy (8 cases), and surgery (4 cases).

MR virtual endoscopy of the upper urinary tract.

Objective: We investigated the feasibility of applying surface-rendered virtual endoscopy to the visualization of the upper urinary tract by processing unenhanced MR urography data sets.

Subjects And Methods: Twenty-six patients, having neoplastic lesions (n = 9), calculi (n = 8), pelviureteric junction stenoses (n = 4), postoperative fibrotic strictures (n = 3), and extrinsic compressions of the ureter (n = 2), underwent unenhanced MR urography. Virtual endoscopy of the upper urinary tract was obtained using a thresholding technique and surface-rendering MR urography data sets.

Virtual endoscopy of the middle and inner ear with spiral computed tomography.

Objective: To evaluate the inner anatomy of the auditory apparatus by means of virtual endoscopy of spiral computed tomography (CT) data sets.

Background: Virtual endoscopy permits simulation of the fiberoptic endoscopy perspective by processing CT or magnetic resonance images.

Methods: Seven formalin-fixed specimens of human mastoid were scanned with spiral CT with the following protocol: beam collimation 1 mm, pitch ratio 1, reconstruction spacing 0.

Spontaneous epidural emphysema and pneumomediastinum during an asthmatic attack in a child.

CT revealed the presence of epidural emphysema as an incidental finding in a 13-year-old boy in whom mild infrequent coughing during an asthmatic attack resulted in a pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema. Epidural emphysema was not associated with neurological symptoms. The CT images demonstrated the pathway of air leakage from the posterior mediastinum through the intervertebral foramina into the epidural space.

Giant pedunculated liposarcomas of the esophagus: literature review and case report.

Although liposarcoma is the second most common soft-tissue sarcoma in adults, its incidence within the gastrointestinal tract is distinctly low. Esophageal involvement is exceedingly rare and only four cases have been described so far. A fifth case is presented here along with a thorough review of the literature of polypoid lipomatous tumors of the esophagus.

[Comparison of computerized tomography and magnetic resonance in the assessment of benign and malignant pleural diseases].

To compare the diagnostic capabilities of Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in differentiating benign from malignant pleural disease, we examined with MRI at 0.5 T forty-five patients with pleural lesions identified on CT scans. For 34 patients, a final diagnosis of malignant (n = 18) or benign (n = 16) disease was made.

Usefulness of MR signal intensity in distinguishing benign from malignant pleural disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the potential usefulness of MR signal intensity in differentiating malignant from benign pleural disease.

Subjects And Methods: Forty-five patients with pleural lesions identified on CT scans were subsequently examined by MR imaging at 0.5 T.

[The radiological assessment of the knee in the meniscectomy patient].

The increasing number of radiologic examinations performed on patients previously submitted to arthroscopic meniscectomy led us to analyze the types of lesion most frequently found in these patients and the prognostic factors related to meniscectomy. Thus, the radiographs, CT and MR examinations were reviewed of 34 symptomatic patients submitted to arthroscopy at least 1 year earlier and in whom symptoms had appeared no more than 3 months earlier, thus ruling out the symptoms related to surgical complications. Lesions were found in the menisci, in the meniscal stumps and in the articular ends.

[Diagnostic imaging of intestinal invaginations in the adult. Report of 9 cases].

Adult intestinal intussusception affects the distal portions of the small bowel and the colon in 90% of cases. As a rule, its nature is neoplastic, its clinical presentation aspecific and its diagnosis is frequently an occasional finding during routine imaging examinations. We report on 9 adult patients with intestinal intussusception.

[Quantification of pulmonary emphysema with computerized tomography. Comparison with various methods].

Computed Tomography (CT) has been proved to be the most accurate imaging modality to diagnose emphysema in vivo. Our study was aimed at comparing different CT methods for pulmonary emphysema quantification in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Forty-six consecutive inpatients affected with COPD underwent high resolution CT (HRCT).

Portal vein thrombosis after percutaneous ethanol injection for hepatocellular carcinoma: value of color Doppler sonography in distinguishing chemical and tumor thrombi.

Objective: The distinction between benign (chemical) and tumor thromboses of the portal vein after treat,ent with percutaneous injection of ethanol for hepatocellular carcinoma is crucial for the proper management of the patient. The purpose of this study was to determine whether color Doppler sonography can be used to differentiate between the two types of thrombi.

Subjects And Methods: Between October 1991 and April 1994, portal vein thrombosis was detected by color Doppler sonography in 19 patients (13 men and six women 59-77 years old; mean age, 67 years) who had hepatocellular carcinomas and who had received percutaneous ethanol injection (n = 11) or percutaneous ethanol injection after transcatheter arterial embolization (n = 8).

Chest radiography and high resolution computed tomography in the evaluation of workers exposed to silica dust: relation with functional findings.

Objectives: To compare the usefulness of high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) with chest radiography (CR) in the diagnosis and assessment of severity of silicosis.

Methods: 27 workers exposed to silica underwent CR, HRCT, and pulmonary function tests. Two experienced readers independently evaluated CR by International Labour Office classification, and grouped the results into four categories.

[High-resolution computed tomography compared with the thoracic radiogram and respiratory function tests in assessing workers exposed to silica].

To compare the usefulness of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and chest radiography in the functional evaluation of silica-exposed workers, 27 workers were submitted to posteroanterior and lateral chest radiographs, apex to base HRCT scans and pulmonary function tests. Two experienced readers studied plain films independently to assess small opacities profusion (ILO-UC, Geneva 1980): from 0/- to 3/+. HRCT grading and extent of silicotic nodules and associated emphysema were scored on a four-point scale.

[Magnetic resonance angiography at 0.5 Tesla of the renal arteries. Capabilities and limitations of the 2-dimensional phase contrast technique].

To investigate the potentials and limitations of Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) of the renal arteries at mid-field strength, 16 patients with arterial hypertension of suspected renovascular origin were submitted to MRA at 0.5 T with the two-dimensional (2D) phase-contrast technique and to arteriography. MRA yielded diagnostic images in 15 (94%) patients in whom MRA and arteriography identified 38 and 39 renal arteries, respectively.

[Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament with patellar tendon. Comparison between magnetic resonance and computerized tomography].

CT and MR potentials were compared in 30 patients submitted to anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using the patellar tendon. In each patient the clinical data were correlated with the following radiologic parameters: the course of the tibial and femoral tunnels, their intraarticular outlet sites and their shape, the shape of the intercondylar notch and of the medial wall of the lateral femoral condyle and, finally, the shape of the graft and of the synovia. The intraarticular outlet site of the tibial tunnel was studied on the sagittal or transverse planes.

[Gadolinium-DTPA combined with a fat suppression technique in studies with magnetic resonance at 0.5 T in soft-tissue neoplasms].

Combination of fat suppression techniques with intravenous paramagnetic contrast administration is usually performed using high-field MR systems. We combined a modified three-point Dixon technique for fat suppression with gadolinium-DTPA administration in the investigation of soft tissue neoplasms at 0.5 T.