Prospective Cohort Study of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis in Patients With Stage 3-5 Chronic Kidney Disease Undergoing MRI With Injected Gadobenate Dimeglumine or Gadoteridol.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and moderate-to-severe impairment of kidney function who had not previously been exposed to gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) or referred to undergo contrast-enhanced MRI with gadobenate dimeglumine or gadoteridol.

Subjects And Methods: Two multicenter prospective cohort studies evaluated the incidence of unconfounded NSF in patients with stage 3 CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] in cohort 1, 30-59 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) or stage 4 or 5 CKD (eGFR in cohort 2, < 30 mL/min/1.

Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries with anomalous inferior vena cava drainage: multimodality imaging.

Atrioventricular discordance with ventricular-arterial discordance is a rare cardiac anomaly known as congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA). This malformation has a prevalence of 0.4-0.

Power injection of contrast media via peripherally inserted central catheters for CT.

Purpose: To evaluate patient safety, catheter rupture rates, and computed tomography (CT) image quality when using peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) in vivo for the power injection of CT contrast media at standard injection rates.

Materials And Methods: A prospective study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of power injection of contrast media via indwelling PICCs was performed. Single-lumen and double-lumen polyurethane PICCs (5 F) were injected in vivo with contrast media for clinical CT examinations at injection rates ranging from 1 mL/sec to 4 mL/sec.

Newer diagnostic modalities for pulmonary embolism. Pulmonary angiography using CT and MR imaging compared with conventional angiography.

CTPA is a highly sensitive and excellent primary method for evaluating patients with symptoms of PE. Ongoing studies will demonstrate the good clinical outcome of patients with negative CTPA results. The ability to visualize the lung parenchyma in addition to the pulmonary vasculature, and the smaller number of nondiagnostic scans, make CT more cost effective than V/Q scans, and CT therefore should be used as a first-line evaluation.

Integrated MRI assessment of regional function and perfusion in canine myocardial infarction.

A single integrated examination using regional measurements of perfusion from contrast-enhanced MRI and three-dimensional (3D) strain from tissue-tagged MRI was developed to differentiate infarcted myocardium from adjacent tissue with functional abnormalities. Ten dogs were studied at baseline and 10 days after a 2-hour occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). Strain was determined using a 3D finite element model.

Right ventricular regional function using MR tagging: normals versus chronic pulmonary hypertension.

Right ventricular (RV) regional function, in both normal and diseased states, is not well characterized. Using 1D MR myocardial tagging, RV and septal intramyocardial segmental shortening was noninvasively measured in ten healthy subjects and in seven patients with chronic pulmonary hypertension. The normal RV free wall regional shortening was not uniform.

Right and left ventricular volume and ejection fraction by tomographic gated blood-pool scintigraphy.

Unlabelled: Tomographic techniques separate overlying structures, permitting measurements of absolute ventricular volumes. The purpose of this study was to determine absolute right and left ventricular volume and ejection fraction measurements with tomographic gated equilibrium blood-pool scintigraphy (TMUGA) compared to MRI and conventional planar scintigraphy.

Methods: Eighteen patients were studied.

Global cardiac function using fast breath-hold MRI: validation of new acquisition and analysis techniques.

Calculation of global cardiac function parameters has been validated using fast, segmented k-space, breath-hold, gradient-echo, magnetic resonance images. Images of phantoms, experimental animals, normal volunteers, and patients were acquired with a 1.5 T clinical scanner.

Sporotrichoid lymphangitis due to Staphylococcus aureus in a diabetic patient.

We describe a case of sporotrichoid lymphangitis (nodular lymphangitis or lymphocutaneous syndrome) that was an unusual clinical presentation of Staphylococcus aureus infection in a diabetic patient. Common pyogenic bacteria should be considered in the differential diagnosis of sporotrichoid lymphangitis.

Regional heart wall motion: two-dimensional analysis and functional imaging with MR imaging.

Analysis of the transmural distribution or nonradial components of myocardial motion has previously been possible only with use of invasive techniques such as implantation of radiopaque markers. Magnetic tagging of the heart wall in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging allows noninvasive regional analysis of within-wall motion, including its separation into components of rigid body motion and deformation. The results of this analysis can be displayed as functional images.

A versatile and sensitive method for measuring oxygen.

Oxygen dependence of the lifetime of the excited triplet state of phosphorescent molecules can be used to measure the oxygen concentration in aqueous media. These measurements are insensitive to much of the optical interference that limits the usefulness of measurements based on the oxygen dependent quenching of luminescence intensity. The measurements also extend to significantly lower oxygen concentrations than are normally attainable using oxygen electrodes.

Activation of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase isoenzymes: studies using specific antisera.

A novel method for rapidly determining the amount and degree of association-dissociation of the Type I and Type II cAMP-dependent protein kinases has been developed and validated. Antibodies directed against the regulatory subunits of Type I and Type II cAMP-dependent protein kinases were used. The antibodies formed complexes with holoenzymes and regulatory subunits which were precipitated by goat anti-rabbit IgG (immunoglobulin G).

A general method for the introduction of enzymes, by means of immunoglobulin-coated liposomes, into lysosomes of deficient cells.

Phagocytes of the smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) contain no endogenous peroxidase within their lysosomes and constitute models for cells genetically deficient in lysosomal enzymes such as myeloperoxidase. We have obtained uptake of over 50% of exogenous horseradish peroxidase, provided the enzyme is exhibited to cells after incorporation into liposomes coated with heat-aggregated (62 degrees, 10 min), isologous IgM. Trapping of horseradish peroxidase (EC 1.