Does prophylactic inferior vena cava filter reduce the hazard of pulmonary embolism and mortality in severe trauma? A single center retrospective comparative study.

Objectives: Use of inferior vena cava (IVC) filters in patients following severe trauma without recent history of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is controversial. Our objective was to determine if IVC filter placement in the setting of severe trauma effects the hazard of in-hospital pulmonary embolism (PE), deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and mortality.

Methods: This retrospective study recruited patients from a single Level I Trauma Center between 1/2008 and 12/2013.

The Error-Related Negativity.

We look back on the events surrounding the genesis of our 1993 article on the error-related negativity (ERN), a component of the event-related brain potential that accompanies errors in the performance of speeded-response tasks. Our reminiscences focus on the personal friendships, intellectual influences, and chance occurrences that shaped the article. To put our work in historical context, we consider subsequent trends in neuroimaging, computational modeling, and psychiatry that gave the ERN high visibility and contributed to the longevity of its scientific interest.

Syntactic and semantic errors in radiology reports associated with speech recognition software.

Speech recognition software can increase the frequency of errors in radiology reports, which may affect patient care. We retrieved 213,977 speech recognition software-generated reports from 147 different radiologists and proofread them for errors. Errors were classified as "material" if they were believed to alter interpretation of the report.

Syntactic and Semantic Errors in Radiology Reports Associated With Speech Recognition Software.

Speech recognition software (SRS) has many benefits, but also increases the frequency of errors in radiology reports, which could impact patient care. As part of a quality control project, 13 trained medical transcriptionists proofread 213,977 SRS-generated signed reports from 147 different radiologists over a 40 month time interval. Errors were classified as "material" if they were believed to alter interpretation of the report.

CT enterography: technical and interpretive pitfalls.

CT enterography is a first-line test at many institutions to investigate potential small bowel disorders. While numerous articles have focused on the ability of CT enterography to diagnose and stage Crohn's disease, small bowel neoplasia, and malabsorptive or vascular disorders, this article reviews CT enterography limitations, technical and interpretive pitfalls, image review tactics, and complementary radiologic and endoscopic examinations to improve diagnostic accuracy. CT enterography limitations include its inability to demonstrate isolated mucosal abnormalities such as aphthous ulcers and its use of ionizing radiation.

Ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration in dermatology, underuse of minimally invasive, efficient diagnostic tools.

Background: Ultrasound imaging and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) are common procedures used to evaluate and sample cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue. Although ultrasound and FNA have been explored for individual neoplasms, lymph node involvement, and metastases, their use in day-to-day dermatology is not well defined.

Objective: To investigate the use and utility of ultrasound and FNA in the dermatologic surgery division of a large academic institution.

Automatic selection of tube potential for radiation dose reduction in vascular and contrast-enhanced abdominopelvic CT.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the ability of a novel automatic tube potential selection tool to reduce radiation dose while maintaining diagnostic quality in CT angiography (CTA) and contrast-enhanced abdominopelvic CT.

Materials And Methods: One hundred one CTA examinations and 90 contrastenhanced abdominopelvic examinations were performed using an automatic tube potential selection tool on a 128-MDCT scanner. Two vascular radiologists and two abdominal radiologists evaluated the image quality for sharpness, noise, artifact, and diagnostic confidence.

Comparison of the applicability of the 2006 and the 2010 cardiac CT angiography appropriate use criteria.

Purpose: In a previous study, the 2006 appropriateness criteria (AC) for cardiac CT were applied to 251 patients. It was found that 46% of patients could not be classified, and two observers showed only fair agreement (κ = 0.31) on the assigned appropriateness rating (appropriate, inappropriate, uncertain, or not classifiable).

Radiosurgery and stereotactic radiotherapy for intracranial meningiomas.

Object: The authors report the evolution of linear accelerator (LINAC)-based radiosurgery in the treatment of patients with intracranial meningiomas. They describe the technical aspects as well as clinical and radiological outcomes.

Methods: The authors performed a retrospective review of 161 patients harboring 194 intracranial meningiomas treated with various types of stereotactic irradiation at their institution between May 1991 and July 2002.