The impact of vaccination status on post-acute sequelae in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors using a multi-disciplinary approach: An observational single center study.

Background: COVID-19 vaccines reduced mortality, hospitalizations and ICUs admissions. Conversely, the impact of vaccination on Long COVID-19 syndrome is still unclear. This study compared the prevalence of post-acute sequelae at short and long-term follow-up among hospitalized unvaccinated and vaccinated COVID-19 survivors through a multidisciplinary approach.

Cardiac involvement in consecutive unselected hospitalized COVID-19 population: In-hospital evaluation and one-year follow-up.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) can occur in COVID-19 and has impact on clinical course. Data on CVD prevalence in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and sequelae in survivors is limited. Aim of this prospective study carried out on consecutive unselected COVID-19 population, was to assess: 1) CVD occurrence among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 2) persistence or new onset of CVD at one-month and one-year follow-up.

Chest CT score in COVID-19 patients: correlation with disease severity and short-term prognosis.

Objectives: To correlate a CT-based semi-quantitative score of pulmonary involvement in COVID-19 pneumonia with clinical staging of disease and laboratory findings. We also aimed to investigate whether CT findings may be predictive of patients' outcome.

Methods: From March 6 to March 22, 2020, 130 symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 patients were enrolled for this single-center analysis and chest CT examinations were retrospectively evaluated.

Agenesis of the internal carotid artery: a family pathology?

The internal carotid artery agenesis is a rare malformation disorder. We report the case of a 12-year-old boy suffering migraine, who had presented an episode featuring amaurosis fugax, spontaneously regressed. CT angiography images show hypoplasia of the left common carotid artery with loss of opacification of the left internal carotid artery consistent to agenesis.

Cancer anorexia: hypothalamic activity and its association with inflammation and appetite-regulating peptides in lung cancer.

Background: Energy homeostasis is mediated by the hypothalamus, whose inflammation-induced functional derangements contribute to the onset of anorexia in cancer. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we determined the patterns of hypothalamic activation after oral intake in anorexic (A), non-anorexic (NA) cancer patients, and in controls (C).

Methods: Lung cancer patients were considered.

3T diffusion tensor imaging and electroneurography of peripheral nerve: a morphofunctional analysis in carpal tunnel syndrome.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the diagnostic potential of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for pathologies of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) through clinical, electrophysiological and morphological evaluation of the median nerve.

Methods: The present work was a multilevel prospective study involving 30 subjects, 15 of whom had carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and 15 healthy controls. All subjects underwent clinical evaluation through administration of the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ), electroneurography (ENG), 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging with DTI, and calculation of fractional anisotropy (FA) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) at the flexor retinaculum.

The alterations of the sigmoid-rectal junction in diverticular disease of the colon revealed by MR-defecography.

Purpose: The sigmoidorectal junction (SRJ) has been defined as an anatomical sphincter with particular physiological behavior that regulates sigmoid and rectum evacuation. Its function in clinical conditions, such as diverticular disease has been advocated. The aim of our study is to identify the SRJ and to compare the morphometric and dynamic features of the SRJ between patients with diverticular disease and healthy subjects using MR-defecography.

Multi-modal imaging technologies in cardiovascular risk assessment.

Atherosclerotic plaques can be responsible for life-threatening cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Some features of the plaque, such as a thin fibrous cap, large necrotic core, macrophage infiltration, neovascularization, and intraplaque hemorrhage, are associated with a major risk of such events and so their assessment is fundamental. Novel imaging techniques, each one with its own strength and drawbacks, can help in the evaluation and quantification of atherosclerosis.

MRI of the small-bowel: how to differentiate primary neoplasms and mimickers.

MRI of the gastrointestinal tract is gaining clinical acceptance and is increasingly used to evaluate patients with suspected small-bowel diseases. MRI may be performed with enterography or enteroclysis, both of which combine the advantages of cross-sectional imaging with those of conventional enteroclysis. In this paper, MRI features of primary small-bowel neoplasms, the most important signs for differential diagnosis and the diseases that can be considered as mimickers of small-bowel neoplasms, are discussed.

[Intervertebral instability].

The clinic diagnosis of degenerative lumbar intervertebral instability is a controversial topic and have not yet been clarified clinical criteria for to define this condition with accuracy. Although the lumbar pain is the most common symptom in patients who have lumbar intervertebral instability its clinical presentation is not specific; moreover in patients with lumbar pain there are no agreed signs and symptoms that can be truly attributable to instability. Despite better imaging techniques of testing spinal instability there is not a clear relations between radiologic signs of instability and clinical symptoms.

Dynamic MR imaging of the pelvic floor: a pictorial review.

Pelvic floor dysfunctions involving some or all pelvic viscera are complex conditions that occur frequently and primarily affect adult women. Because abnormalities of the three pelvic compartments are frequently associated, a complete survey of the entire pelvis is necessary for optimal patient management, especially before surgical correction is attempted. With the increasing use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in assessing functional disorders of the pelvic floor, familiarity with normal imaging findings and features of pathologic conditions are important for radiologists.

[The radiation dose problem in computed tomography. Actual data and strategies for a corrected use of ionizing radiation in computed tomography].

New technologies in these years has taken to a spread and to a growth of the CT application with an increase of patients and population exposure. In clinical practice some technical devices can be used to reduce the exposure dose of multidetector CT that allows radiologist to answer the clinical question with less damage to the patient. The radiologist remains however the guarantor of the ionizing radiation exposition and he has to consider also the opportunity to use other methodics (MR, US) to answer some questions.

[Use of expandable metal stents for gastroduodenal outlet obstruction].

Gastroduodenal obstruction is a preterminal event in patients with advanced malignancies of the stomach, pancreas and duodenum. Surgical gastrojejunostomy has been considered the traditional palliative treatment. The use of metallic stents is intended not to be curative but to provide nonsurgical palliation for the symptoms of obstruction.

[Imaging of simple and complicated acute cholecystitis].

Acute Cholecystitis is a common disease and it needs to be treated in emergency. In case of complication, surgery is mandatory in 48-72 hours. Ultrasonography (US) is the first diagnostic step in that it allows to identify the signs of major complications, not always visible.

Mesenteric adenitis caused by Yersinia pseudotubercolosis in a patient subsequently diagnosed with Crohn's disease of the terminal ileum.

Although the association between inflammatory bowel disease and gastrointestinal infections has been suggested, the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD) are still undetermined. We report the case of a man, who presented with mesenteric adenitis initially due to a Yersinia pseudotubercolosis infection, who was later diagnosed with Crohn's disease. This case is in keeping with recent evidence in the literature which suggests that CD is a disease linked to abnormal immune responses to enteric bacteria in genetically susceptible individuals.

MRI in the acute phase of spinal cord traumatic lesions: Relationship between MRI findings and neurological outcome.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of emergency MRI in the diagnosis of acute spinal injuries, and to correlate the MRI pattern with the neurological outcome.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-eight patients with MRI-proven spinal cord injury were classified according to the Frankel classification. MRI was always performed within 8 hours from trauma.

MR imaging in patients with Crohn disease: value of T2- versus T1-weighted gadolinium-enhanced MR sequences with use of an oral superparamagnetic contrast agent.

Purpose: To prospectively compare oral contrast-enhanced T2-weighted half-Fourier rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with T1-weighted gadolinium-enhanced fast low-angle shot (FLASH) MR and standard examinations in the evaluation of Crohn disease.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. Fifty-nine patients with Crohn disease underwent MR imaging after oral administration of a superparamagnetic contrast agent; RARE plain and fat-suppressed sequences and FLASH sequences were performed before and after intravenous injection of gadolinium chelate.

[New CT and MR imaging techniques in non-traumatic neurological emergencies].

New CT and MR imaging techniques used for non-traumatic neurologic emergencies (represented mostly by ischemic stroke) fulfil the exigency to know quickly and with high accuracy the presence of abnormalities in cerebral perfusion, with the final aim to practise immediately all the treatments needed to prevent the progression of the neurologic damage, by selecting those patients to undergo fibrinolysis, which is useless and not indicated in many occasions. The diagnosis of ischemia is only the first goal reached by these new diagostic tools, while it is nowdays possible and required to stratify the risk factors for the therapy and to accurate select those patients candidates to fibrolnilysis, in order to minimize the risck related to the inadequate treatment choice.

[Imaging of median sternotomy complications].

Median sternotomy is the surgical technique of chosen for cardiac surgery. Although the complications after median sternotomy are not so frequent, these are associated to elevated mortality. The complications can interest the presternal compartment, the sternal compartment or the retrosternal compartment.

Ulcerative colitis: value of MR imaging.

Recent technologic advances have greatly improved the quality of abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by allowing the identification of abnormalities in inflammatory bowel disease. Thus far, the role of MRI has been extensively investigated in Crohn disease (CD) and, to a minor extent, in ulcerative colitis (UC), likely due to intrinsic differences between these two diseases. In UC the inflammatory lesions, unlike CD, are confined to the colon, have a predictable spreading, and affect only the inner wall layer; thus endoscopy alone can assess the extent and severity of disease in most cases.

[Neuroimaging of Alzheimer disease: current role and future potential].

Alzheimer disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, associated with deterioration in cognition and behaviour. With the availability of newer drugs for symptoms treatments there is a general agreement to the need of an early diagnosis and an the development of new sensitive tools, to identify and/or monitor early cerebral changes, suggestive for AD. CT and MRI are recommended for routine evaluation, in order to exclude treatable causes of dementia and to exactly evaluate the degree of cerebral atrophy and the presence of parenchymal signal abnormalities.

[Imaging update in geriatric oncology].

The cancer is a problem that plagues all the ages but the greater part of the malignant tumors hits the old persons. The more elevated incidence sites of primary tumor in geriatrical age are the prostate, the lung and the colon-rectum in the men and the breast, the colon-rectum, the lung and the stomach in the women. The imaging has made steps of giant in the last few decades, with the introduction of new equipment and methodical news so as to assure everybody early and accurated diagnosis.

[Magnetic resonance of the knee: possibility and current indications].

MRI is a multiparametric, multiplanar, non-invasive largely employed tool for assessing osseous, ligamentous and tendineous injuries, inflammatory and degenerative changes of the knee. Although its wider availability and the lack of ionizing radiations MRI should be used only if clinically useful in patient management, in a appropriate diagnostic iter including plain film and/or ultrasound examination. The aim of our work is to review possibilities, limits and current indications for MRI assessment of diseases of the knee.