Painful metastases involving bone: feasibility of percutaneous CT- and US-guided radio-frequency ablation.

Purpose: To determine the safety and efficacy of radio-frequency (RF) ablation for pain reduction, quality of life improvement, and analgesics use reduction in patients with skeletal metastases.

Materials And Methods: Over 10 months, 12 adult patients with a single painful osteolytic metastasis in whom radiation therapy or chemotherapy had failed and who reported severe pain (pain score > or = 4 [scale of 0-10]) over a 24-hour period were treated with percutaneous imaging-guided RF ablation with a multi-tined electrode while under general anesthesia. Patient pain was measured with a Brief Pain Inventory 1 day after the procedure, every week for 1 month, and thereafter every other week (total follow-up, 6 months).

Outcomes after withholding anticoagulation from patients with suspected acute pulmonary embolism and negative computed tomographic findings: a cohort study.

Objective: To determine the outcome of withholding anticoagulation from patients with suspected acute pulmonary embolism in whom computed tomographic (CT) findings are interpreted as negative for pulmonary embolism.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 1512 consecutive patients referred from August 7, 1997, to November 30, 1998, for CT because of clinically suspected acute pulmonary embolism. All patients were examined by electron beam CT, and scanning was performed in a cephalocaudad direction from the top of the aortic arch to the base of the heart with 3-mm collimation, 2-mm table incrementation, and an exposure time of 0.