Publications by authors named "Escalon J"

Diagnosis and treatment of patients with smoking-related lung diseases often requires multidisciplinary contributions to optimize care. Imaging plays a key role in characterizing the underlying disease, quantifying its severity, identifying potential complications, and directing management. The primary goal of this article is to provide an overview of the imaging findings and distinguishing features of smoking-related lung diseases, specifically, emphysema/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory bronchiolitis-interstitial lung disease, smoking-related interstitial fibrosis, desquamative interstitial pneumonitis, combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and E-cigarette or vaping related lung injury.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) poses a major challenge, being a leading cause of cancer death despite better diagnostic methods.
  • A novel genomic analysis using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) helped tailor treatment for a patient with a history of multiple tumors and fast progression on chemotherapy.
  • The approach resulted in significant improvements across all metastatic sites and underscores the need for personalized genomic profiling to effectively manage CUP and identify tumor origins.
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Coronavirus-19 emerged about 3 years ago and has proven to be a devastating disease, crippling communities worldwide and accounting for more than 6.31 million deaths. The true disease burden of COVID-19 will come to light in the upcoming years as we care for COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) with residual long-term symptoms affecting every organ system.

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Purpose: Interstitial lung abnormality (ILA) is a common finding on chest CTs and is associated with higher all-cause mortality. The 2020 Fleischner Society position paper standardized the terminology and definition of ILA. Despite these published guidelines, the extent to which radiologists use this term is unknown.

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Pruning has emerged as a powerful technique for compressing deep neural networks, reducing memory usage and inference time without significantly affecting overall performance. However, the nuanced ways in which pruning impacts model behavior are not well understood, particularly for , datasets commonly found in clinical settings. This knowledge gap could have dangerous implications when deploying a pruned model for diagnosis, where unexpected model behavior could impact patient well-being.

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Pruning has emerged as a powerful technique for compressing deep neural networks, reducing memory usage and inference time without significantly affecting overall performance. However, the nuanced ways in which pruning impacts model behavior are not well understood, particularly for , datasets commonly found in clinical settings. This knowledge gap could have dangerous implications when deploying a pruned model for diagnosis, where unexpected model behavior could impact patient well-being.

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Tracheobronchial neoplasms are much less common than lung parenchymal neoplasms but can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. They include a broad differential of both malignant and benign entities, extending far beyond more commonly known pathologic conditions such as squamous cell carcinoma and carcinoid tumor. Airway lesions may be incidental findings at imaging or manifest with symptoms related to airway narrowing or mucosal irritation, invasion of adjacent structures, or distant metastatic disease.

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Pulmonary complications constitute a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the post-allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) period. Although chest X-ray (CXR) is customarily used for screening, we have used chest computed tomography (CT) scans. To characterize the prevalence of abnormalities and explore their impact on alloHSCT eligibility and outcomes post-transplantation, we conducted a retrospective analysis using real-world data collected at our center for adult patients who were evaluated for alloHSCT between January 2013 and December 2020 and identified 511 eligible patients.

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The inferior pulmonary ligament and related connective tissue septa are a recognizable site of granulomatous lymphadenitis on CT of the chest and may mimic a lung parenchymal lesion. The anatomy of the inferior pulmonary ligament, CT appearances and potential etiologies of this entity are reviewed and illustrated.

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Robotic surgery provides significant advantages in terms of an optimal three-dimensional and magnified view of the surgical field, superior maneuverability of surgical instruments, removal of surgeon's tremor and excellent ergonomics. Nonetheless, the adoption of this technology in thoracic surgery has been slower than in other specialties such as urology, gynecology or digestive surgery. In this article we describe our institution's experience in robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) in the span from 2012 to 2020.

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Purpose: To determine the incidence and clinical predictors of intrathoracic complications in COVID-19 patients, and the association with outcomes.

Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we included 976 patients (age 61 ± 17 years, 62% male) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between March 3-April 4, 2020 and underwent chest imaging. 3836 radiographs from 976 patients and 105 CTs from 88 patients were reviewed for intrathoracic complications, including pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, pneumopericardium, lobar collapse, pleural effusion, and pneumatocele formation.

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Objective: To evaluate whether thoracic radiologist review of computed tomography-detected incidental pulmonary nodules initially reported by non-thoracic imagers would change management recommendations.

Materials And Methods: The Radiology Consultation Service identified 468 computed tomography scans (one per patient) performed through the adult emergency department from August 2018 through December 2020 that mentioned the presence of a pulmonary nodule. Forty percent (186/468) were read by thoracic radiologists and 60% (282/468) were read by non-thoracic radiologists.

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Fostamatinib is an oral spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor used for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. Clinical and operational barriers may exist that warrant bridging or switching from thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RAs), such as volatility or unpredictability of platelets, adverse events, and quality of life or patient preference. While fostamatinib demonstrated durable platelet responses, the safety and efficacy in combination, bridging, and/or switching with TPO-RAs is not well documented.

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Objective: Clinical adoption of robotic lobectomy for management of lung cancer is rapidly increasing across the world. Several studies have evaluated the technique with regards to perioperative and cost outcomes, with evidence beginning to grow regarding long-term oncologic outcomes. We report perioperative and oncologic outcomes in our single institution experience with 500 consecutive robotic lobectomies, including a significant portion for locally advanced disease.

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While PAPVR is most commonly an incidental finding on chest CT, a unique case is presented where PAPVR in conjunction with SVC stenosis resulted in chronic symptomatic asymmetric pulmonary edema. The case reflects an unusual anatomic cause of unilateral edema, as a combination of both congenital and subsequently acquired anatomic anomalies.

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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects vulnerable populations (VP) adversely.

Purpose: To evaluate overall imaging utilization in vulnerable subgroups (elderly, racial/ethnic minorities, socioeconomic status [SES] disadvantage) and determine if a particular subgroup has worse outcomes from COVID-19.

Materials/methods: Of 4110 patients who underwent COVID-19 testing from March 3-April 4, 2020 at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) health system, we included 1121 COVID-19 positive adults (mean age 59±18 years, 59% male) from two academic hospitals and evaluated imaging utilization rates and outcomes, including mortality.

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Objectives: Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) lacks specific diagnostic guidelines or criteria for imaging diagnosis, and the need for more reliable computed tomography (CT) characterization remains. We hypothesized that central paradiaphragmatic middle lobe (ML) involvement is present in most patients with NSIP. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of ML involvement and thus to assess its potential as a unique feature of NSIP.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common chronic systemic inflammatory diseases and the most common chronic inflammatory arthritis. Classically a progressive symmetric polyarthritis, RA is characterized by inflammation, erosions, bone loss, and joint destruction. Up to half of patients with RA exhibit extra-articular manifestations (EAMs), which may precede articular disease and are more common in patients with seropositive RA (patients with detectable serum levels of rheumatoid factor and/or anticitrullinated peptide antibodies).

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The last 10 years has seen a steady rise in the use of electronic cigarettes ("e-cigarettes" or ECIGs) or "vape pens." Though initially developed to assist with smoking cessation, use among adolescents has been particularly high. A concomitant rise in ECIG-related injuries disproportionately affecting young patients has been recognized.

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Myocardial infarction with nonobstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA) occurs when a patient presents with positive cardiac enzymes in the absence of obstructive atherosclerosis on coronary angiography. Several hypotheses for the pathogenesis of MINOCA have been suggested and multiple potential underlying etiologies have been reported. This review will outline the reported causes of MINOCA and associated major imaging features.

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We are immersed within an odorous sea of chemical currents that we parse into individual odors with complex structures. Odors have been posited as determined by the structural relation between the molecules that compose the chemical compounds and their interactions with the receptor site. But, naturally occurring smells are parsed from gaseous odor plumes.

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Birt-Hogg-Dubé (BHD) syndrome, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), and lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LIP) frequently present as isolated cystic lung disease and can be challenging to distinguish. If imaging findings are otherwise unremarkable, the radiologist is unaided by ancillary CT findings in narrowing the diagnosis. We hypothesized that the distribution and morphologic features of lung cysts could be used to differentiate BHD syndrome, LAM, and LIP.

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