Recognizing the features of Isolated Fallopian Tube Torsion on CT and MRI and interobserver agreement: A cross-sectional study.

Purpose: Isolated Fallopian tube torsion (IFTT) is a rare cause of acute pelvic pain in women of reproductive age. Preoperative diagnosis is rarely made, even though an early surgery is necessary to preserve women's fertility. This study aims to identify simple and reproductible imaging features for the diagnosis of IFTT on sectional imaging.

Development and validation of a composite score to predict severe forms of ischemic colitis.

Objective: To develop a simple scoring system in order to predict the risk of severe (death and/or surgery) ischemic colitis METHODS: In this retrospective study, 205 patients diagnosed with ischemic colitis in a tertiary hospital were consecutively included over a 6-year period. The study sample was sequentially divided into a training cohort (n = 103) and a validation cohort (n = 102). In the training cohort, multivariable analysis was used to identify clinical, biological, and CT variables associated with poor outcome and to build a risk scoring system.

Imaging strategies for patients with suspicion of uncomplicated colic pain: diagnostic accuracy and management assessment.

Objective: Compare different imaging scenarios in the diagnosis of uncomplicated renal colic due to urolithiasis (URCU).

Materials And Methods: A total of 206 prospectively included patients had been admitted with suspected URCU and had undergone abdominal plain film (APF), US and unenhanced CT after clinical STONE score evaluation. CT was the reference standard.

How to differentiate acute pelvic inflammatory disease from acute appendicitis ? A decision tree based on CT findings.

Purpose: To construct a decision tree based on CT findings to differentiate acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) from acute appendicitis (AA) in women with lower abdominal pain and inflammatory syndrome.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board and informed consent was waived. Contrast-enhanced CT studies of 109 women with acute PID and 218 age-matched women with AA were retrospectively and independently reviewed by two radiologists to identify CT findings predictive of PID or AA.

Systematic unenhanced CT for acute abdominal symptoms in the elderly patients improves both emergency department diagnosis and prompt clinical management.

Objectives: To assess the added-value of systematic unenhanced abdominal computed tomography (CT) on emergency department (ED) diagnosis and management accuracy compared to current practice, in elderly patients with non-traumatic acute abdominal symptoms.

Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. This prospective study included 401 consecutive patients 75 years of age or older, admitted to the ED with acute abdominal symptoms, and investigated by early systematic unenhanced abdominal CT scan.

Adhesive small-bowel obstruction: value of CT in identifying findings associated with the effectiveness of nonsurgical treatment.

Purpose: To identify computed tomographic (CT) findings that are associated with the effectiveness of nonsurgical treatment in patients with adhesive small-bowel obstruction ( SBO small-bowel obstruction ) that was initially treated medically.

Materials And Methods: The local institutional review board approved this retrospective study; the informed consent requirement was waived. Multi-detector row CT studies in 159 patients (64 women, 95 men; median age, 69 years) with adhesive SBO small-bowel obstruction that was initially treated medically were reviewed retrospectively and independently by two emergency radiologists to identify numerous CT findings that could be associated with the effectiveness of nonsurgical treatment.

Morphometric scores for renal tumors: what does the radiologist need to know?

Numerous therapeutic options are possible in the treatment of renal carcinomas including radical nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy, cryoablation, radiofrequency, active follow-up and among surgical treatments, different approaches may be used such as laparotomy, laparoscopy, robotic-assisted intervention. The choice between these different procedures is partially based on the anatomic conditions of the tumors. Different anatomic scores determined from cross-sectional imaging have been built to predict the complexity of the surgical procedure.

Journal club: Acute abdominal pain in elderly patients: effect of radiologist awareness of clinicobiologic information on CT accuracy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess whether the availability of clinicobiologic findings would affect the diagnostic performance of CT of elderly emergency department patients with nontraumatic acute abdominal pain.

Materials And Methods: The cases of 333 consecutively registered patients 75 years old or older presenting to the emergency department with acute abdominal pain and who underwent CT were retrospectively reviewed by two radiologists blinded or not to the patient's clinicobiologic results. Diagnostic accuracy was calculated according to the level of correctly classified cases in both the entire cohort and a surgical subgroup and was compared between readings performed with and without knowledge of the clinicobiologic findings.

Invasive breast carcinoma: influence of prognosis and patient-related factors on kinetic MR imaging characteristics.

Purpose: To retrospectively compare the kinetic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging characteristics of invasive breast carcinomas with both prognostic tumoral and patient-related parameters.

Materials And Methods: This HIPAA-compliant retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, and informed consent was waived. From January 2008 to January 2011, 273 consecutive women (mean age, 55 years; range, 23-83 years) with invasive breast cancers who had undergone MR imaging were selected.

Undiagnosed breast cancer at MR imaging: analysis of causes.

Purpose: To retrospectively review the causes of false-negative results on prior magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies in patients who developed breast cancer as revealed on a follow-up MR imaging study and to determine the presumptive causes of these false-negative findings.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-eight pairs of MR imaging studies from one institution were assessed, consisting of a prior study without a diagnosis of cancer and a diagnostic study with subsequent findings of 60 cancers in 58 women at MR imaging (mean interval between prior and diagnostic MR examinations, 13.8 months).

Characterization of small solid renal lesions: can benign and malignant tumors be differentiated with CT?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of CT in determining whether a small solid renal enhancing mass is benign or malignant.

Materials And Methods: Ninety-nine biopsies of enhancing solid renal masses 4 cm or smaller without fat on CT scans were performed under CT fluoroscopic guidance. The growth pattern, interface with parenchyma, presence of a scar and segmental inversion enhancement, unenhanced CT histogram, and pattern and degree of enhancement on triphasic MDCT images were independently evaluated by two radiologists.

Imaging of ischemic colitis.

Ischemic colitis accounts for more than half of all cases of gastrointestinal ischemia and constitutes between 1 per 2000 and 3 per 1000 acute hospital admission. It typically affects elderly patients, being a frequent cause of rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. This article describes the epidemiology, physiology, and pathology of this underdiagnosed condition; reviews the clinical patterns of this disease, which constitute a key diagnostic point in patients who have a thickening of the colonic wall; and describes the ultrasound (US) and CT findings, pitfalls, and differential diagnoses of ischemic colitis.

Computed tomography in the nontraumatic renal causes of acute flank pain.

Renal colic pain due to obstructing stone is the main renal cause of acute flank pain. However, other causes may be responsible for the same clinical findings, including acute pyelonephritis, acute vascular conditions, and hemorrhage. The purpose of this review is to describe the differential diagnosis, the computed tomographic findings and pitfalls, and the role and impact of computed tomography in the diagnosis and management of the renal causes of acute flank pain.