Retroclival ecchordosis physaliphora: MR imaging and review of the literature.

Background And Purpose: Ecchordosis physaliphora (EP), found in about 2% of autopsies, is a clinically inconspicuous notochordal remnant appearing at the dorsal wall of the clivus. To our knowledge, a systematic review of its MR features does not exist. The aim of this study was to describe the MR imaging findings of incidentally found retroclival EP with special respect to its differentiation from intradural chordomas.

Clinical evaluation of a computer simulated prediction model of contrast enhancement of the liver in spiral CT.

Objective: A software program was developed simulating a compartmental model of blood circulation based on differential equations. The aim of this study was to compare software-simulated levels of hepatic enhancement with the true values in patients and to test how many patients reach the simulated hepatic enhancement level.

Methods: As software program the CT application software carebolus 2 (Siemens, Forchheim, Germany) was used.