[Contribution of spiral CT for the early diagnosis of hepato-cellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients].

Purpose: To evaluate the specificity of spiral CT for early diagnosis of small hepato-cellular carcinoma.

Patients And Methods: One or several hepatic hypervascular nodules, with a diameter smaller than or equal to 3cm and suspected of corresponding to small hepato-cellular carcinoma, were detected during the arterial phase of spiral CT in 55 patients. The diagnosis of the main nodule could be established in 31 patients by pathologic examination, elevated alpha-foeto-protein level or follow-up examination.

[Leiomyosarcoma and stromal tumor of the pancreas].

A tumor of the head of pancreas was an incidental finding on US of two patients aged 52 and 61 years presenting with abdominal pain. The tumor was studied by computed tomography, MRI and endoscopic ultrasonography. Surgical biopsy of a liver lesion was performed in one case and partial duodenopancreatectomy was performed in the other case.

Comparing contrast-enhanced breath-hold MR angiography and conventional angiography in the evaluation of mesenteric circulation.

Objective: Our aim was to compare the results of gadolinium-enhanced breath-hold MR angiography with those of conventional angiography for the study of mesenteric circulation.

Subjects And Methods: MR angiography and digital subtraction angiography were prospectively performed in 33 patients referred for hepatic, pancreatic, or mesenteric disease. MR angiography was performed with four three-dimensional acquisitions at 0, 30, 60, and 90 sec after injection of 0.

Biliary leaks: treatment by means of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage in the treatment of biliary leaks.

Materials And Methods: Sixteen patients with a biliary leak involving either the common bile duct (n = 12), the biliary confluence (n = 2), or a hepaticojejunal anastomosis (n = 2) were treated by means of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage. The biliary leak was due to severe acute necrotizing pancreatitis in six patients, while 10 patients had postoperative leak.

Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma by transcatheter arterial chemoembolization: comparison of planned periodic chemoembolization and chemoembolization based on tumor response.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma using two different infusion schedules.

Materials And Methods: Chemoembolization with lipiodol-mediated injection of doxorubicin was performed in 160 patients. In the first group of 80 patients, conventional chemoembolization was initially planned to be repeated at least three times at 2-month intervals.

MR cholangiography in primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of MR cholangiography to reveal the characteristics of biliary abnormalities found in primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that MR cholangiography could be useful in the diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis. Slightly dilated peripheral bile ducts unconnected to the central ducts in several hepatic segments are a characteristic MR sign of primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Haemodynamic effects of macrocyclic and linear gadolinium chelates in rats: role of calcium and transmetallation.

Several studies were undertaken to compare four magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast media (CM) as regards acute haemodynamic effects in rats and to investigate the mechanisms involved. (1) Normotensive rats received a rapid bolus intravenous injection of 0.5 mmol kg-1 of each CM.

Congenital hepatic fibrosis: findings at MR cholangiopancreatography.

Objective: This study describes the MR imaging features of congenital hepatic fibrosis in four children who were examined with MR cholangiopancreatography.

Conclusion: MR cholangiopancreatography effectively reveals biliary cysts, dilatation of intrahepatic bile ducts, and polycystic kidney disease, findings often associated with congenital hepatic fibrosis. This diagnosis should be suspected when these biliary and renal abnormalities are associated with hepatosplenomegaly in a patient with normal liver function.

Caroli's disease: a magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography diagnosis.

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) has received much attention in the recent literature as a noninvasive alternative to endoscopic retrograde cholangiography, primarily for biliary calculus disease, but also for the less common indication of evaluation of biliary anomalies. We present a case of Caroli's disease in which the diagnosis can be clearly inferred by MRCP. The findings of MRCP and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography are similar.

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt in an infant.

A 15-month-old girl, who presented with biliary cirrhosis secondary to cystic fibrosis with refractory ascites and recurrent intestinal bleeding, underwent percutaneous transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting. Immediately following the procedure the ascites disappeared and no further bleeding occurred. The stent shunt was patent on Doppler ultrasound until the 22nd day.

Oral administration of a low-cost negative contrast agent: a three-year experience in routine practice.

A low cost, well tolerated, and effective gastrointestinal contrast agent is needed for abdominal MRI. The authors tested, in vitro and in routine practice, a mixture of 192 g of barium sulfate (Micropaque HD oral, Guerbet, France) diluted in 500 ml of gastric antacid (Maalox, Rohrer, Fort Washington, PA). Its T1 and T2 relaxation times were 324 and 14 msec, respectively (.

Hepatic iron overload: diagnosis and quantification with MR imaging.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of MR imaging in the diagnosis of liver hemochromatosis and its ability to quantify hepatic iron concentration (HIC).

Subjects And Methods: MR images were prospectively obtained in 58 patients suspected to have hemochromatosis. We used a scanner with a 0.

[MR cholangiopancreatography].

MR cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is a new technique allowing noninvasive investigation of the bile ducts and pancreatic duct. Due to the extremely intense signal of water on T2-weighting, MR sequences can be obtained only demonstrating liquids. The bile and pancreatic ducts can therefore be studied spontaneously even in the case of major cholestasis.

[Percutaneous biliary prostheses. Type of material and indications].

The results of percutaneous transhepatic endoprosthesis in the treatment of biliary stenosis are discussed on the basis of the reports of the literature and a personal experience of more than 400 patients treated for about 15 years. Advantages and disadvantages of conventional stents as compared with metal endoprosthesis are discussed, the latter being now preferred by most authors. However they do not prove to be more efficient than conventional stents which are suitable for those patients who have a relatively short life expectancy.

Arterial complications of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage.

Purpose: To report on the frequency and treatment of arterial complications due to percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD).

Materials: Lesions of the intrahepatic artery were encountered in 10 of 525 patients treated by PTBD (2%). Hemobilia followed in 9 patients and subcapsular hematoma in 1.

[Factors of image quality in spiral x-ray computed tomography].

In helical CT, there are 4 mains factors of quality: The in-plane spatial resolution that is the same in conventional CT; The spatial resolution on the Z axis, which is the slice thickness. The increase factor of the slice thickness between a conventional and a helical CT depends on the pitch and the reconstruction algorithm. The value of the increase factor can be easily calculated; The signal to noise ratio which depends on the collimation, the mA, the KV and the reconstruction algorithm.

Arterial complications of pancreatitis: diagnostic and therapeutic aspects in 104 cases.

Purpose: A retrospective study of 104 cases of arterial lesions related to pancreatitis was undertaken to examine the diagnostic and therapeutic benefits of arteriography compared with ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT).

Patients And Methods: Data were acquired from responses to a questionnaire. Eighty-seven patients were men, 17 were women (age range, 21-80 years; mean, 48 years).