Clinical manifestations of aural fullness.

Purpose: Even though aural fullness is ubiquitous among patients presenting to otolaryngology clinics, the association between aural fullness and disease development has not yet been clearly determined.

Materials And Methods: Our study was performed on outpatients from June 2006 to February 2010 whose major complaint was "ear fullness", "aural fullness", or "ear pressure". We assessed their demographic and clinical characteristics, including sex, associated diseases, symptoms, otoscopic findings, audiology test results, and final diagnoses.

Solitary pulmonary nodular lung adenocarcinoma: correlation of histopathologic scoring and patient survival with imaging biomarkers.

Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of histopathologic scoring for survival prediction in patients with solitary pulmonary nodular (SPN) lung adenocarcinomas and to correlate the histopathologic scoring with the results of computed tomography (CT) and fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/CT.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study was institutional review board approved and the requirement for informed consent was waived. A total of 148 patients with SPN lung adenocarcinoma underwent PET/CT and CT.

Natural history of pure ground-glass opacity lung nodules detected by low-dose CT scan.

Background: Although focal ground-glass opacity (GGO) lung nodules are generally reported to grow slowly, their natural course is unclear. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the natural course of screening-detected pure GGO lung nodules in patients with no history of malignancy.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the database of subjects who had undergone screenings involving low-dose CT scans.

Imaging-based tumor treatment response evaluation: review of conventional, new, and emerging concepts.

Tumor response may be assessed readily by the use of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumor version 1.1. However, the criteria mainly depend on tumor size changes.

Computed tomography findings of influenza A (H1N1) pneumonia in adults: pattern analysis and prognostic comparisons.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the chest computed tomography findings of influenza A (H1N1) pneumonia and their relationship with clinical outcome.

Methods: Chest computed tomography findings and clinical outcomes of 76 patients with influenza A (H1N1) pneumonia were assessed. Computed tomography findings were evaluated for the presence and distribution of parenchymal abnormalities, which were then classified into 3 patterns: bronchopneumonia, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP), and acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) patterns.

Zoster sine herpete causing facial palsy.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to verify the characteristics of zoster sine herpete (ZSH) causing facial palsy and the effects of different treatments and to confirm the difference from other etiologies.

Methods: From March 2010 to March 2011, a prospective study was performed on patients with ZSH with facial palsy. Patients were divided into a steroid-treated group and a steroid-antiviral combination group, and then the effects according to regimen of treatment were prospectively analyzed.

A proposal for combined MRI and PET/CT interpretation criteria for preoperative nodal staging in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Objectives: To determine the positive reading criteria for malignant nodes when interpreting combined MRI and PET/CT images for preoperative nodal staging in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: Forty-nine patients with biopsy-proven NSCLC underwent both PET/CT and thoracic MRI [diffusion weighted imaging (DWI)]. Each nodal station was evaluated for the presence of metastasis by applying either inclusive (positive if either one read positive) or exclusive (positive if both read positive) criteria in the combined interpretation of PET/CT and MRI.

Baseline SUVmax at PET-CT in stage IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer patients undergoing surgery after neoadjuvant therapy: prognostic implication focused on histopathologic subtypes.

Rationale And Objectives: To evaluate the prognostic significance of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) at (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography in patients with stage IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent surgical resection after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, focused on the relationship between SUVmax values and tumor histology.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the initial SUVmax of 205 patients (112 adenocarcinomas, 82 squamous cell carcinomas [SCCs], and 11 of other histology) with a stage IIIA NSCLC who underwent surgical resection after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and who were followed for up to 6 years. Clinical data, including histologic type, pathologic response, and treatment, were reviewed, and the relationship between the SUVmax and patient overall survival was examined.

Tree-in-bud sign as a manifestation of localized pulmonary lymphatic metastasis from a pancreas cancer.

The tree-in-bud appearance usually reflects benign disorders of the bronchovascular bundle. Pulmonary metastasis reportedly also shows a tree-in-bud pattern in cases of dilated peripheral pulmonary artery filled with intravascular tumor emboli or fibrocellular intimal hyperplasia of the small pulmonary arteries induced by tumor microemboli, or endobronchial metastatic disease. On X-ray CT, pulmonary metastases may result in four main types of imaging manifestations: nodules, lymphatic spread, tumor emboli, and endobronchial tumor, and show diffuse interstitial thickening or multiple nodules in general.

Factors determining successful computed tomography-guided localization of lung nodules.

Objectives: To investigate the factors related to the successful computed tomography-guided nodule localization for subsequent nodule excision.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records for 181 patients who had undergone computed tomography-guided nodule localization using hook wire and subsequent video-assisted thoracic surgery resection for lung nodules. The demographic factors, nodule factors, and technical factors were reviewed to determine what affects effective nodule localization for video-assisted thoracic surgery resection using both univariate and multivariate models.

Feasibility of three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery magnetic resonance imaging as a prognostic factor in patients with sudden hearing loss.

The aim of this study was to confirm the feasibility of high signal on three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery magnetic resonance imaging (3D FLAIR MRI) as one of the prognostic factors in recovery of sudden idiopathic hearing loss. A retrospective study was conducted using patients who were diagnosed with unilateral sudden idiopathic hearing loss from January 2008 to December 2010. A total of 120 patients were enrolled in for this study.

Clinical manifestations and prognosis of patients with Ramsay Hunt syndrome.

Purpose: Patients with Ramsay Hunt syndrome have a poorer prognosis than those with Bell palsy despite the use of various treatment modalities. We compared the clinical characteristics, treatment methods, and outcomes in patients with Ramsay Hunt syndrome and Bell palsy.

Materials And Methods: Patients with Ramsay Hunt syndrome were compared with patients with Bell palsy treated using oral steroids and with those treated with both steroids and an antiviral agent.

Drug-induced interstitial lung disease in tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy for non-small cell lung cancer: a review on current insight.

Purpose: With recent advances in targeted therapy such as tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pulmonary toxicity has emerged as a problem. The recognition of common CT findings and patterns of TKI-induced interstitial lung disease (ILD) is mandatory for achieving a timely diagnosis and for the appropriate management of this condition. Therefore, familiarity with this complicating ILD is crucial.

Dry pleural dissemination in non-small cell lung cancer: prognostic and diagnostic implications.

Purpose: To compare prognostic differences between dry pleural dissemination (DPD) and wet pleural dissemination (WPD) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) andto review the applicability of computed tomographic (CT) findings of DPD for rendering the diagnosis of this disease.

Materials And Methods: The institutional review board approved this retrospective study, and informed patient consent was waived. Of 98 patients (male-to-female ratio, 55:43; mean age, 60 years ± 12) with NSCLC, 20 patients had pathologically proved DPD, and the remaining 78 patients had pathologically proved WPD.

Ground-glass opacity nodules: histopathology, imaging evaluation, and clinical implications.

Ground-glass opacity (GGO) nodules noted at thin-section computed tomography (CT) scan have been shown to have a histopathologic relationship with atypical adenomatous hyperplasia, bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC, or adenocarcinoma in situ), and adenocarcinoma with a predominant BAC component (minimally invasive adenocarcinoma). Patients harboring GGO nodules of BAC or adenocarcinoma with a predominant BAC component demonstrate negative results for malignancy at positron emission tomography. In peripheral adenocarcinoma of a part-solid (mixed GGO and solid attenuation) nodular nature, both the degree of disappearance of GGO area, when the lung window is changed to a mediastinal window image at CT scanning, and the maximum standardized uptake value at positron emission tomography correlate well with histopathologic BAC and non-BAC ratios.

Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis in adults: high-resolution CT-pathology comparisons and evolutional changes at CT.

Objective: To compare high-resolution (HR) CT and histopathological findings and to evaluate serial CT findings in pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH).

Methods: We reviewed CT of lung lesions in 27 adults (M:F = 20:7, mean age, 41 ± 12.3 years) with PLCH.

New CT response criteria in non-small cell lung cancer: proposal and application in EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy.

We aimed to devise new CT response criteria (new response criteria, NRC) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to evaluate the efficacy of the criteria for stratifying patient responses and predicting patient survival compared to that of the traditional size-based criteria RECIST version 1.1. Our institutional review board approved this study with a waiver of informed consent.

Molecularly targeted therapy using bevacizumab for non-small cell lung cancer: a pilot study for the new CT response criteria.

Objective: We wanted to compare the efficacy of the new CT response evaluation criteria for predicting the tumor progression-free survival (PFS) with that of RECIST 1.1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who were treated with bevacizumab.

Materials And Methods: Sixteen patients (M:F = 11:5; median age, 57 years) treated with bevacizumab and combined cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents were selected for a retrospective analysis.

Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia: serial high-resolution CT findings in 22 patients.

Objective: We conducted a review of serial high-resolution CT (HRCT) findings of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP).

Materials And Methods: Over the course of 14 years, we saw 32 patients with biopsy-confirmed COP. Serial HRCT scans were available for only 22 patients (seven men and 15 women; mean age, 52 years; median follow-up period, 8 months; range, 5-135 months).

Pulmonary mycobacterial disease: diagnostic performance of low-dose digital tomosynthesis as compared with chest radiography.

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic performance of a low-radiation-dose digital tomosynthesis (DTS) technique with that of conventional radiography in the detection of lung lesions in patients with pulmonary mycobacterial disease.

Materials And Methods: The institutional review board approved this study, and all patients provided informed consent. In this study, 100 patients (65 study patients, 35 control patients) underwent multidetector computed tomography (CT), chest radiography, and low-dose DTS (effective doses: 3.

Stepwise evolution from a focal pure pulmonary ground-glass opacity nodule into an invasive lung adenocarcinoma: an observation for more than 10 years.

The natural chronologic evolution of a lung cancer manifesting as a pure ground-glass opacity (GGO) nodule on CT scans still remains to be elucidated. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to determine proper follow-up examinations, particularly in case of GGO nodule growing slowly on serial CT scans. In the current case, we demonstrate serial morphologic (CT) and metabolic ((18)F-FDG PET) imaging findings in a case of adenocarcinoma, where stepwise progression from a focal pure GGO nodule (presumed atypical adenomatous hyperplasia [AAH] or bronchioloalveolar carcinoma [BAC]) eventually to an invasive adenocarcinoma was clearly depicted for more than 10-year follow-up period.

Volume-based parameter of 18)F-FDG PET/CT in malignant pleural mesothelioma: prediction of therapeutic response and prognostic implications.

Background: To evaluate the importance of assessing volume-based parameter of (18)F-FDG PET/CT in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) for the prediction of response and patient outcome early in the course of treatment.

Materials And Methods: Patients (n = 13; M:F = 9:4, mean age, 54 years) with histopathologically proven MPM, all of whom were scheduled to undergo curative extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) or palliative chemotherapy, were included in this study. They were evaluated using integrated (18)F-FDG PET/CT at baseline.

Imaging of pulmonary vasculitis.

The presence of pulmonary vasculitis can be suggested by a clinical presentation that includes diffuse pulmonary hemorrhage, acute glomerulonephritis, chronic refractory sinusitis or rhinorrhea, imaging findings of nodules or cavities, mononeuritis multiplex, multisystemic disease, and palpable purpura. Serologic tests, including the use of cytoplasmic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) and perinuclear ANCA, are performed for the differential diagnosis of the diseases. A positive cytoplasmic ANCA test result is specific enough to make a diagnosis of ANCA-associated granulomatous vasculitis if the clinical features are typical.