Use of ring-enhancement and focal necrosis to differentiate pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma on CT and MRI.

Purpose: To assess the ability of the ring-enhancing sign and focal necrosis to diagnose adenosquamous carcinoma (ASqC), a variant of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), on MRI and CT.

Methods: The following features of ASqC and conventional PDAC were evaluated on CT and MRI: tumor size, location, margins, borders (non-exophytic, exophytic), and T1 signal intensity. Two readers, blinded to histopathology results, rated their confidence in detecting ring-enhancement and focal necrosis (FN) on a 5-point Likert scale on both MRI and CT.

Adjuvant stereotactic body radiotherapy for resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma with close or positive margins.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) as adjuvant therapy for resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma with close or positive margins.

Methods: Between September 2006 and January 2010, 24 patients were treated with adjuvant SBRT following surgical resection. Eight (33.

Activation of liver X receptor sensitizes mice to gallbladder cholesterol crystallization.

Unlabelled: Gallstone disease is a hepatobiliary disorder due to biochemical imbalances in the gallbladder bile. In this report, we show that activation of nuclear receptor liver X receptor (LXR) sensitized mice to lithogenic diet-induced gallbladder cholesterol crystallization, which was associated with dysregulation of several hepatic transporters that efflux cholesterol, phospholipids, and bile salts. The combined effect of increased biliary concentrations of cholesterol and phospholipids and decreased biliary concentrations of bile salts in LXR-activated mice led to an increased cholesterol saturation index and the formation of cholesterol crystals.