Benign bony tumors of the paranasal sinuses, orbit, and skull base.

Benign bony tumors of the skull base and paranasal sinuses are uncommon entities, with an overall higher incidence in males. Benign bony tumors may lead to local expansion with resultant mass effect of potentially critical structures. Some benign bony tumors may undergo malignant transformation.

I.C.A.R.U.S. in Flight: A Radiology Simulator Teaches Imaging Appropriateness, Anatomy, and Image Interpretation Skills.

Rationale And Objectives: The Interactive Clinical Anatomy and Radiology Utilization Simulator (ICARUS) was created in 2012 as a novel simulation program with 25 peer reviewed electronic modules combining simulated patient encounters, American College of Radiology appropriateness criteria, radiologic anatomy, and basic imaging interpretation and patient safety topics. ICARUS integrates a gaming approach to improve student engagement.

Materials And Methods: ICARUS modules have been used in the undergraduate medical curriculum at the lead author's institution since its pilot in 2012.

A specific biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Quantitative susceptibility mapping.

Objective: Accurate and timely diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a diagnostic challenge given the lack of specific diagnostic and imaging biomarkers as well as the significant clinic overlap with mimic syndromes. We hypothesize that MR quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) can help differentiate ALS from mimic diagnoses.

Methods: In a blinded retrospective study of MRIs with QSM from 2015 to 2018, we compared motor cortex susceptibility along the hand and face homunculi in ALS patients and patients with similar clinical presentations.

Medical student education in the time of COVID-19: A virtual solution to the introductory radiology elective.

Rationale And Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical educators and students are facing unprecedented challenges while navigating the new virtual landscape that social-distancing policies mandate. In response to these challenges, a new virtual introduction to radiology elective was established with unique online resources and curriculum.

Materials And Methods: A previously in-person 2-week introductory radiology elective was converted into a completely virtual experience using an internally developed, open-source, peer-reviewed, web-based teaching modules combined with virtual lectures, interdisciplinary conferences, and readout sessions of de-identified cases loaded to a DICOM viewer.

Concomitant calciphylaxis and COVID-19 associated thrombotic retiform purpura.

While initial reports regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) focused on its pulmonary manifestations, more recent literature describes multisystem abnormalities related to its associated microvascular angiopathy. Calciphylaxis is a rare systemic condition characterized by tissue necrosis in the setting of systemic microvascular calcifications. Both COVID-19 and calciphylaxis are procoagulant diagnoses associated with vascular-mediated cutaneous findings.

Imaging of Temporal Bone Trauma: A Clinicoradiologic Perspective.

Imaging plays an important role in the evaluation of temporal bone trauma. Certain imaging findings can significantly change patient management or change surgical approach. Precise knowledge of clinical or surgical management can guide the review of imaging to detect these key findings.

Semi-automated Quantification of Lung Density on Chest CT Used as a Predictive Biomarker of Pulmonary Venous Hypertension.

Rationale And Objectives: We sought to determine if lung densities derived from computed tomography scans could be used to identify patients with pulmonary venous hypertension (Group II pulmonary hypertension [PH]), and to compare the performance of this metric with previously described metrics.

Materials And Methods: Patients were retrospectively included from a single-center cohort of patients with aortic stenosis being evaluated for transcatheter aortic valve replacement from April 2009 to July 2014. Fifty-four patients met inclusion criteria.

MRI safety: a report of current practice and advancements in patient preparation and screening.

MRI offers detailed diagnostic images without ionizing radiation; however, there are considerable safety concerns associated with high electromagnetic field strength. With increasing use of high and ultra high (7T) magnetic field strength, adequate patient preparation and screening for ferrous material is increasingly important. We review current safety standards for patient screening and preparation and how they are implemented at our institution.

Adverse reactions to intravenous contrast media: an unexpected discrepancy between inpatient and outpatient cohorts.

Adverse reaction rates to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents are well published. However, there is no literature regarding systems-based changes to improve contrast reaction management. As part of ongoing quality improvement monitoring at our institution, contrast reaction events were reviewed.

An allele of sequoia dominantly enhances a trio mutant phenotype to influence Drosophila larval behavior.

The transition of Drosophila third instar larvae from feeding, photo-phobic foragers to non-feeding, photo-neutral wanderers is a classic behavioral switch that precedes pupariation. The neuronal network responsible for this behavior has recently begun to be defined. Previous genetic analyses have identified signaling components for food and light sensory inputs and neuropeptide hormonal outputs as being critical for the forager to wanderer transition.

Infliximab or cyclosporine for acute severe ulcerative colitis: a retrospective analysis.

Background And Aim: Medical treatment of steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis (UC) is limited to either cyclosporine or infliximab. Studies comparing cyclosporine with either placebo or intravenous methylprednisone showed promise for cyclosporine, but associated it with significant toxicity. There is conflicting, but increasingly positive evidence for using infliximab.

Selective holographic detection of glucose using tertiary amines.

Introducing tertiary amine monomers into holographic sensors containing phenylboronic acids gives greatly improved selectivity for glucose.

Crosslinking of phenylboronic acid receptors as a means of glucose selective holographic detection.

A holographic sensor for the detection of glucose has been developed that is based on a hydrogel film containing phenylboronic acid receptors. Changes to the replay wavelength of the hologram were used to characterise the swelling and de-swelling behaviour of the hydrogel matrix upon receptor-ligand binding. The effect of introducing a fixed positive charge into the polymer matrix by modification of the hydrogel with a quaternary amine group (3-acrylamidopropyl)trimethylammonium chloride (ATMA), was investigated for a range of sugars and the alpha-hydroxy acid, lactate, at physiological pH.

A green fluorescent chemosensor for amino acids provides a versatile high-throughput screening (HTS) assay for proteases.

The water soluble fluorescein-based ligand 1 forms a non-fluorescent complex with Cu(2+). This complex serves as a fluorescent sensor for amino acids in the 10(-3) M concentration range. Since the signal response is very fast, the sensor can be used to detect the hydrolytic activity of various proteases (trypsin, chymotrypsin, subtilisin) on bovine serum albumin as a whole protein substrate, and more generally to follow reactions releasing or removing free amino acids, in real time.