Chest ultrasound findings in pulmonary tuberculosis.

In resource-limited countries, the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is based on clinical findings, chest radiography and the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli in sputum. Few data are available on the use of ultrasound (US) to diagnose pulmonary TB. Chest US was performed in patients with lung TB from a rural African setting, to look for signs of the disease and to clarify the role US may have in the diagnosis of pulmonary TB.

Acute nontraumatic liver lesions.

The principal conditions requiring emergency/urgent intervention in patients with nontraumatic liver lesions are hemorrhage (with or without tumor rupture), rupture of hydatid cysts (with or without infection), complications arising from liver abscesses or congenital liver cysts, rupture related to peliosis hepatis, and in rare cases spontaneous hemorrhage. This article examines each of these conditions, its appearance on ultrasound (the first-line imaging method of choice for assessing any urgent nontraumatic liver lesion) and indications for additional imaging studies.

Hepatic Kaposi's sarcoma in a patient affected by AIDS: Correlation between histology and imaging.

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is an aggressive, multifocal oncologic disease, which frequently involves skin and internal organs, predominantly affecting homosexual men with AIDS. Hepatic KS is rarely reported in living patients, while autopsies show liver involvement in 35% of patients with KS. Ultrasound (US) of the liver in AIDS patients shows hyperechoic nodules with periportal bands; CT shows a hypodense lesion before and after contrast administration, but in the late phase after iodinated contrast agent injection the nodules are enhanced.

Sonographic diagnosis of hydatidosis: the sign of the cyst wall.

The Authors evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of echography in hepatic echinococcosis, particularly in the completely liquid types of cysts without septa or hydatid sand and in the solidified forms where the differential diagnosis with other hepatic pathologies can be difficult. The study was carried out with a 7.5 MHz probe and the results were compared with those from the use of a 3.