Initial Diagnosis and Staging of Pancreatic Cancer Including Main Differentials.

Computed tomography (CT) remains the optimal imaging modality for both diagnosis and staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Especially, CT is highly accurate in assessing the relationship of the tumor to critical arterial and venous structures, since their involvement can preclude surgical resection or indicate a neoadjuvant strategy in borderline resectable or locally advanced lesions. MRI provides additional staging information in isodense tumors or regarding presence of small liver metastases not seen at CT.

CT diagnosis of closed loop bowel obstruction mechanism is not sufficient to indicate emergent surgery.

Purpose: To identify computed tomography (CT) findings associated with successful conservative treatment of closed loop small bowel obstruction (CL-SBO) due to adhesions or internal herniation.

Material And Methods: The local institutional review board approved this study while waiving informed consent. Clinical and CT data were collected retrospectively for 96 consecutive patients with a CT diagnosis of CL-SBO due to adhesions or internal herniation established by experienced radiologists who had no role in patient management.

Revised Atlanta classification for CT pancreatic and peripancreatic collections in the first month of acute pancreatitis: interobserver agreement.

Purpose: To assess interobserver agreement when using the revised Atlanta classification (RAC) to categorize pancreatic and peripancreatic collections during the first month of acute pancreatitis (AP), and to correlate type of collection to outcome.

Material And Methods: This retrospective study of 115 consecutive patients admitted for 123 AP episodes, 178 CTs performed within the first month showed peripancreatic abnormalities. Each AP episode was classified as mild, moderately severe, or severe based on the RAC.

Increased unenhanced bowel-wall attenuation: a specific sign of bowel necrosis in closed-loop small-bowel obstruction.

Objectives: To identify computed tomography (CT) findings associated with bowel necrosis in patients with surgically confirmed strangulating closed-loop small-bowel obstruction (CL-SBO) due to adhesions or internal hernia.

Methods: This retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board, and informed consent was waived. To identify CT signs of bowel necrosis, two gastrointestinal radiologists performed blinded, independent, retrospective reviews of 41 CT studies from consecutive patients who had CL-SBO due to adhesions or internal hernias and who underwent surgery within 48 h.

Acute Jejunoileal Diverticulitis: Multicenter Descriptive Study of 33 Patients.

Objective: Acute jejunoileal diverticulitis is a very rare and potentially serious disease affecting mostly elderly patients. The diagnosis is based on imaging but remains underrecognized. The purpose of this study is to describe the clinical and CT features and the outcomes of patients with acute jejunoileal diverticulitis.

Clinical Relevance of the Feces Sign in Small-Bowel Obstruction Due to Adhesions Depends on Its Location.

Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate if the feces sign can be used to predict successful nonoperative treatment or progression to ischemia in patients with small-bowel obstruction (SBO) due to adhesions.

Materials And Methods: For this single-center retrospective observational study involving a blinded independent review by two radiologists of 237 consecutive CT examinations of 216 patients with SBO due to adhesions (age: mean, 70.9 years; median, 74 years; interquartile range, 62-84 years), the location of the transition zone (TZ), number of TZs, and presence and location of the feces sign relative to the TZ were recorded.

Assessment of Bowel Wall Enhancement for the Diagnosis of Intestinal Ischemia in Patients with Small Bowel Obstruction: Value of Adding Unenhanced CT to Contrast-enhanced CT.

Purpose To determine whether adding unenhanced computed tomography (CT) to contrast material-enhanced CT improves the diagnostic performance of decreased bowel wall enhancement as a sign of ischemia complicating mechanical small bowel obstruction (SBO). Materials and Methods This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, which waived the requirement for informed consent. Two gastrointestinal radiologists independently performed retrospective assessments of 164 unenhanced and contrast-enhanced CT studies from 158 consecutive patients (mean age, 71.

Feasibility and Diagnostic Accuracy of Supersonic Shear-Wave Elastography for the Assessment of Liver Stiffness and Liver Fibrosis in Children: A Pilot Study of 96 Patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of using supersonic shear-wave elastography (SSWE) in children and normal values of liver stiffness with the use of control patients of different ages (from neonates to teenagers) and the diagnostic accuracy of supersonic shear wave elastography for assessing liver fibrosis by using the histologic scoring system as the reference method in patients with liver disease, with a special concern for early stages of fibrosis.

Materials And Methods: The institutional review board approved this prospective study. Informed consent was obtained from parents and children older than 7 years.

Differentiation between cavernous hemangiomas and untreated malignant neoplasms of the liver with free-breathing diffusion-weighted MR imaging: comparison with T2-weighted fast spin-echo MR imaging.

Objective: To test interobserver variability of ADC measurements and compare the diagnostic performances of free-breathing diffusion-weighted (FBDW) with that of T2-weighted FSE (T2WFSE) MR imaging for differentiating between cavernous hemangiomas and untreated malignant hepatic neoplasms.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-five patients with cavernous hemangiomas and 35 with untreated hepatic malignant neoplasms had FBDW and T2WFSE MR imaging. Hepatic lesions were characterized with ADC measurement and visual evaluation.