Patient management after primary rectal cancer diagnosis. Special focus on surgical treatment for non-metastatic disease.

Rectal cancer is a public health priority. Primary objectives of this study were to evaluate the quality of care for non-metastatic rectal cancer using process and outcome indicators. Delay of management, length of stay and readmission rate, sphincter preservation, morbidity, number of examined lymph nodes, mortality, overall and disease-free survivals were evaluated.

Prospective evaluation of ultra-low-dose contrast-enhanced 100-kV abdominal computed tomography with tin filter: effect on radiation dose reduction and image quality with a third-generation dual-source CT system.

Objectives: To investigate the radiation dose exposure, image quality, and diagnostic performance of enhanced 100-kVp abdominopelvic single-energy CT protocol with tin filter (TF).

Methods: Ninety-three consecutive patients referred for a single-phase enhanced abdominopelvic CT were prospectively included after informed consent. They underwent in addition to a standard protocol (SP) an acquisition with TF.

[Clinical pathway evaluation for left colectomy in abdominal surgery].

At the end of 2008, a left colectomy clinical pathway was implemented at Clinique Saint-Joseph (CHC) in Liège (Belgium). A sample of 213 patients with benign or malignant pathology requiring laparoscopic left colon resection was included in this clinical pathway during the years 2009 to 2015. We focused on the compliance with the protocol, on the complication rate and the incidence of re-hospitalization within 30 days after surgery.

Rectal cancer treatment in a teaching hospital.

Background: Rectal adenocarcinomas surgery morbidity and mortality might be impaired by neoadjuvant therapy. We performed this retropsective study to be compared with the PROCARE study running afterwards.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of 95 patients operated on for rectal adenocarcinoma in a single institution during the period of 2007-2009.

[An unexpected finding in a 14-year-old girl].

A 14-year-old girl was admitted to the Emergency department for abdominal pain. An abdominal mass of 7-8 cm was detected and surgically resected. At anatomopathology a solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas was observed.

[Contrast-enhanced ultrasound in hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia].

The ultrasound contrast agent is composed by microbubbles of sulfur hexafluoride. It is now recognized to the characterization of liver lesions. Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) is a benign lesion of the liver.

[A right supradiaphragmatic mass varying over 6 years].

A pleuro-pericardial cyst represents an uncommon form of congenital disease. We relate the case of an initially symptomless female patient presenting with a voluminous mediastinal mass. The fortuitous discovery of an asymptomatic mediastinal mass should always prompt consideration, among others, of the diagnosis of a pleuro-pericardial cyst.

[Endoleak, a specific complication of the endovascular treatment of aortic aneurysms].

Endoleaks represent the most common complication of endovascular aortic aneurysm repair. With the increasing use of endovascular techniques for aortic aneurysm repair, the prevalence of endoleaks has risen. While maintaining pressurization of the aneurysm sac, endoleaks expose to persistent risks of an evolution towards rupture.

[Imaging in ankle traumas with special attention to fractures and their mechanisms].

The ankle is the most frequently injured joint. The most common causes include sports injuries, highway accidents and household or workplace accidents. The therapeutic decision is based on radiological and clinical interpretation.

MR imaging of iron phagocytosis in intraluminal thrombi of abdominal aortic aneurysms in humans.

Purpose: To prospectively determine if superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging could help visualize leukocyte phagocytic activities in human abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs).

Materials And Methods: This study was approved by the institutional ethics committee; all patients gave informed consent. Preoperative MR imaging data, including unenhanced and SPIO-enhanced T1-, T2*-, and T2-weighted transverse images of the entire AAA, obtained 1 hour after contrast enhancement from 15 patients (mean age, 72.

Free-breathing accelerated gadolinium-enhanced MR Angiography in the Diagnosis of Renovascular Disease.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and accuracy of accelerated free-breathing and breath-hold gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography of the main renal arteries compared with digital subtraction angiography.

Materials And Methods: Renal MR angiograms and catheter angiograms of 47 patients (19 men, 28 women; mean age, 68.1 +/- 15.

Virtual dissection CT colonography: evaluation of learning curves and reading times with and without computer-aided detection.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate the learning curves and reading times of inexperienced readers who used the virtual dissection reading method for retrospective computed tomographic (CT) colonography data sets, with and without concurrent computer-aided detection (CAD).

Materials And Methods: An Institutional Review Board approved this study; informed consent was waived. Four radiologists without experience in CT colonography evaluated 100 optical colonoscopy-proved data sets of 100 patients (49 men, 51 women; mean age, 59 years +/- 13 [standard deviation]; range, 21-85 years) by using the virtual dissection reading method.

Significance of bowel wall abnormalities at ultrasound in Henoch-Schönlein purpura.

Objectives: To describe the polymorphism of intestinal ultrasound findings in children with gastrointestinal symptoms of Henoch Schönlein purpura (HSP) and to investigate the clinical relevance of these findings in terms of symptoms and length of hospitalization.

Patients And Methods: Clinical and ultrasound data from 43 consecutive children with HSP (36 with and 7 without abdominal symptoms) were reviewed. Patients with abdominal symptoms of HSP were divided into 4 groups (0-III) representing at ultrasound normal appearance and differentiated, pseudodifferentiated, and dedifferentiated bowel wall thickening, respectively.

[Screening of asymptomatic coronaropathy with adenosine stress myocardial perfusion MRI: a pilot study].

The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of asymptomatic coronary heart disease in patients with cardiovascular risk factors and evaluate the diagnostic value of myocardial stress perfusion magnetic resonance as screening test in these patients. We performed a retrospective analysis of 103 consecutive asymptomatic patients with at least one clinical risk factor for cardiovascular disease, who have undergone myocardial stress perfusion magnetic resonance. For respective evaluation of ischemic myocardium and infracted myocardium, magnetic resonance imaging protocol included the study of both myocardial viability by late enhancement imaging and first-pass perfusion at rest and during maximal stress (adenosine).

Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging: technical aspects, indications and preliminary experience.

This article reviews the interest and potential applications of whole body MR and presents a new technical concept of the technique. Preliminary experience with this new technology is presented.

Sonography in wrist tendon pathology.

Wrist tendons may be affected by a variety of pathologic conditions, including those caused by trauma and overuse, inflammatory and metabolic disorders, or infection. Sonography is a very sensitive means of detecting tendinous pathology because of its spatial resolution and its comparative and dynamic capabilities. Its wide availability makes it the preferred first-line imaging modality in the case of wrist pain.

[Stepping-table MR angiography of the upper limb arteries].

Stepping-table MR angiography of the upper limb arteries is reported in a patient with clinical and sonographic signs of ischemia. Advantages and limitations of the technique are discussed.

Duplex ultrasound as first-line screening test for patients suspected of renal artery stenosis: prospective evaluation in high-risk group.

Our objective was to assess how far the progress in ultrasound devices has increased feasibility and accuracy of Duplex ultrasound (DUS) for the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis (RAS), in a population with high prevalence of atherosclerotic renovascular lesions. Ninety-one hypertensive patients with atherosclerotic disease were prospectively evaluated by both DUS and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) of the renal arteries. Only proximal criteria (peak systolic velocity >180 mm/s or renal-to-aortic ratio >3.

[Value of MRCP for detection of choledocholithiasis in symptomatic patients: one-year experience with a standardized high resolution breath-hold technique].

In our institution, MRCP is actually replacing diagnostic ERCP. This study is addressing its accuracy in the diagnosis of symptomatic choledocholithiasis. 137 MRCP were performed in patients with upper abdominal pain and biological anomalies (n = 48), pain with cholelithiasis at sonography (n = 69) or non-alcoholic acute pancreatitis (n = 20) on a 1.

[Carotid endarterectomy without arteriography: only dedicated to urgent procedures?].

Duplex examination is presently established as a safe non-invasive and accurate method of evaluating patients with extracranial cerebrovascular disease which usually provides complete information about the extent of carotid artery narrowing Arteriography, in this indication, is an invasive procedure with a total complication rate of 3-4% with 1% of permanent stroke. If it is currently accepted that in emergency conditions (ictus ingravescens, pre-occlusive plaque) or if iodinated contrast media are contraindicated, thrombendarteriectomy can be performed without arteriography it could be extended to most cases. The authors stress the criteria to increase the number of those patients, summarize the pre-requisites to achieve this goal, and comment on the future alternative position of MRA.

[State of the art of pancreatic cancer imaging].

Ultrasonography and CT-scanner remain the first choice nowadays concerning detection and preoperative work-up of pancreatic cancer. MRI offers interesting options for the detection of liver metastases, and high quality of ductal and vascular examination. Actually, while we await a larger diffusion of MR systems and radiological expertise this technique is preferentially indicated as a third-step procedure when ultrasonography and CT-scanner are normal despite a real suspicion.

Acute abdomen. Is ultrasonography useful, essential or unnecessary?

Abdominal ultrasonography in acute conditions gives sometimes the definite diagnosis or at least indicates a strategy for further examinations. This technique is constantly accurate for the upper part of the abdomen, and its classical indications are dominated by cholecystitis, biliary and urinary lithiasis, pancreatic and aortic painful circumstances. However, its role has been emphasized recently, after famous publications about the usefulness of high resolution ultrasonography for appendicitis and various gut-related acute conditions.