Pleural tuberculosis: a key differential diagnosis for pleural thickening, even without obvious risk factors for tuberculosis in a low incidence setting.

We report the case of a 64-year-old woman, presenting with pleuritic chest pain and weight loss. She had a previous history of breast malignancy and no clear risk factors for tuberculosis (TB). Initial investigations showed a right-sided pleural effusion and pleural thickening suggestive of malignancy, which would have been in keeping with the clinical presentation.

Power Doppler Quantification in Assessing Gestational Trophoblastic Neoplasia.

Purpose:  The FIGO score cannot accurately stratify low-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) patients who develop chemoresistance to single agent methotrexate chemotherapy. Tumour vascularisation is a key risk factor and its quantification may provide non-invasive way of complementing risk assessment.

Materials And Methods:  187 FIGO-staged, low-risk GTN patients were prospectively recruited.

CT colonography: automated measurement of colonic polyps compared with manual techniques--human in vitro study.

Purpose: To prospectively investigate the relative accuracy and reproducibility of manual and automated computer software measurements by using polyps of known size in a human colectomy specimen.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained for the study; written consent for use of the surgical specimen was obtained. A colectomy specimen containing 27 polyps from a 16-year-old male patient with familial adenomatous polyposis was insufflated, submerged in a container with solution, and scanned at four-section multi-detector row computed tomography (CT).

Computed tomographic colonography: assessment of radiologist performance with and without computer-aided detection.

Background & Aims: In isolation, computer-aided detection (CAD) for computed tomographic (CT) colonography is as effective as optical colonoscopy for detection of significant adenomas. However, the unavoidable interaction between CAD and the reader has not been addressed.

Methods: Ten readers trained in CT but without special expertise in colonography interpreted CT colonography images of 107 patients (60 with 142 polyps), first without CAD and then with CAD after temporal separation of 2 months.

Computer assisted detection software for CT colonography: effect of sphericity filter on performance characteristics for patients with and without fecal tagging.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of changing sphericity filter values on performance of a computer assisted detection (CAD) system for CT colonography for data with and without fecal tagging. Colonography data from 138 patients with 317 validated polyps were divided into those with (86) and without (52) fecal tagging. Polyp coordinates were established by three observers and datasets analysed subsequently by a proprietary CAD system used at four discrete sphericity filter settings.

Polyp detection with CT colonography: primary 3D endoluminal analysis versus primary 2D transverse analysis with computer-assisted reader software.

Purpose: To retrospectively compare primary three-dimensional (3D) endoluminal analysis with primary two-dimensional (2D) transverse analysis supplemented by computer-assisted reader (CAR) software for computed tomographic (CT) polyp detection and reader reporting times.

Materials And Methods: Ethical permission and patient consent were obtained from all donor institutions for use of CT colonography data sets. Twenty CT colonography data sets from 14 men (median age, 61 years; age range, 52-78 years) with 48 endoscopically proved polyps were selected.

Computer-assisted reader software versus expert reviewers for polyp detection on CT colonography.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the sensitivity of computer-assisted reader (CAR) software for polyp detection compared with the performance of expert reviewers.

Materials And Methods: A library of colonoscopically validated CT colonography cases were collated and separated into training and test sets according to the time of accrual. Training data sets were annotated in consensus by three expert radiologists who were aware of the colonoscopy report.

Computed tomography colonography: automated diameter and volume measurement of colonic polyps compared with a manual technique--in vitro study.

Objective: To investigate inter- and intraobserver agreement of automated measurement of polyp diameter in vitro.

Methods: Two phantoms ("QRM" and "Whiting") containing simulated polyps of known diameter and volume were scanned using 16-detector row computed tomography. Two observers estimated polyp diameter using 3 methods: software calipers ("manual"), freehand boundary identification ("semiautomatic"), and automated software segmentation ("fully automatic").