[Value of CT and transthoracic lung ultrasound in patients with systemic sclerosis : Joint statement of the ÖRG/ÖGP/ÖGR/ÖGUM].

Lung involvement is the most frequent cause of death in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). As lung involvement is frequently asymptomatic, the current recommendation is to carry out thoracic computed tomography (CT) in all patients newly diagnosed with SSc. There is currently disagreement on how patients with SSc for whom no lung involvement was found at the time of diagnosis, should be followed up.

[Mimics of lung cancer].

Lung cancer is a histologically, immunologically and therefore morphologically and functionally very heterogeneous group of neoplasms with the highest cancer mortality worldwide. Therefore, the range of diseases mimicking lung cancer is also very broad and includes congenital, infectious and inflammatory changes as well as other benign space-occupying lesions and other primary and secondary pulmonary neoplasms. The difficulty in radiology lies in the ability to diagnose lung cancer with a high degree of certainty.

Infection prevention and control in ultrasound - best practice recommendations from the European Society of Radiology Ultrasound Working Group.

Objectives: The objective of these recommendations is to highlight the importance of infection prevention and control in ultrasound (US), including diagnostic and interventional settings.

Methods: Review of available publications and discussion within a multidisciplinary group consistent of radiologists and microbiologists, in consultation with European patient and industry representatives.

Recommendations: Good basic hygiene standards are essential.

Infection prevention and ultrasound probe decontamination practices in Europe: a survey of the European Society of Radiology.

Objectives: Although ultrasound (US) is considered one of the safest imaging modalities, concerns have been raised regarding potential infection transmission risks through US procedures. A survey was undertaken by the European Society of Radiology (ESR) to establish infection prevention and control measures in US and to highlight the importance of good medical practice.

Methods: An online survey was sent to all 22,000 full ESR members.

How to diagnose acute appendicitis: ultrasound first.

Acute appendicitis (AA) is a common abdominal emergency with a lifetime prevalence of about 7 %. As the clinical diagnosis of AA remains a challenge to emergency physicians and surgeons, imaging modalities have gained major importance in the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspected AA in order to keep both the negative appendectomy rate and the perforation rate low. Introduced in 1986, graded-compression ultrasound (US) has well-established direct and indirect signs for diagnosing AA.

Imaging patients with renal colic-consider ultrasound first.

Unlabelled: Renal colic is a common disease in Europe and a common cause of visit to the Emergency Department. Clinical diagnosis is usually confirmed by imaging modalities. Unenhanced computed tomography (CT) is considered the best diagnostic test due to its excellent accuracy detecting ureteral stones.

[Management of subsolid pulmonary nodules].

The finding of subsolid pulmonary nodules poses a frequent problem in the daily routine of the radiologist. The biological behavior of such subsolid lesions differs significantly from solid nodules. The risk of malignancy is significantly higher in subsolid nodules as compared to solid or purely ground glass opacities or nodules.

[Lung cancer screening - where are we in 2013?].

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death in Europe and the USA. A relatively good prognosis is limited to those patients in whom the tumor is detected at an early stage. As clinical symptoms of lung cancer are a late finding in the natural course of the disease, most of the patients are diagnosed at an advanced tumor stage when palliative care remains the only therapeutic option.

[Opinion of the Austrian Society of Radiology and the Austrian Society of Pneumology].

The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) could demonstrate, for the first time, in a prospective randomized trial, that low-dose CT screening (LD-CT) may decrease lung cancer mortality. At the moment, it is unclear how these results will be applicable to Austria. Specifically, the definition of the population at an increased risk for lung cancer and management of the high rate of false-positive results are problematic.

Dose sensitivity of three phantoms used for quality assurance in digital mammography.

Technical quality assurance (QA) is one of the key issues in breast cancer screening protocols. For this QA task, three different methods are commonly used to assess image quality. The European protocol suggests a contrast-detail phantom (e.

CT fluoroscopy-guided vs. multislice CT biopsy mode-guided lung biopsies: accuracy, complications and radiation dose.

Background: The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy, the frequency of complications, the duration of the interventions and the radiation doses of CT fluoroscopy (CTF) guided biopsies of lung lesions with those of multislice CT (MS-CT) biopsy mode-guided biopsies.

Methods: Data and images from 124 consecutive patients undergoing CTF-guided lung biopsy (group A) and 132 MS-CT-biopsy mode-guided lung biopsy (group B) were reviewed. CTF-guided biopsies were performed on a Siemens Emotion 6 CT scanner with intermittent or continuous CT-fluoroscopy, MS-CT biopsy mode-guided biopsies were performed on a Siemens Emotion 16 CT scanner.

[Automated breast ultrasound vs. handheld ultrasound: BI-RADS classification, duration of the examination and patient comfort].

Purpose: Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) is a potentially valuable adjunct to mammography in breast cancer screening. The reliability and the inter-observer variability in the BI-RADS classification, compared to handheld ultrasound (US), as well as the duration of the examination and patient comfort have only been investigated in a limited number of papers to date.

Materials And Methods: In a prospective study, we examined 148 breasts of 76 patients with handheld US and ABUS.

Dynamic telecytologic evaluation of imprint cytology samples from CT-guided lung biopsies: a feasibility study.

Objective: This study assessed the feasibility of telecytological evaluation of samples from CT-guided lung biopsies using a dynamic telecytological system in which the microscope was operated by personnel from the radiology department at the site of the biopsy and a cytologist off-site diagnosed the biopsy sample.

Materials And Methods: 45 imprint samples from CT-guided biopsies of lung lesions were reviewed by two cytologists using a telecytological microscope (Olympus BX51, Tokyo, Japan). The telecytological microscope was operated by one radiologist and one radiology technician.

APPC--a new standardised coding system for trans-organisational PACS retrieval.

Objectives: As part of a general strategy to integrate the health care enterprise, Austria plans to connect the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) of all radiological institutions into a nationwide network. To facilitate the search for relevant correlative imaging data in the PACS of different organisations, a coding system was compiled for all radiological procedures and necessary anatomical details.

Results: This code, called the Austrian PACS Procedure Code (APPC), was granted the status of a standard under HL7.