The usefulness of preoperative CT in colon cancer staging: impact of radiologists' experience.

Purpose: To assess the agreement between radiologists in the detection of specific features related to T- and N-stage and evaluate accuracy in colon cancer staging.

Methods: Patients who underwent contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) before surgery were enrolled and evaluated by three radiologists with different experience. Pathological data were used as the reference standard.

When the diameter of the abdominal aorta should be considered as abnormal? A new ultrasonographic index using the wrist circumference as a body build reference.

Purpose: To use US to evaluate the normal values of aortic diameter (AD), stratifying the population by age, gender and body build, as measured using wrist circumference (WC).

Materials And Methods: Between April 2010 and February 2012, consecutive patients ≥ 30 years of age, without history of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) were prospectively enrolled. They underwent an abdominal ultrasonography for reasons other than aorta evaluation.