Development and application of an electronic synoptic report for reporting and management of low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening examination.

Background: Interpretation of Low Dose CT scans and protocol driven management of findings is a key aspect of lung cancer screening program performance. Reliable and reproducible methods are needed to communicate radiologists' interpretation to the screening program or clinicians driving management decision.

Methods: We performed an audit of a subset of dictated reports from the PANCAN study to assess for omissions.

Application of Lung-Screening Reporting and Data System Versus Pan-Canadian Early Detection of Lung Cancer Nodule Risk Calculation in the Alberta Lung Cancer Screening Study.

Background: False-positive scans and resultant needless early recalls can increase harms and reduce cost-effectiveness of low-dose CT (LDCT) lung cancer screening. How LDCT scans are interpreted and classified may impact these metrics.

Methods: The Pan-Canadian Early Detection of Lung Cancer risk calculator was used to determine nodule risk of malignancy on baseline screening LDCTs in the Alberta Lung Cancer Screening Study, which were then classified according to Nodule Risk Classification (NRC) categories and ACR Lung Screening Reporting and Data System (Lung-RADS).

Assessment of chronic renal allograft nephropathy using contrast-enhanced MRI: a pilot study.

Objective: Renal allograft function monitoring has traditionally relied on functional markers such as creatinine level. Such markers are insensitive, and invasive ultrasound-guided protocol biopsies are used for allograft evaluation. This pilot study evaluates the association between renal perfusion measured noninvasively with contrast-enhanced MRI and the histologic severity of chronic allograft nephropathy.

A comparison of images generated from diffusion-weighted and diffusion-tensor imaging data in hyper-acute stroke.

Purpose: To compare isotropic (combined diffusion-weighted image [CMB], apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC], TRACE, exponential ADC [eADC], and isotropically-weighted diffusion image [isoDWI]) and anisotropic (relative anisotropy [RA], fractional anisotropy [FA], and volume ratio [VR]) diffusion images collected with fast magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion-weighted (DWI) and diffusion-tensor (DTI) acquisition strategies (each less than one minute) in hyper-acute stroke.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one patients suffering from ischemic stroke-imaged within six hours of symptom onset using both DWI and DTI-were analyzed. Regions of interest were placed in the ischemic lesion and in normal contralateral tissue and the percent difference in image intensity was calculated for all nine generated images.

Effect of b value on contrast during diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging assessment of acute ischemic stroke.

Purpose: To examine the effect of varying the diffusion encoding strength (b value) on the contrast (signal difference, Delta S) between damaged and normal tissue during diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) assessment of acute ischemic stroke.

Materials And Methods: Phantoms with diffusion values approximating those expected in acutely infarcted and normal tissue were constructed from a mixture of agar and formaldehyde and imaged at varying b values (0-3000 mm(-2) second). Ten patients were imaged with multiple b values (500-2500 mm(-2) second) within 12 hours of stroke onset.