Similarity of chest X-ray and thermal imaging of focal pneumonia: a randomised proof of concept study at a large urban teaching hospital.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of thermal imaging (TI) in the setting of focal consolidative pneumonia with chest X-ray (CXR) as the gold standard.

Setting: A large, 973-bed teaching hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

Participants: 47 patients enrolled, 15 in a training set, 32 in a test set.

Clinical Trial of the Protein Farnesylation Inhibitors Lonafarnib, Pravastatin, and Zoledronic Acid in Children With Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.

Background: Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is an extremely rare, fatal, segmental premature aging syndrome caused by a mutation in LMNA yielding the farnesylated aberrant protein progerin. Without progerin-specific treatment, death occurs at an average age of 14.6 years from an accelerated atherosclerosis.

Similar performance of Brasfield and Wisconsin scoring systems in young children with cystic fibrosis.

Background: To assess the severity of lung disease in cystic fibrosis (CF), scoring systems based on chest radiographs (CXRs), CT and MRI have been used extensively, although primarily in research settings rather than for clinical purposes. It has recently been shown that those based on CXRs (primarily the Brasfield and Wisconsin systems) are as sensitive and valid as those based on CT. The reproducibility and correlation of both systems to pulmonary function tests (PFTs) were recently investigated and were found to be statistically identical.

Brasfield and Wisconsin scoring systems have equal value as outcome assessment tools of cystic fibrosis lung disease.

Background: Several imaging-based scoring systems have been used as outcome measures in assessing the severity of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. It has been shown that chest radiography performs equally to computed tomography (CT). There is the opinion that of the two most commonly used chest radiograph (CXR) systems, the Brasfield system is less sensitive and reliable than the Wisconsin system.

A prospective study of radiographic manifestations in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome.

Background: Progeria is a rare segmental premature aging disease with significant skeletal abnormalities. Defining the full scope of radiologic abnormalities requires examination of a large proportion of the world's progeria population (estimated at 1 in 4 million). There has been no comprehensive prospective study describing the skeletal abnormalities associated with progeria.

Enzyme-replacement therapy in life-threatening hypophosphatasia.

Background: Hypophosphatasia results from mutations in the gene for the tissue-nonspecific isozyme of alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP). Inorganic pyrophosphate accumulates extracellularly, leading to rickets or osteomalacia. Severely affected babies often die from respiratory insufficiency due to progressive chest deformity or have persistent bone disease.

Pulmonary MDCT angiography: value of multiplanar reformatted images in detecting pulmonary embolism in children.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of multiplanar reformatted (MPR) MDCT images in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) in children by faculty pediatric radiologists and radiology residents affects reader performance parameters and adds diagnostic value compared with the use of axial MDCT images alone.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study was conducted with the images of 60 children (28 boys, 32 girls; mean age, 14.7 ± 3.

Screening of asymptomatic children for tuberculosis is a lateral chest radiograph routinely indicated?

Rationale And Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine whether a lateral chest radiograph provides additional diagnostic information to a posteroanterior (PA) radiograph in the screening of asymptomatic children with positive purified protein derivative (PPD) skin tests in a nonendemic area.

Materials And Methods: This was an Institutional Review Board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant, retrospective study of 605 consecutive pediatric patients (294 males, 311 females; mean age, 10.8 ± 5.

Lack of correlation between pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator dysfunction in cystic fibrosis: a case report.

Introduction: Mutations in both alleles of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene result in the disease cystic fibrosis, which usually manifests as chronic sinopulmonary disease, pancreatic insufficiency, elevated sodium chloride loss in sweat, infertility among men due to agenesis of the vas deferens and other symptoms including liver disease.

Case Presentation: We describe a pair of African-American brothers, aged 21 and 27, with cystic fibrosis. They were homozygous for a rare frameshift mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator 3791delC, which would be expected to cause significant morbidity.

Cystic fibrosis genotype and assessing rates of decline in pulmonary status.

Purpose: To evaluate the hierarchical phenotypic expression of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) genotypes in the respiratory system as has been documented in the pancreas.

Materials And Methods: This study was institutional review board approved; informed consent was not required. HIPAA guidelines were followed.

Clinical predictors of pneumonia among children with wheezing.

Objective: The goal was to identify factors associated with radiographically confirmed pneumonia among children with wheezing in the emergency department (ED) setting.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed with children View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multidetector CT evaluation of congenital lung anomalies.

Congenital lung anomalies vary widely in their clinical manifestation and imaging appearance. Although radiographs play a role in the incidental detection and initial imaging evaluation in patients with clinical suspicion of congenital lung anomalies, cross-sectional imaging such as computer tomography (CT) is frequently required for confirmation of diagnosis, further characterization, and preoperative evaluation in the case of surgical lesions. Recently, with the development and widespread availability of multidetector CT scanners, CT has assumed a greater role in the noninvasive evaluation of congenital lung anomalies.

Detection of simulated inflicted metaphyseal fractures in a fetal pig model: image optimization and dose reduction with computed radiography.

Purpose: To prospectively determine in a fetal pig model whether diagnostic performance comparable to that of high-detail screen-film imaging can be achieved with computed radiography for the detection of simulated classic metaphyseal lesions (CMLs), by using Faxitron digital images as the reference standard, and whether radiation dose reduction is possible.

Materials And Methods: This study was granted exempt status by the institutional review board and the animal care and use committee. Fractures simulating the CML were produced in distal femurs of 20 deceased fetal pigs.

Chest radiographs for outcome assessment in cystic fibrosis.

We compare a chest radiographic scoring system developed by our group to spirometry in quantifying the longitudinal progression of lung disease among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, and we evaluate the use of this radiographic scoring system in identifying the treatment effect of an inhaled antibiotic. Results suggest that longitudinally acquired chest radiographs, when scored using our scoring system, are at least as sensitive as lung function in detecting the progression of lung disease in CF patients.

Interpretation of chest radiographs in infants with cough and fever.

An understanding of the appearance of the infant chest radiograph requires an understanding of the anatomy and the physiologic, immunologic, and pathologic processes in the infant's chest. The authors describe the features of the infant chest that most influence the appearance of the chest radiograph in infants with cough and fever. They discuss why confusion sometimes occurs when radiology residents and general radiologists familiar with adult chest radiographs first evaluate the infant chest radiograph.

CF: an X-ray database to assess effect of aerosolized tobramycin.

This paper assesses the effectiveness of aerosolized tobramycin (TOBI) on cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease, using a radiologic tool. The published tool, the age-based severity curve (ABS), is derived from Brasfield scoring of chest X-rays (CXR). This study evaluates both the usefulness of the ABS as an assessment tool and the effectiveness of TOBI.