Time-Intensity Curves Obtained after Microbubble Injection Can Be Used to Differentiate Responders from Nonresponders among Patients with Clinically Active Crohn Disease after 6 Weeks of Pharmacologic Treatment.

Purpose To assess whether contrast material-enhanced ultrasonography (US) can be used to differentiate responders from nonresponders among patients with clinically active Crohn disease after 6 weeks of pharmacologic treatment. Materials and Methods This prospective study was approved by our ethics committee, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. Fifty consecutive patients (26 men and 24 women; mean age, 34.

Value of percent change in tumoral volume measured at T -weighted and diffusion-weighted MRI to identify responders after neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy in patients with locally advanced rectal carcinoma.

Purpose: To evaluate the percent change in tumoral volume measured at T -weighted magnetic resonance imaging (T WMRI) and diffusion-weighted (DWI) as a method to identify responders after chemo- and radiation therapy (CRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: Forty-five consecutive patients (mean age ± SD: 72 years ± 9.7; male/female = 24/21) with locally advanced rectal carcinoma underwent CRT followed by surgery.

Bolus versus continuous infusion of microbubble contrast agent for liver ultrasound by using an automatic power injector in humans: A pilot study.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of using continuous infusion, in comparison with bolus injection, of a sulfur hexafluoride-microbubble contrast agent to prolong the duration of hepatic parenchymal enhancement in humans during sonographic examination.

Methods: This pilot study was approved by our institution's ethics committee. Ten patients (5 men and 5 women; mean age ± SD, 65 ± 10 years) each received two injections: a bolus injection (2 ml/s) and then continuous infusion (0.

Predictors of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in cirrhotic patients scanned by gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging: diagnostic accuracy and confidence.

Objective: To identify predictors of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in cirrhotic patients scanned by gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA)-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Methods: Fifty cirrhotic patients with 120 nodules, including 10 mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas and two combined hepatocellular carcinoma-cholangiocarcinomas, were scanned by Gd-BOPTA-enhanced MR imaging.

Results: T1 hypointensity [odds ratio (OR), 20.

Impact of gadolinium-based contrast agent in the assessment of Crohn's disease activity: Is contrast agent injection necessary?

Purpose: To determine whether magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) performed without intravenous contrast injection is diagnostically noninferior to conventional contrast-enhanced MRE (CE-MRE) in patients with Crohn's disease (CD).

Materials And Methods: This was an Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved retrospective study. Ninety-six patients (52 male and 44 female; 47.

Predictors of mesorectal fascia invasion after gadolinium injection in rectal carcinoma after neoadjuvant therapy.

Objective: To assess spectral presaturation inversion-recovery MRI sequence with gadolinium to identify predictors of mesorectal fascia (MRF) invasion in patients with locally advanced rectal carcinoma after neoadjuvant therapy.

Materials And Methods: Sixty-five patients underwent neoadjuvant concomitant radiation and chemotherapy and surgery. Magnetic resonance images were assessed by two radiologists.

Indeterminate solid hepatic lesions identified on non-diagnostic contrast-enhanced computed tomography: assessment of the additional diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the non-cirrhotic liver.

Objective: To assess the additional diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the characterization of indeterminate solid hepatic lesions identified on non-diagnostic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT).

Methods: Fifty-five solid hepatic lesions (1-4 cm in diameter) in 46 non-cirrhotic patients (26 female, 20 male; age±SD, 55±10 years) underwent CEUS after being detected on contrast-enhanced CT which was considered as non-diagnostic after on-site analysis. Two blinded independent readers assessed CT and CEUS scans and were asked to classify retrospectively each lesion as a malignant or benign based on reference diagnostic criteria for the different hepatic lesion histotypes.

Evidence of diagnostic enhancement pattern in hepatocellular carcinoma nodules ≤2 cm according to the AASLD/EASL revised criteria.

Purpose: To define the percentage of small (≤2 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) nodules showing the diagnostic enhancement pattern at CEUS, computed tomography (CT), and gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA)-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Methods: 42 cirrhotic patients (26 male, 16 female; 67 ± 12 years) with 46 biopsy-proven HCCs ≤2 cm were included. Each HCC was scanned by CEUS, contrast-enhanced CT, and Gd-BOPTA-enhanced MR imaging.

Predictors of dysplastic nodule diagnosis in patients with liver cirrhosis on unenhanced and gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced MRI with dynamic and hepatobiliary phase.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to assess whether unenhanced and gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced MRI with dynamic and hepatobiliary phase may predict the diagnosis of dysplastic nodules in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 75 cirrhotic patients (47 men and 28 women; mean [± SD] age, 55 ± 12 years) with 82 hepatocellular nodules, including histology-proven dysplastic nodules (n = 25; diameter, 1-3 cm) and hepatocellular carcinomas (n = 57; diameter, 2-3 cm) scanned by MRI before and after gadobenate dimeglumine injection during hepatic arterial phase (HAP), portal venous phase (PVP), equilibrium phase, and hepatobiliary phase. Nodule T1 and T2 intensities before contrast agent injection and nodule HAP, PVP, equilibrium phase, and hepatobiliary phase intensities were compared with the adjacent liver.

Arterial enhancing-only nodules less than 2 cm in diameter in patients with liver cirrhosis: predictors of hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis on gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced MR imaging.

Purpose: To assess whether gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA)-enhanced MR imaging could predict hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis in small arterial enhancing-only nodules detected by contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Materials And Methods: We prospectively recruited 125 cirrhotic patients (67 males, and 58 females; age: 68 ± 12.36 years) with 151 small (<2 cm in diameter) arterial enhancing-only nodules identified by contrast-enhanced CT.