Common and Uncommon Benign Pancreatic Lesions Mimicking Malignancy: Imaging Update and Review.

There is a broad range of inflammatory, pseudotumoral, and benign lesions that may masquerade as pancreatic malignancies, often representing a challenge to the radiologist. Unawareness of these entities can lead to inadequate differential diagnoses or misdiagnosis, with important prognostic and therapeutic consequences. The purpose of this article is to revisit a spectrum of lesions, varying from common to exceedingly rare nonmalignant, that may mimic malignant pancreatic neoplasms on imaging, identifying relevant features that may contribute to reaching the correct diagnosis.

Readjustment of abdominal computed tomography protocols in a university hospital: impact on radiation dose.

Objective: To assess the reduction of estimated radiation dose in abdominal computed tomography following the implementation of new scan protocols on the basis of clinical suspicion and of adjusted images acquisition parameters.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective and prospective review of reports on radiation dose from abdominal CT scans performed three months before (group A - 551 studies) and three months after (group B - 788 studies) implementation of new scan protocols proposed as a function of clinical indications. Also, the images acquisition parameters were adjusted to reduce the radiation dose at each scan phase.

Differentiating cirrhosis and chronic hepatosplenic schistosomiasis using MRI.

Objective: The objective of our study was to identify which imaging features may be used to differentiate between cirrhosis and chronic hepatosplenic schistosomiasis and to assess image interpretation agreement for MRI findings.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective review of 27 patients with alcoholic or virus-induced cirrhosis and 24 patients with chronic hepatosplenic schistosomiasis who underwent MRI (1.5 T) of the abdomen was performed.

Experimental evaluation of 3-dimensional kinematic behavior of the cruciate ligaments.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a low-cost and easily reproducible technique for biomechanical studies in cadavers. In this kind of study, the natural effect of loading of the joint and shear forces are not taken into account. The objective is to describe the plastic deformation of the ligaments into 3-dimensional space.