Multicentre prospective study of drug-eluting bead chemoembolisation safety using tightly calibrated small microspheres in non-resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: To assess the safety and tolerability of transarterial drug-eluting bead chemoembolisation (DEB-TACE) using tightly calibrated 100-μm microspheres in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Method: This multicentre prospective study included 131 patients with a 2-year follow-up. All patients had Child-Pugh scores ≤ B7, a good performance status, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A or B.

[Use of gastrostomies in patients over 75 years old].

Objective: To describe the indications of insertion of a percutaneous gastrostomy (PG) in older patients in a university hospital, as well as patient characteristics, short and long term complications, and mortality.

Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of all patients over 75 years who had a PG inserted during a three year period by the Interventional Radiology Department. The indication of the procedure was reviewed, and the incidence of complications and mortality during a 36 months follow-up period were assessed through electronic medical records.

[Transparieto-hepatic dilation of benign biliary stenosis: 5 years experience].

Objective: To assess the results of percutaneous transparieto-hepatic dilation of benign biliary stenosis achieved over a period of 5 years.

Design: A retrospective study to assess the technique, complications and the clinical, analytical and radiology results.

Patients: Data was gathered on 13 patients diagnosed in our Hospital between the years 2002 and 2006 with benign biliary stenosis and who had been treated using percutaneous dilation.

[Nodular alveolar pattern of presentation for amiodarone pulmonary toxicity].

Amiodarone is a triiodinated antiarrhythmic drug that accumulates in alveolar macrophages. Its use is limited by its high rate of associated pulmonary toxicity, estimated at 5-7%. Radiologic findings for pulmonary toxicity caused by amiodarone are unspecific and varied.

Treatment of long-term intravascular catheter-related bacteraemia with antibiotic-lock therapy.

Background: Bacteraemia is a major complication associated with the use of long-term intravascular catheters. Conservative treatment using antibiotic-lock therapy (ALT) has been shown to be useful in some studies, but the evidence supporting its impact in clinical care is still scarce.

Methods: We evaluated the outcome of the episodes of catheter-related bacteraemia (CRB) associated with long-term intravascular devices used for chemotherapy or parenteral nutrition and that were managed with ALT during a 44 month period in our hospital.

[Hypogastric artery embolization as a palliative treatment for bleeding secondary to intractable bladder or prostate disease].

Objectives: Bleeding secondary to severe vesicoprostatic pathology (mainly neoplasic disease and radiation cystitis) may be a serious clinical management problem due to its morbidity and associated increased resources demand in the form of admissions, transfusions and other measures. We review a series of patients embolized for this purpose, its efficacy, tolerability and adverse events.

Methods: We review 8 patients who underwent hypogastric arteries embolization between July 1998 and December 2001, analyzing indications, efficacy and duration, tolerability, and consequences.

[In vitro study with techniques of imaging of the composition of urinary calculi].

Pre-treatment knowledge of the lithiasic composition can be useful to design the most appropriate therapeutic scheme for each kind of stone. The relationship between the stone's densitometry information provided by the different imaging techniques, conventional radiology (RX), computerized axial tomography (CAT) and dual energy radiographic densitometry (DO) is analyzed, as well as the elemental composition determined by the microanalysis of fragments obtained post-lithotrity using a scanning electronic microscope (SEM) associated to X-ray dispersion energy (XDE). 60 stones, 12 for each pure composition selected (calcium oxalate mono and dihydro, phosphocarbonate, magnesium ammonium phosphate and uric acid), were studied with XR, CAT and DO and were later subjected to lithofragmentation in vitro.

[Comparative analysis of lithiasic fragmentation induced by extracorporeal and direct contact sources].

An in vitro experimental study on stone fragmentation was conducted on 114 calculi analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry. Four energy sources were utilized: electrohydraulic, piezoelectric, ultrasound and pulsed laser. We analyzed stone susceptibility to fragmentation (particles < 3 mm), pulverization (particles < 1 mm) and stone fragility (amount of energy/mg of calculus fragmented into particles < 3 mm) for each type of energy source of each of the following 6 stone compositions: calcium oxalate monohydrate, calcium oxalate dihydrate, magnesium ammonium phosphate, phosphate carbonate, uric acid and phosphate oxalate.

Recurrent massive pleural effusion as a late complication of radiotherapy in Hodgkin's disease.

We report a very unusual case of a patient with recurrent massive PEs eight years after mediastinal radiotherapy for HD, in which evidence of lymphomatous recurrence could not be demonstrated. The diagnosis of PE as a complication of radiation is presumptive, and other disorders causing PE must be excluded. This condition requires symptomatic treatment and a close follow-up of the patient.