[Pyoderma gangrenosum with aseptic spleen abscess].

Background: Pyoderma gangrenosum is a neutrophilic dermatosis in which systemic involvement is rare. It may be associated with systemic disease. We report a case of pyoderma gangrenosum in the spleen.

Comprehensive evaluation of preoperative patients with aortic valve stenosis: usefulness of cardiac multidetector computed tomography.

Background: Preoperative assessment of patients with aortic valve stenosis (AS) relies on the evaluation of AS severity (aortic valve area, AVA) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by echocardiography, and of coronary artery anatomy by coronary angiography.

Aim: To evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (MDCT), as a single non-invasive preoperative test, for simultaneous evaluation of the AVA, LVEF and coronary status in patients with AS.

Methods: 40 consecutive patients with AS scheduled for aortic valve replacement underwent transthoracic echocardiography, electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated MDCT and coronary angiography within a time span of 1 week.

[Complications of myocardial infarction].

Most acute complications of myocardial infarction do not need emergency imaging, since they often result in death prior to hospital admission: ventricular fibrillation and tachycardia, papillary muscle or septal rupture, fissuration and tamponade. Imaging can play a role at distance of the acute phase (papillary muscle dysfunction, false aneurysm, development of a mural thrombus associated to left ventricular apical dyskinesis, with potential embolic complications).

[Noninvasive coronary artery imaging: CT and MR].

The advent of helical multidetector CT has significantly modified several traditional clinical approaches to cardiovascular diagnosis. The current availability of rapid image acquisition has provided the basis for investigating direct imaging in real time of cardiac structures using CT. Application of thin-section submillimetric image acquisitions to three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction algorithms produces 3D data sets from which images of the coronary arteries may be obtained in any anatomic plane.

[Cardiomyopathies].

Cardiomyopathies include a wide variety of cardiac diseases. The value of MR imaging is not only to provide information about cardiac function, but also to detect the underlying cause of the disease.