Emergency endograft placement for recurrent aortocaval fistula after conventional AAA repair.

Purpose: To report a novel case in which a stent-graft was used to emergently treat an aortocaval fistula that recurred after conventional abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair.

Case Report: A 67-year-old man was treated urgently for ruptured AAA with surgical placement of a 16-mm Dacron interposition graft. During the procedure, an aortocaval fistula was repaired primarily.

Postoperative regression of retroperitoneal fibrosis in patients with inflammatory abdominal aortic aneurysms: evaluation with spiral computed tomography.

Partial or total regression of aortic and retroperitonel fibrosis after surgery has been reported in combination with inflammatory abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). In this report, we consider the most recent 21 patients with inflammatory AAA consecutively operated on at our institution. The group was composed of 19 men and 2 women, with a mean age of 66 years.

Perfusion MRI of the lung: preliminary results in twenty healthy volunteers.

Purpose: This study attempted to assess the feasibility and the accuracy of lung contrast enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging in the evaluation of 20 healthy volunteers and to correlate the intensity/time (I/T) curves with the pulmonary physiological criteria.

Material And Methods: After an informed consensus, twenty no-smoker subjects, without any present or past pulmonary pathologies, were studied by means of an ultra-fast gradient echo sequence after a Gd-DTPA intravenous administration. The acquisitions were performed in coronal and sagittal planes, in supine and prone position, in breath holding.

"Relapsing-remitting" bilateral synovial cysts of the lumbar spine. A case report.

A case of bilateral synovial cysts is reported. They were shown by MRI first on one side and later, on the contralateral side, concomitantly with a reduction in the size of the cyst. Because spine instability was also present the most acceptable assumption is that there may be a contiguity between the articular facets and the cysts, thus enabling the filling and emptying of the cysts itself.

[Treatment of intermetatarsal neuromas with alcohol injection under US guide].

Purpose: The cause of intermetatarsal neuromas is unclear; the pathogenesis is, most likely, a mechanically induced degenerative neuropathy or an entrapment of the intermetatarsal nerve under the transverse intermetatarsal ligament. Treatment of intermetatarsal neuromas includes very simple methods, such as changing shoe styles, or more complex conservative treatments such as orthotic devices and steroid injections until surgical therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the neuroma's intralesional treatment with alcohol sclerosing injection as a viable alternative to steroid injections or surgery in persisting symptoms.

[Magnetic resonance angiography with three-dimensional dynamic technique after contrast media administration for the study of the portal system ].

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of a contrast enhanced MR angiography (MRA) technique, using the latest 1.5 T MR tomoscan, to obtain optimal imaging of the portal system and compare the angiographic images with those obtained by color-Doppler and DSA.

Material And Methods: Thirty patients (9 women and 21 men: average 53 years old) underwent contrast MRA of the portal vein, after portal hypertension had been diagnosed on the basis of clinical and chemical data and by color-Doppler.

CT-guided injection of botulinic toxin for percutaneous therapy of piriformis muscle syndrome with preliminary MRI results about denervative process.

Piriformis muscle syndrome (PMS) is a cause of sciatica, leg or buttock pain and disability. The pain is usually increased by muscular contraction, palpation or prolonged sitting. The aim of our paper was to evaluate the feasibility of CT-guided percutaneous botulinic toxin (BTX) injection for the purpose of PMS treatment.

[Ultrasound hysterosalpingography with levovist in the diagnosis of tubaric patency].

Unlabelled: PURPOSE AIM: To asses the diagnostic value of hysterosalpingo-contrast sonography (HyCoSy) with Levovist(R) as alternative to conventional hysterosalpingography (HSG) in the study of infertility.

Material And Methods: From September 1988 to March 2000 we evaluated 120 patients with a history of infertility. Thirty patients underwent both HyCoSy and HSG.

Radioguided-surgery of early breast lesions.

Background: Radioguided-surgery has been recently proposed in patients with clinically occult breast lesions. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of correctly locating and eradicating, by a single intralesional injection of a radiotracer, any breast lesion and, in the case of malignancy, to perform simultaneous sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy procedure.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-three women with early breast lesions were enrolled: 42 were invasive carcinomas, 16 in situ ductal carcinomas (DCIS) and 5 fibroadenomas.

Cerebral hemodynamics in asymptomatic patients with internal carotid artery occlusion: a dynamic susceptibility contrast MR and transcranial Doppler study.

Background And Purpose: Perfusion imaging with dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging (DSC-MRI) has been used to evaluate hemodynamic status in patients with symptomatic occlusive cerebrovascular disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the hemodynamic changes occurring in asymptomatic patients with unilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion by use of DSC-MRI with transcranial Doppler (TCD) measurement of the breath-holding index (BHI).

Methods: Nine patients with asymptomatic unilateral ICA occlusion underwent DSC-MRI and TCD examination.

Diffusion and perfusion MR imaging in cases of Alzheimer's disease: correlations with cortical atrophy and lesion load.

Background And Purpose: Perfusion and diffusion-weighted MR imaging are powerful new imaging techniques for evaluating tissue pathophysiology in association with many neurologic disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced MR imaging and diffusion-weighted MR imaging in cases of Alzheimer's disease and to assess the role of atrophy in the quantification of cortical perfusion.

Methods: Thirty-nine participants were studied: 18 patients with moderate cognitive impairment with probable Alzheimer's disease, 16 patients with mild impairment with possible or probable Alzheimer's disease, and 15 group-matched elderly healthy comparison volunteers.

[Embolization of the uterine artery in the treatment of uterine myoma].

Purpose: To propose uterine myoma embolization as an alternative to myomectomy or hysterectomy in the treatment of symptomatic myomas; to evaluate the efficacy of the procedure in terms of clinical outcome, adopting all procedural and technical precautions to ensure minimal X-ray exposure and preserve reproductive potential.

Material And Methods: Between April 1998 and February 2000, 26 patients, age range 32-54 years (mean 41 years), underwent uterine arterial embolization for menorrhagia, pelvic pain, and sensation of mass and pressure. Inclusion criteria were: single myomas, intramural localization and rich vascolarization of the lesion.

[Virtual laryngoscopy of neoplastic pharyngeal and laryngeal pathology].

Purpose: This study investigated the feasibility and clinical value of high-resolution virtual laryngoscopy (VL) based on helical CT data sets.

Material And Methods: Fifteen patients with neoplastic laryngeal pathology underwent helical CT examination performed with controlled breath. The CT data were downloaded to a workstation equipped with software for three-dimensional rendering (Silicon Graphics O2, Vitrea Visualization 1.

[Non-invasive assessment of epiaortic vessels. Comparison of magnetic resonance angiography with gadolinium, spiral computerized tomography angiography, and digital angiography].

Purpose: The aim of the study was to compare gadolinium-enhanced MRA (Gd-MRA), Computed Tomography angiography (CTA) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in the evaluation of carotid stenosis.

Material And Methods: Thirty patients with US-proven internal carotid artery stenosis over 50%, underwent Gd-MRA, CTA and DSA. Gd-MRA was acquired using the keyhole technique.

Contact imidazole activity against resistant bacteria and fungi.

The activities of miconazole and miconazole sulphosalicylate were evaluated by a contact test using strains of Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli and Candida spp selected for their resistance. The results showed that killing of the organisms occurred within a few minutes. Imidazole activity required a medium of low electrical conductivity and a pH of 5.

Propyl gallate increases in vitro antifungal imidazole activity against Candida albicans.

We looked at the in vitro effect of an antioxidant, propyl gallate (PG), on the antifungal activity of miconazole sulphosalicylate, econazole sulphosalicylate and ketoconazole against 40 clinical isolates of Candida albicans. The combination of imidazole and PG gave MIC values 10-150 times lower than those of imidazole alone. The optimal conditions for this enhanced activity were pH 6.

Late symptomatic venous stenosis in three hemodialysis patients without previous central venous catheters.

It is well known that catheters placed in the subclavian or internal jugular veins may develop stenosis in the vein in which the catheter lies. Because the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) relies on good venous outflow, patients with ipsilateral central venous stenosis are subject to the malfunctioning of AVF. Until now, no data were published on patients showing central vein stenosis (CVS) without a previous central venous catheter (CVC) or a pacemaker.

Morphologic grading of emphysema is useful in the selection of candidates for unilateral or bilateral reduction pneumoplasty.

Objective: Radiologic morphology of emphysema proves useful in the selection of candidates for bilateral reduction pneumoplasty. We developed a simple morphologic grading system capable of identifying subsets of patients who had maximal functional improvement after unilateral or bilateral operation.

Methods: Fifty-two patients who underwent unilateral (n=34) or bilateral (n=18) reduction pneumoplasty were evaluated.

Anticandidal activity of SPA-S-843, a new polyenic drug.

The activity of a new, soluble and stable polyene (SPA-S-843) against Candida albicans was assessed by contact and culture tests and by inhibition of germ-tube formation. The drug demonstrated a higher contact activity and lower MICs than amphotericin B. This antimicrobial activity was more evident under acid pH and low ionic strength.

[Breath-hold gadolinium enhanced tree-dimensional MR angiography: personal experience in the thoracic-abdominal area].

Purpose: To investigate different clinical applications of gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (Gd MRA) using three-dimensional breath-hold GE sequences, without bolus time calculation, in patients with vascular diseases.

Material And Methods: Forty-seven patients were examined (49 studies in all). Eleven of them had an abdominal aortic aneurysm, 6 surgical bypass, 7 renal artery stenosis, 3 aortoiliac Wallstent, 7 aortic stent-graft; 11 patients had a suspected condition in the thoracic aorta and pulmonary arteries, 1 had subclavian artery stenosis and 1 suspected axillary artery compression.

Thoracoscopic reduction pneumoplasty for severe emphysema: do pleural adhesions affect outcome?

Background: Pleural adhesions are frequently encountered in patients undergoing reduction pneumoplasty. We evaluated the impact that pleural adhesions had on the surgical technique and outcome of thoracoscopic reduction pneumoplasty.

Methods: 59 operated patients were divided into 2 groups depending on the presence (group A) or absence (group B) of pleural adhesions.