Luminal Plugging on Chest CT Scan: Association With Lung Function, Quality of Life, and COPD Clinical Phenotypes.

Background: Mucous exudates occluding the lumen of small airways are associated with reduced lung function and mortality in subjects with COPD; however, luminal plugs in large airways have not been widely studied. We aimed to examine the associations of chest CT scan-identified luminal plugging with lung function, health-related quality of life, and COPD phenotypes.

Methods: We randomly selected 100 smokers without COPD and 400 smokers with COPD from the COPDGene Study.

Rheumatoid arthritis-associated autoantibodies and subclinical interstitial lung disease: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Background: Adults with interstitial lung disease (ILD) often have serologic evidence of autoimmunity of uncertain significance without overt autoimmune disease. We examined associations of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated antibodies with subclinical ILD in community-dwelling adults.

Methods: We measured serum rheumatoid factor (RF) and anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) and high attenuation areas (HAAs; CT attenuation values between -600 and -250 Hounsfield units) on cardiac CT in 6736 community-dwelling US adults enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Improved identification of sternal injuries with multidetector computed tomography (MDCT): sagittal reconstructions.

Chest computed tomography is acquired in the axial plane, but sternal injuries may be missed on axial images. This study hypothesized that sagittal sternal reconstruction images improve detection of sternal injury and radiologist's confidence in diagnosis compared to axial images. Five radiologists independently reviewed first axial images and on a different day sagittal images of a retrospective set of trauma cases recording presence/absence of a sternal injury and/or adjacent hematoma.

Atypical tumors of the rectum with pathologic correlation.

Although the majority of rectal masses are histologically characterized as adenocarcinoma, there is a wide spectrum of rare, but specific, neoplastic processes that can involve the rectum and present with rectal bleeding. Knowledge of their existence and protean imaging features is crucial for accurate diagnosis and appropriate management. This review article describes the clinical, imaging, and histopathologic characteristics of several pathologically proven rectal lesions, including rectal carcinoid, rectal gastrointestinal stromal tumor, rectal cavernous hemangioma, primary anorectal melanoma, primary rectal lymphoma, and rectal metastases.