CT Detectability of Small Low-Contrast Hypoattenuating Focal Lesions: Iterative Reconstructions versus Filtered Back Projection.

Purpose To investigate performance in detectability of small (≤1 cm) low-contrast hypoattenuating focal lesions by using filtered back projection (FBP) and iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms from two major CT vendors across a range of 11 radiation exposures. Materials and Methods A low-contrast detectability phantom consisting of 21 low-contrast hypoattenuating focal objects (seven sizes between 2.4 and 10.

Development of a lipoprotein based molecular imaging MR contrast agent for the noninvasive detection of early atherosclerotic disease.

Introduction: Currently there are no clinically available means of noninvasively detecting early atherosclerotic disease because these lesions are characterized by an accumulation of extracellular lipid and foam cells, but a lack of significant wall thickening or architectural distortion.

Objective: We hypothesize that a paramagnetically labeled low density lipoprotein (LDL) could serve as a functional probe to detect sites of abnormal lipid metabolism in the vessel wall that represent sites of early disease.

Methods: Isolated LDL was first incubated with manganese-mesoporphyrin, a hydrophobic MR contrast agent (MnMeso).

Evaluation of neck and body metastases to nodes with ferumoxtran 10-enhanced MR imaging: phase III safety and efficacy study.

Purpose: To determine the safety and efficacy of ferumoxtran 10-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for diagnosis of metastases to lymph nodes and the clinical usefulness of ferumoxtran 10 in nodal staging.

Materials And Methods: One hundred fifty-two patients were injected with ferumoxtran 10. Readers independently evaluated precontrast MR images by using node size criteria and subjective assessment of other imaging features.

Significance of hyperattenuating and contrast-enhancing hepatic nodules detected in the cirrhotic liver during arterial phase helical CT in pre-liver transplant patients: radiologic-histopathologic correlation of explanted livers.

Background: Hyperattenuating nodules detected by arterial phase helical computed tomography (HCT) in patients with cirrhosis usually are believed to represent hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). We correlated HCT morphology of hyperattenuating hepatic nodules detected during arterial phase scans with the histopathology of explanted livers of patients with hepatic cirrhosis undergoing liver transplantation.

Methods: Three hundred fifty-four patients had arterial and portal phase HCT performed before subsequent hepatic transplantation.

Preoperative evaluation of patients awaiting liver transplantation: comparison of multiphasic contrast-enhanced 3D magnetic resonance to helical computed tomography examinations.

Purpose: To determine the feasibility of using a multiphasic magnetic resonance (MR) examination to evaluate the hepatic arterial anatomy and parenchyma in patients awaiting orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT).

Materials And Methods: Twenty consecutive patients awaiting OLT underwent multiphasic MR (using a T1-weighted 3D gadolinium-enhanced gradient-echo (GRE) sequence and two separate injections of contrast material) and computed tomography (CT) imaging; both imaging studies were performed within a 1-week period for each patient. Quantitative and qualitative assessment of the hepatic arterial system on MR data was performed.