Intraoperative ultrasound-assisted endoscopic treatment of primary intermediate and high-grade vesicoureteral reflux in children in a long-term follow-up.

Background: Endoscopic treatment of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is an important minimally invasive surgical approach in patients undergoing surgical treatment of VUR. In our past experience, we observed that a bulking agent mound sagittal diameter of 10 mm is the main predictor of effectiveness of the procedure. Moreover we noticed that the use of intraoperative ultrasound, allows the surgeon to better identify the site, volume and shape of the bulking agent injected, finally reducing operative time.

Complete written/oral information about dose exposure in CT: is it really useful to guarantee the patients' awareness about radiation risks?

Aims And Objectives: According to the European directive 2013/59/Euratom, starting from February 2018, the information relating to patient exposure will be part of computed tomography (CT) reports, but the impact of this information on patients has not been deeply evaluated. Aim of our study was to evaluate patients' perception of radiation exposure related to routine CT and their understanding after communication of their dose exposure.

Materials And Methods: A survey, investigating patient's knowledge of radiation dose, was given to all adult patients (> 18 years) undergoing a CT examination both before and after CT scan.

Prognosis research and risk of bias.

The interest in prognosis research has been steadily growing during the past few decades because of its impact on clinical decision making. However, since the methodology of prognosis research is still incompletely defined, the quality of published prognosis studies is largely unsatisfactory. Seven major domain for risk of bias in prognosis research have been identified, including study participation, attrition, selection of candidate predictors, outcome definition, confounding factors, analysis, and interpretation of results.

MR imaging of perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease: sensitivity and specificity of STIR sequences.

Introduction: Although some studies proved the role of STIR sequences in the evaluation of perianal fistulas in Crohn's Disease (CD), contrast medium is still injected in many institutions since there is not a validated reference MR protocol. Our purpose was to evaluate the role of the STIR sequence in the detection and characterization of perianal fistulae comparing it to the post-contrast T1 sequence and correlating it with rectal examination under anesthesia.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all clinical records of 31 CD patients, suspected of having perianal fistulas, who had been submitted to an MR study before and after contrast medium injection and surgical exploration under anesthesia within the same month.