Radiologia Brasileira最新文献

Objective: To investigate and identify the main abdominal ultrasound findings in patients with biliary atresia (BA).

Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study of the ultrasound images of 44 patients with neonatal cholestasis. We excluded 18 patients in whom a final diagnosis of BA was not confirmed or who were lost to clinical follow-up. The main ultrasound findings evaluated were gallbladder length and morphology; triangular cord thickness; hepatic artery enlargement; hepatic subcapsular flow; cysts in the porta hepatis; presence of a distinct triangular cord with linear, tubular, or round hypoechoic portions; and polysplenia syndrome.

Results: Abnormal gallbladder morphology and triangular cord thickening were the main ultrasound findings in the patients with BA. Gallbladder abnormalities were present in all patients. Hepatic artery enlargement was the third most common finding, present in 19 (73%) patients. Six patients (23%) had subcapsular arterial flow and four (15%) had cysts in the porta hepatis. Hypoechoic or cystic portions of the triangular cord were present in three patients (11%), and we found that BA was accompanied by polysplenia syndrome in three patients (11%).

Conclusion: Ultrasound is the examination of greatest diagnostic relevance in the investigation of cholestasis in newborns and infants; it enables the establishment of BA suspicion and the indication for laparotomy with intraoperative cholangiography.

Hepatic cysts are quite common in the daily practice of radiologists and are generally described as simple cysts or as cystic lesions sparsely distributed throughout the parenchyma, often without the discrimination they merit. Simple cysts have, by definition, thin walls, one or two thin septa, and homogeneous fluid content. Such cysts include congenital epithelial cysts, biliary hamartomas, and peribiliary cysts, as well as those representing Caroli's disease or polycystic liver disease. Complex cysts have variable walls, septa, and contents. They also have various etiologies. A detailed assessment of the clinical history and imaging characteristics can assist in making the diagnosis and choosing a course of clinical management. In this review, hepatic cysts are divided, for educational purposes, into five categories: congenital, traumatic, neoplastic, inflammatory, and miscellaneous.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of incidentally detected pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) in adult patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Materials and methods: We included radiological records of consecutive adult patients who underwent MRI at our institution during a one-year period (January to December of 2023). We collected clinical and radiological data, including the presence or absence of cysts in the liver and kidneys.

Results: A total of 1,211 MRI records were included. We identified PCLs in 138 patients, corresponding to a prevalence of 11.4%. That prevalence was 9.51% in men and 12.52% in women (p = 0.112). The patients with incidental PCLs (64.57 ± 13.15) were significantly older than were those without (mean age, 64.57 ± 13.15 years vs. 51.01 ± 15.27 years; p < 0.001). Of the 138 patients with PCLs, 53 (38.41%) had at least one liver cyst and 83 (60.14%) had at least one kidney cyst. In 69 patients (50.0%), the radiological diagnosis of the incidental cysts was intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. In the univariate analysis, the presence of PCLs was associated with age, liver cysts, and kidney cysts, although it was associated with only age and kidney cysts in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusion: In our study sample, the prevalence of incidentally detected PCLs was 11.4%. That prevalence increased significantly with age but did not differ by sex.

Objective: To determine the accuracy of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for the diagnosis of cervical lymph node metastasis from oral cancer.

Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Radiology Department of the Mayo Hospital, in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. We included 150 patients diagnosed with oral cancer. Ages ranged from 18 to 60 years of age. During the study period, all of the patients included underwent magnetic resonance imaging, including a DWI sequence, in a 1.5-T scanner with a phased-array head and neck coil. Patients with contraindications to magnetic resonance (aneurysm, a pacemaker, clips, plates, a prosthetic valve, or claustrophobia) were excluded. In the DWI sequence, the area scanned included the lymph nodes from suprasternal notch to the base of the skull. Histopathology of the lymph nodes was employed as the gold standard.

Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of DWI for the diagnosis of oral cancer metastasis to cervical lymph nodes, with histopathology as the gold standard, was 90.57%, 91.75%, 94.68%, 90.57%, and 91.33%, respectively.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that DWI is fairly accurate for detecting metastases in the cervical lymph nodes of patients with oral cancer.

The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive guide to image quality assessment in diagnostic radiology, emphasizing practical methodologies for radiologists. The goal is to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient care on the basis of the understanding and application of quantitative and qualitative metrics in clinical practice and research. We conducted a review of the literature in the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase databases. The search terms included "image quality in radiology", "quantitative and qualitative assessment", "modulation transfer function", "signal-to-noise ratio", "contrast-to-noise ratio", "radiation dose optimization", and "artificial intelligence in image quality assessment". The review identified the main methodologies for image quality assessment. We analyzed these metrics for their applicability in clinical settings, highlighting their benefits and limitations. In addition, we discuss qualitative methods such as visual assessment, the assessment of contrast/density, and peer review. This guide fills a gap in the literature by providing accessible, practical knowledge for general radiologists. Ongoing research, education, and technological development are essential to advance the field and ensure high standards in radiology practice.

For ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy, a transperineal approach is emerging as a superior alternative to the transrectal approach because the former is associated with a lower risk of infection. This pictorial essay aims to highlight the broader applications of transperineal ultrasound (i.e., those beyond prostate biopsy). We demonstrate various diagnostic and therapeutic uses of transperineal ultrasound, including lymph node biopsies, abscess drainage, hydrogel spacer placement for radiotherapy, and penile biopsies. Details of the transperineal approach, including patient positioning and preparation, are described. In addition, the effectiveness and safety of the method are demonstrated. Our results underscore the versatility of transperineal ultrasound and its potential to enhance clinical practice, demonstrating its importance as a minimally invasive technique with significant clinical benefits in various medical contexts.

Objective: To use shear wave elastography (SWE) in the evaluation of salivary glands in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who present with sicca symptoms.

Materials and methods: This was a prospective controlled study of patients diagnosed with AS and exhibiting sicca symptoms (study group) and of healthy volunteers (control group). The levels of antinuclear, anti-Ro, and anti-La antibodies were determined in blood samples. In both groups, parotid and submandibular glands were evaluated by ultrasound and tissue stiffness was determined by SWE. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used in order to assess reliability. The differences between the two groups were assessed by statistical methods, and a ROC curve analysis was performed to determine the predictive values.

Results: A total of 66 patients with AS and 71 healthy volunteers were included in the study. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age or sex (p > 0.05). The intraand inter-rater reliability of SWE were good for the parotid gland (0.81-0.85 and 0.80, respectively) and for the submandibular gland (0.85-0.88 and 0.80, respectively). Statistically significant differences were found. Tissue stiffness in the parotid and submandibular glands, as determined by SWE, was significantly greater in the study group than in the control group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Although there was no histopathological correlation in the parotid and submandibular salivary glands of patients with AS and sicca symptoms compared with the healthy volunteers, quantitative measurements showed greater tissue stiffness in the former group. In patients with AS, SWE guides salivary gland biopsy, which is the gold standard for diagnosing Sjögren's syndrome.

Objective: To assess the frequency of unrecognized myocardial infarction and identify additional ischemic conditions, as well as to evaluate the efficacy of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) in risk groups, comparing the imaging findings with electro-cardiographic (ECG) and laboratory data in patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease, also known as end-stage renal disease.

Materials and methods: This was a prospective single-center study involving 20 patients who were referred to our radiology department to undergo CMRI between June 2010 and December 2011. Resting left ventricular functions and (early and late) myocardial contrast enhancement were assessed in all patients. Laboratory tests and ECG were conducted on all individuals. The mean duration of clinical follow-up was 18 á 4 months.

Results: Pathological results were seen in six (30%) of the patients in our study sample. Scar tissue was identified as a high-risk factor in three patients (15%), and myocardial hibernation was shown to pose a moderate risk in three patients (15%). In the remaining 14 cases, no pathology was identified, and the risk was therefore categorized as low. A statistically significant disparity in mortality rates was observed between the high- and low-risk groups (p < 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of the ECG and cardiac biomarkers.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that CMRI is effective in accurately categorizing risk groups and detecting ischemic conditions, even when such events are not evident on ECG or laboratory tests.

Advances in cardiac magnetic resonance have promoted tissue characterization with high spatial and contrast resolution, and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) sequences have improved the detection of myocardial fibrosis. The distribution pattern of LGE facilitates differentiation between ischemic and nonischemic etiologies and aids in refining diagnoses within nonischemic cardiomyopathies, suggesting specific etiological factors. A distinctive nonischemic LGE pattern that has recently gained prominence is the ring-like pattern, defined as a subepicardial or mid-wall circumferential or semi-circumferential enhancement, which involves at least three contiguous segments within the same short-axis slice. Initially identified as a diagnostic marker for desmoplakin and filamin C-related cardiomyopathies, the pattern has been reported in nongenetic conditions; nevertheless, it remains an uncommon finding in these diseases. In this article, we aim to present the differential diagnoses of ring-like LGE and its mimics. The combination of epidemiological, clinical, electrocardiographic, and additional features enables a focused refinement of the differential diagnosis associated with ring-like LGE.

Increasing tissue contrast for bone assessment on magnetic resonance imaging has been the aim of several recent studies, and various techniques have been proposed for that purpose, including ultrashort echo time sequences, zero echo time sequences, and gradient echo sequences in various acquisition forms. In this article, we discuss the fast field echo resembling a computed tomography using restricted echo-spacing (FRACTURE) sequence, which we have started to use routinely in our practice. The FRACTURE sequences are based on the acquisition of gradient echo sequences with different echo times and specific postprocessing. Gradient echo sequences are widely available on magnetic resonance imaging scanners, which is an advantage for the use of a FRACTURE sequence. However, being more susceptible to metal artifacts, a FRACTURE sequence is of limited utility in patients with metallic implants or medical devices. The aim of this article is to illustrate the use of FRACTURE sequences in various contexts, including osteoarticular infection, inflammatory arthropathy, bone tumors, fractures, and crystal deposition diseases.