Table of Contents

October 2006; 241 (1)

Science to Practice

  • McDannold et al have demonstrated that the administration of a microbubble-based US contrast agent reduces the acoustic power threshold required to induce lesions in rabbit brains with high-intensity focused ultrasound and that this procedure may potentially be monitored with MR thermometry.

Communications

Special Communications

Letters to the Editor

In Memoriam

Reviews and Commentary

Perspectives

  • Improving radiologists' knowledge regarding the physics of their discipline is the shared responsibility of physicists, residents, and staff radiologists in every residency program.

Editorial

  • Radiology will have a profound opportunity to emerge as a central patient care discipline if we embrace our role in communicating directly with patients in this coming age of personalized medicine.

  • Procedural simulation will be a revolutionary change in how health care providers maintain their proficiency and skill.

Special Review

  • One of the main goals of all of the quantitative MR methods detailed in this review has been to improve our understanding of the distribution of microstructural damage in Alzheimer disease.

Book Reviews

Original Research

Breast Imaging

  • Our results show that the performance of single reading with computer-aided detection is equivalent to the performance of double reading.

  • Our study findings indicate the range of performance benchmarks for screening mammography performed by community radiologists in the United States and should be useful as comparative data for individual radiologists and for establishment of outcome guidelines.

  • This analysis demonstrates that, over a relatively short period of time, major improvements in radiology reporting have occurred.

Cardiac Imaging

  • Because there is a significant correlation between the grade of aortic valve calcification and the echocardiographically determined hemodynamic severity of calcific aortic valve disease, patients with grade 3 or 4 aortic valve calcification at multi–detector row CT may require further functional assessment with echocardiography.

Evidence-based Practice

  • On the basis of the results of this meta-analysis, and taking into account only the diagnostic performance of imaging modalities, CT has a significantly higher sensitivity than does US for the diagnosis of appendicitis in adults and children.

Experimental Studies

  • We found that MR imaging–based temperature measurements appeared to correlate with focused ultrasound–induced lesions in the brain when microbubbles were present, even though the temperature appeared to be below the threshold for thermal damage.

  • Our study results have shown that high-spatial-resolution ex vivo 9.4-T MR microscopy is capable of providing three-dimensional images that yield insight into the arterial wall changes that occur in three early coronary lesions: adaptive intimal thickening, intimal xanthoma, and pathologic intimal thickening.

  • Our study results demonstrate the capability of a switched–multiple-electrode radiofrequency device to facilitate thermal synergy and create large areas of coagulation in an in vivo porcine liver model.

  • Low-dose multi–detector row CT colonography with thin-section imaging is feasible and therefore might be a viable alternative to MR colonography.

  • T2-weighted MR imaging provides superior delineation of rectal wall layers and differentiation of tumor from fibrosis compared with T1-weighted and intermediate-weighted spectral fat-saturated MR imaging in our ex vivo model.

  • Our study demonstrated that homing of intravenously administered iron oxide–labeled macrophage can be monitored with 4.7-T MR imaging.

Gastrointestinal Imaging

  • Results of this study show that morphologic changes in the liver are observed in patients who have cavernous transformation of the portal vein and normal or almost normal liver histologic findings.

  • With the currently available equipment, MR imaging of the liver at 3.0 T is possible with image quality equivalent to that at 1.5 T and diagnostic utility at least equivalent to that at 1.5 T.

  • With the injection protocol used in our study, optimal scan delays for imaging the pancreas with a fixed injection duration (30 seconds) were, from the start of contrast medium injection, 30–35 seconds for the abdominal aorta and the superior mesenteric artery, 35–45 seconds for the pancreas, and 55 seconds or longer for the splenic vein and the liver.

  • The results of this study show that, in patients with right lower quadrant pain that is unexplained at multidetector CT, a nonvisualized appendix is a reliable predictor of the absence of acute appendicitis.

Genitourinary Imaging

  • By using the grading scheme described here, aortography after uterine artery embolization to detect ovarian artery collateral supply can be restricted to those cases in which MR angiography depicts an ovarian artery and findings suggest a high probability of fibroid supply.

Musculoskeletal Imaging

  • The fracture risk score successfully identified 75% of those who sustained a fracture 2 years after baseline measurements.

Neuroradiology

  • We have demonstrated that the apparent diffusion coefficient from various medial temporal lobe structures and the gray and white matter of different brain lobes can be obtained by mapping techniques by using a region of interest obtained from three-dimensional high-spatial-resolution anatomic images.

  • By using a multiple-reader multiple-case design, we provide better objective evidence that fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images allow a meaningful improvement in performance compared with T2-weighted MR images at the supratentorial level.

  • According to our study results, in some cases motor activation at functional MR imaging may occur predominantly in nonprimary areas—the postcentral sulcus in particular.

Pediatric Imaging

  • If image-guided drainage is requested for a neonate, strong consideration should be given to the placement of a drainage tube rather than aspiration alone, because the former technique appears to be equally safe but more effective.

  • Doppler spectral analysis and venography of the left renal vein can show hemodynamic changes in the left renal vein and help identify the presence of the nutcracker phenomenon in pediatric patients with varicocele.

Technical Developments

  • Our setup opens the possibility for functional metabolic diagnostic testing with 1H functional MR spectroscopy by using widely available imagers in a clinical setting; with electrical nerve stimulation, workload is standardized, maximal, and independent of central effort and allows the examination to be performed during exercise.

  • After the 1st month following radiofrequency ablation, the three-dimensional analytic tool proved helpful in quantifying ablated tumor shape variations and allowed recurrences to be detected even in the absence of abnormal enhancement.

Thoracic Imaging

  • Results of this study demonstrate that although modern software used to measure lung nodule volume yields very high interobserver correlation (r = 0.99), volume measurements may vary in approximately 11% of cases.

  • Typical CT images of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) or usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) have a characteristic appearance that allows IPF or UIP to be differentiated from other types of chronic idiopathic interstitial pneumonias at thin-section CT in the majority of cases.

Ultrasonography

  • The use of contrast material helped to improve the sensitivity of US for the visualization of flow and can aid in decreasing the need for angiography in most patients.

Vascular and Interventional Radiology

  • Attention should be given to the patients with the following risk factors, which for pneumothorax include male sex, no history of pulmonary surgery, a greater number of tumors ablated, involvement of the middle or lower lobe, and increased length of the aerated lung traversed by the electrode and for pleural effusion include decreased distance to the nearest pleura, decreased length of the aerated lung traversed by the electrode, and use of an internally cooled cluster electrode.

  • Tunneled dialysis catheters are primarily intended for short-term use, but, in this retrospective study, we found that Tesio catheter access is commonly used for periods longer than 6 months and, when necessary, may function well for many years.

  • Compared with conventional venography as the reference standard, CO2 venography allows assessment of the upper-limb veins before the creation of hemodialysis access fistulas, with a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 85%.

  • In patients with clinically manifest Budd-Chiari syndrome who were treated with expanded polytetrafluoroethylene-covered Viatorr stent-grafts compared with patients who were treated with Wallstents, there was a significant increase in the primary patency rate (100% and 85.7% vs 16.7% and 0% at 6 and 12 months, respectively; P < .001), a decrease in the reintervention rate (0.29 ± 0.49 vs 6.17 ± 1.72, P < .001), and a more persistent and significantly greater improvement in hepatic function.

Diagnosis Please

  • The combination of the T2 signal hyperintensity in the white matter and the markedly elevated N-acetylaspartate level on MR spectroscopic images allowed Canavan disease to be diagnosed in this patient.

Signs in Imaging

  • The punctate hyperattenuation of the middle cerebral artery dot sign represents thromboembolism within a segmental branch of the MCA located within the sylvian fissure (M2 or M3 segment).

Abstracts

Abstracts of Current Literature

Resources for Reviewers

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