[RECIST classifications : our experience at a university hospital]

Since the WHO [World Health Organization]'s criteria published in 1981, many organizations and research teams worked on revising and defining criteria for response monitoring of solid tumors. The RECIST criteria in 2000 and its revised version in 2009 introduced major changes in selecting lesions to be assessed and measuring them, and determining treatment response. While treatments are becoming more specific with the emergence of targeted therapies, response criteria are becoming more diversified and specialized with a type of tumor or/and treatment. This review describes the evolution of response criteria methods and sketches our experience in this field in Lebanon

Pulmonary artery accelerated flow revealing Hodgkin's lymphoma

We present a case in which transthoracic echocardiography was the first diagnostic tool to suspect mediastinal Hodgkin's lymphoma by revealing a change in the hemodynamic of left pulmonary artery flow, and it was used as a follow-up method for monitoring treatment efficacy by demonstrating a normalization of pulmonary artery hemodynamics

Supravalvular aortic stenosis with and without coronary lesions in pediatrics

This study aims to analyze several parameters concerning the supravalvular aortic stenosis [SVAS] in children such as age of diagnosis, place of residence, the existence of a metabolic disorder or dysmor-phic syndrome and possible damage to the coronary ostia, the means of diagnosis and outcome of these patients. A large group of patients [2868] with congenital heart disease enrolled between 1 May 1999 and 30 April 2010 at the National Register of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, Lebanese Society of Cardiology. SVAS were found in 14 patients [0.5%] aged 8.5 months to 15 years. The Williams Beuren syndrome was the most common etiology [6 cases] without ostial stenosis, asymptomatic and not treated, followed by forms without dysmorphic syndrome [5 cases] and without ostial stenosis, one patient was operated because of severe SVAS ; finally, 3 cases of homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia treated differently: a patient had a successful liver transplantation at age of 4.5 years but has developed, despite the normalization of cholesterol level, a SVAS associated with severe ostial lesions 10 years after transplantation, another treated by coronary artery bypass graft surgery and the latter treated medically. SVAS is a very rare disease, but its discovery must lead to search for coronary lesions especially in presence of homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. The ultrasound monitoring is mandatory and is designed to detect this anomaly and early coronary lesions. The slightest suspicion should carry out more extensive explorations to detect ostial stenosis

[Regression spontanee de la coarctation de l'aorte chez le nourrisson]

Coarctation of the aorta in neonates and small infants is, in most cases, a severe congenital malformation and requires a rapid surgical treatment or interventional catheterization. To our knowledge, and so far, no cases of coarctation of the aorta have spontaneously improved. We report three cases of coarctation diagnosed in young infants and considered as moderate forms on physical exam and/or ultrasound study which evolved to partial or complete regression without any treatment

Focus on the immediate hypersensitivity reactions products contrast iodinated [PCI]

The use of iodinated contrast agents [IC] has become common practice nowadays in the daily diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in radiology. Immediate hypersensitivity reactions occurring up to the first hour after injection of IC, can be of serious consequences, occasionally leading to death. This justifies the establishment of a prevention algorithm, including a sharp identification of those at risk and the implementation of premedication with corticosteroids. A history of previous reaction to IC is the major risk factor of a new reaction. Other risk factors include asthma, atopy and cardiomyopathy. The factors that influence the severity of the hypersensitivity allergic reactions are female gender, age, and taking beta blockers or ACE inhibitor drugs

[Anatomy of the larynx with 64-CT scan]

Knowledge of axial anatomy of the different laryngeal structures, identification of the plan of the cords, and relations between the true and false vocal cords is essential for laryngeal surgery where anatomical and radiological correlation is necessary for optimal orientation and guidance. This review constitutes an atlas of axial anatomy of the larynx obtained from a multidetector CT scan, describing the skeletal cartilage, the different folds constituted by iaryngeal ligaments covered by mucosa, and the fatty laryngeal spaces. It shows that CT scan and the different reconstructions specifically virtual endoscopy are a valuable adjunct in laryngeal exploration